Description: This single-case study is designed to help counselors conceptualize grief and loss issues experienced by a person with aphasia and improve the effectiveness in counseling individuals with this disability. Given the unique communication needs of this population, creative approaches to counseling are presented. Five themes were identified through the coding of interview transcripts: questioning identity, questioning existence, questioning normality, questioning feelings, and adapting to a new reality. In addition, the overarching theme of disenfranchised grief emerged from the data.
Objectives:
Understand grief and loss issues experienced by individuals with aphasia
Examine creative approaches to counseling persons with aphasia
The bereavement literature has proliferated in recent decades, generating a shift from conceptualizing grief as a stepwise, uniform process to an idiosyncratic experience that varies between individuals. Among the most notable developments is the empirical exploration of complicated grief – a protracted, debilitating, sometimes life-threatening response to the death of a loved one – and the testing of novel interventions to treat it. This article provides counselors with recommendations for identifying and treating complicated grief.
Objectives:
Understand how to differentiate common grief and complicated grief
Examine recommendations for identifying and treating complicated grief
