A Group Therapy Program for Parentally Bereaved Young Adults With Grief Complications: Rationale, Method and Case Examples

Letter Writing as a Clinical Tool in Grief Psychotherapy

The benefits of expressive writing have been explored since at least the 1980s. The effect of expressive bereavement-related writing has been studied primarily in college students, yielding inconclusive results. Nonetheless, recent effective, integrated psychotherapy protocols, targeting complicated and prolonged grief, include writing assignments, typically in the form of letters. The present paper explores how and why letter writing might be effective and meaningful as a therapeutic tool in the context of grief psychotherapy. It describes how working with letters, addressed to the deceased, might help facilitate self-disclosure, promote exposure to what is avoided, confront unfinished business, encourage continuing bonds, and help achieve a coherent narrative around experiences with the loss. As a therapeutic tool, letter writing has the potential to be helpful to many bereaved people, as it is a simple, effective, and meaningful way to access and work with relevant clinical material in the context of psychotherapy.

Effects of an Integrated Treatment Program on Grief and Distress Among Parentally Bereaved Young Adults

This study examined the effectiveness of an 18-session manualized integrative group psychotherapy intervention for parentally bereaved young adults with grief complications. Participants, 63 young adults aged 20-27 years, completed questionnaires assessing symptoms of prolonged grief, PTSD, depression and anxiety prior to and following treatment. Treatment effectiveness was assessed by comparing outcomes for the intervention group to a waitlist comparison group. Results revealed a statistically significant reduction in symptoms of grief (large effects size), PTSD (medium effect sizes), and depression (medium effect size). The treatment did not result in a significant reduction in anxiety symptoms. The study provided preliminary support for this intervention for parentally bereaved young adults.

The Effectiveness of Integrated Group Therapy on Prolonged Grief Disorder of Bereaved People from COVID-19 Randomized Controlled Trial

This study aimed to evaluate the integrated cognitive-behavioral group therapy and Gestalt empty chair technique on bereaved individuals with COVID-19-caused PGD (prolonged grief disease). Thirty-six patients with PGD resultant from COVID-19 were randomly assigned intervention and control groups. The intervention group underwent 16 90-minute integrated group therapy sessions twice a week. Both groups completed the BDI II depression, NAI anger, and GASP guilt scale before, after, and 2 months after the study's conclusion. The intervention and control groups significantly differed in the depression, anger, and guilt indices after the therapeutic intervention (p < .001). This difference remained in the follow-up phase. Integrated group therapy in treating could help with some of the symptoms of PGD resulting from the corona-caused loss of loved ones. This reduction in symptoms was also stable over time.

The Effectiveness of the Moving to Emptiness Technique on Clients Who Need Help During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Real-World Study

With Western therapeutic techniques prevailing in Chinese therapies, some techniques that include Chinese traditional cultural features are required since some cultural factors are not considered in the Western method. Our study introduced a new technique, the moving to emptiness technique (MET), which combines Western structural progress and core factors of Chinese culture. Seventeen therapists treated 107 clients with the MET. Clients reported their target symptoms initially, and therapists helped them transfer invisible symptoms to perceivable stuff and remove their jarring stuff using the psychological emptiness area. At the end of the consultations, we found that MET could eliminate symptoms immediately. By grouping target symptoms according to their frequency, the results showed that clients in the high-frequency symptom group had higher rehabilitation rates than those in the low-frequency symptom group. Additionally, the results of the bereavement group were better than those of the non-bereavement group, indicating that the MET can significantly alleviate clients' target symptoms. In future studies, the replication and stability of the MET can be assessed by integrating questionnaires, experimental designs, and neurological equipment.