Multidimensional Grief Therapy

Julie B. Kaplow is Professor of Psychiatry at Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, and Executive Vice President of Trauma and Grief Programs and Policy at Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, Texas. She is also Executive Director of the Trauma and Grief Centers at The Hackett Center for Mental Health in Houston, Texas and the Children's Hospital New Orleans, Louisiana. Christopher M. Layne is Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Child and Adolescent Traumatic Stress Program (CATSP) Specialty Clinic at Nova Southeastern University. He is also a Research Psychologist at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience and directs the National Child Trauma Workforce Institute. Robert S. Pynoos is a Distinguished Professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioural Sciences at David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine, and is Co-Director of the UCLA/Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, coordinating the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. William Saltzman is Professor and Director of the Counseling Psychology Program and Advanced Studies in Education and Counseling at California State University, Long Beach.

• 1. Overview of multidimensional grief therapy; 2. Multidimensional grief theory: the foundation of multidimensional grief therapy; 3. MGT pretreatment assessment interview: using evidence-based assessment and goal setting to guide individual treatment using MGT; 4. Caregivers as 'Co-facilitators' of children's grief; Session 1: Grief psychoeducation: what is grief?; Session 2: Emotion psychoeducation and identification: what am I feeling and why?; Session 3: Grief psychoeducation continued: how has my grief changed over time?; Session 4: Understanding caregivers as key grief facilitators: what can my caregiver do to support me?; Session 5: Understanding loss reminders and trauma reminders: what reminds me that they're no longer here? What reminds me of the way they died?; Session 6: Sizing up a situation: how can our thoughts change the way we feel or act?; Sessions 7-9: Loss narrative: telling the story of my person; Session 10: Graduation and launching into the future: what does it mean to have a 'good goodbye'?; Index.

'This is a remarkably cogent volume on an assessment and treatment of childhood grief - developed after decades of clinical experience and empirical confirmation by a team of respected authors who recognize that 'one-size-fits-all' grief treatments lack effectiveness. Emphasizing that childhood grief occurs on a continuum, the volume's structure follows two phases. First is a detailed assessment of grief distress responses (separation distress, existential/identity distress and circumstance-related distress), a clarification of developmental vulnerabilities and resilience with reinforcement of psychoeducation and stabilization exercises that can be offered by non-clinicians. This is particularly relevant for bereavement support workers, faith-based personnel or school counselors. Phase two is a protocol for clinicians when grief distress is clearly maladaptive through a detailed series of fully described exercises of therapy, featuring extensive literature references, lists of grief/trauma measures, graphic narratives and writing exercises for the professional clinician.' Ted Rynearson, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Washington