Complicated Grief Treatment: An Evidence-Based Approach to Grief Therapy

Abstract

Complicated grief is a condition that occurs when something impedes the process of adapting to a loss. The core symptoms include intense and prolonged yearning, longing and sorrow, frequent insistent thoughts of the deceased and difficulty accepting the painful reality of the death or imagining a future with purpose and meaning. Complicated grief can cause substantial distress and impairment and it is important that clinicians learn to recognize and treat this condition. Complicated grief treatment is a 16-session evidence-based psychotherapy developed to release and facilitate a bereaved person's natural adaptive response. The current paper clarifies the conceptual underpinnings of this approach, provides a description of the major treatment components, structure of each session, and suggestions for how clinicians can use the treatment to help clients suffering from complicated grief. A case example is also included to illustrate this discussion.