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When your partner dies: a conversation about writing and Post-Traumatic Growth in widowhood

Young widowhood, conceptualized as the loss of one’s spouse before the age of 50, is a profoundly painful and distressing loss (Den Elzen, 2017, 2018). The literature on young widowhood shows the death of a partner generally causes a fragmentation of the self, as it violates expectations of the normal life cycle, namely growing old together (Haase and Johnston, 2012; Levinson, 1997). Premature loss of one’s spouse tends to be experienced by the surviving partner as distressing or traumatizing, such as having witnessed their suffering in illness or through accident (Den Elzen, 2018) or in struggling with unfinished business (Holland et al, 2020). Whilst post-traumatic stress is well-known and has been widely researched across various disciplines, the concept of post-traumatic growth is much newer and by contrast has received less attention. PTG was introduced as a scholarly concept by Tedeschi and Calhoun in the mid-1990s and is defined as a positive psychological change as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life events (2004). Calhoun and Tedeschi’s notion of PTG has been backed by a recent systematic review. In the first meta-analysis of moderate-to-high PTG, Wu et al. found that of the 10,181 subjects, about 50% experienced PTG (2019). They also reported that women, young people and victims of trauma experienced higher levels of PTG than men, the elderly and those who experienced indirect trauma. PTG has attracted some controversy, with some researchers questioning its scientific validity (Jayawickreme and Blackie, 2014). Others caution against the minimization of people’s suffering. Hayward is a trauma counsellor who advises approaching PTG carefully, highlighting that if it is introduced with clients too early it can "often be construed as minimizing someone's pain and suffering and minimizing the impact of the loss" (cited in Collier, 2016, n.p.). In addressing the critique of PTG, Calhoun and Tedeschi (2006) emphasize that the focus on investigating positive psychological change following trauma does not deny the common and well-documented negative psychological responses and distress following severe life stresses: “Negative events tend to produce, for most persons, consequences that are negative” (p.4). They argue however, and their research supports this finding, that for many people distressful events can foster positive psychological changes. We view PTG as a possibility following (profound) loss, and emphasize that PTG may continue to co-exist with painful and/or unresolved emotions regarding the loss itself. We conceptualize PTG as a continuum and not as an either/or binary with grief. Further, we wish to highlight that PTG is a highly individual process that depends on many factors, and we are not suggesting that the absence of PTG is to be seen as a failure. This chapter intends to contribute to the study of PTG through a person-centered approach. The most used method to assess PTG is the 21-item posttraumatic growth inventory developed by Calhoun and Tedeschi in 1996 (Jayawickreme & Blackie, 2014). Self-reported posttraumatic growth has been the foundation of PTG research, which has aimed to identify to what extent PTG evokes improved psychological and physical health. In discussing our own creative narrative processes of PTG, our practice-led-research lens aims to contribute to research on how PTG might be fostered. We propose a Writing-for-wellbeing approach in this context and explore what it offered us both as writers and widows and what it might offer the field of Writing-for-wellbeing and by extension clinical and scholarly practice.

Recreating grief in a video game: how ‘Fragments of Him’ uses real world inspiration and traditional storytelling practise in a commercial entertainment-industry experience

Health and Social Needs of Traumatized Refugees and Asylum Seekers: An Exploratory Study

The purpose of this study was to describe the care needs of adult traumatized refugees and asylum seekers. DESIGN AND METHODS.  A mixed-methods design was used. A survey was conducted using the Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN) among 30 patients. Semistructured in-depth interviews were subsequently conducted with eight of these patients. FINDINGS.  Key themes among refugees are loneliness and grief. Refugees are in severe psychological distress. They also encounter all kinds of practical problems that influence their quality of life. Furthermore, many of them suffer from serious psychiatric and trauma-related problems. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS.  The results of this explorative study can contribute to the quality of care for traumatized refugees.

‘‘I am the mother of the kind of child you dread having’’: Experiences of living with chronic sorrow among parents with a disabled child

Chronic sorrow involves parents’ enduring grief due to their child’s disability. This stems not only from the recurring painful reality parents face, which differs from the life they had hoped for their children, families, and themselves but from also being confronted with societal and personal norms and expectations they cannot meet. There is a lack of research on the lived experiences of parents’ chronic sorrow. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study involving six parents with severely disabled children explored what it is like for parents to confront being ‘‘different.’’ Besides sorrow, the parents experienced intense ambiguity,guilt, and uncertainty while navigating societal expectations and their own perceptions of their children. Their ideas of parenthood and their self-identity as parents proved central to their strategies. This study provides insight into the intricacies of this particular aspect of chronic sorrow in parents, with relevance for research and practice.

Living with loss

Each of us has a story that comes alive as we wake up in the morning, develops throughout the day, and holds layers of meaning as we lay our heads down at night – it might be called a narrative of our identity. When loss occurs, our story fragments into unfamiliar pieces, and who we identify as becomes scattered – sometimes even shattered. We must work to reconstruct meaning in our lives and to rebuild our identity. As leading author on this editorial, with an article of my own in this issue, I confronted this when my father died. I felt his story slipping away, becoming blurred, forgotten, and for some, erased – and the same held true for me. The chaos of my shattered identity exacerbated the deep pain of losing him and I experienced complicated grief. I had to reshape my narrative to remember the authentic parts of me and rebuild a new self in a fatherless world. This journey is in part what motivated me to become a symposium co-editor for the journal. All four of us editors of this special issue have experienced “living with loss” following the premature loss of either our father or spouse, and I wanted to see what lived experience and knowledge we could bring to the readers about loss in the fields of both guidance and counselling.

‘It is up to me because I gave him this life’

Objective: The majority of parents with a disabled child experience chronic sorrow, characterized by recurrent feelings of grief and loss related to their child’s disability. There is a significant lack of research on parents’ lived experiences of chronic sorrow, which limits our ability to understand parents’ needs and provide proper support. Design: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was conducted based on in-depth interviews with six parents of severely disabled children. Results: In the literature on chronic sorrow, an important aspect has been consistently overlooked: the particular position of being a parent, experiencing an awareness of being ultimately responsible for their children. The analysis revealed how this awareness, experienced as a deeply felt ethical commitment, unconditional, largely in isolation, and without a limit in time, shaped the experience of chronic sorrow. Because of this awareness, the parents experienced themselves facing a Herculean task of navigating their intricate motions while struggling to maintain their ability to function. Conclusions: By revealing the importance of considering the unique parental position, the study enriches the concept of chronic sorrow, simultaneously offering insights into what it means to be a parent of a disabled child. These insights can improve care professionals’ responsiveness to parental needs.