An Hooghe

The Complexity of Couple Communication in Bereavement: An Illustrative Case Study.

Sharing grief experiences, or “storying” grief, can be a key resource in adapting to loss, one that can contribute to stronger bonds and relational intimacy within the family. In this article, the authors conceptualize communication between grieving family members in terms of 3 “D” processes, emphasizing the extent to which such communication is dialectic, dialogic, and dynamic in nature. They illustrate the complexity of sharing about a mutual loss, focused on these 3 features, by referring to a case study of a couple coping with the death of a child in the context of a newly formed family. Rather than unilaterally advocating the promotion of open communication, the authors suggest that therapists working with bereaved families first discuss the complexities of communication with the family members, specifically those concerning talking and keeping silent, and explore the different meanings associated with sharing grief experiences with each other.

“Cycling Around an Emotional Core of Sadness” Emotion Regulation in a Couple After the Loss of a Child

In contrast to the traditional view of working through grief by confronting it, recent theories have emphasized an oscillating process of confronting and avoiding the pain of loss. In this qualitative study, we sought a better understanding of this process by conducting a detailed case study of a bereaved couple after the loss of their infant daughter. We employed multiple data collection methods (using interviews and written feedback) and an intensive auditing process in our thematic analysis, with special attention to a recurrent metaphor used by this bereaved couple in describing their personal and relational experience. The findings suggest the presence of a dialectic tension between the need to be close to the deceased child and the need for distance from the pain of the loss, which was evidenced on both individual and relational levels. For this couple, the image of “cycling around an emotional core of sadness” captured their dynamic way of dealing with this dialectic of closeness and distance.

Family Resilience in the Wake of Loss: A Meaning-Oriented Contribution

As this case vignette illustrates, bereaved families often surprise us with their creative ways of dealing with a devastating loss. In relationship with one another and the broader community, family members can accommodate even the most dreadful experiences, endowing them with meaning while at the same time strengthening their collective resilience.

Toward Understanding the Child's Experience in the Process of Parentification: Young Adults' Reflections on Growing up With a Depressed Parent

This article reports on a qualitative study with 21 young adults who grew up with a depressed parent. We examined how young adults make sense of their childhood experiences of parental depression and how their retrospective reflections help us to understand the experiences of children and the processes of parentification. Participants recounted that their childhood consisted mainly of actions in the service of family well-being. At that time, they reflected on their own experiences only rarely. In adolescence, there was an evolution toward a greater consideration for oneself and a repositioning within the family. In the discussion, we explore the therapeutic implications of this study--and in particular--the meaningfulness of silence in the family process of parentification.

The measurement of couple and family interactions and relationship quality in bereavement research

Family assessment in grief research has been interested in either the impact of bereavement on family grief, and more precisely, how an individual’s grief influences the family functioning, or how family dynamics mediate family members’ individual grief experiences. Couple and family instruments used in grief research are reviewed. These were found to be well-validated and are usually popular in family research. In addition, qualitative research on family grief is reviewed to provide a more dynamic and interactive perspective. Finally, recommendations for further development of family grief assessment instruments are proposed. For future bereavement research, we suggest the use of multidimensional assessments, a multi-method, multi-informant, and multi-level approach to grasp the complex interactions of grief in the couple and family context.

We hardly ever talk about it: emotional responsive attunement in couples after a child's death

Within Western cultural traditions, the idea that parents should talk about the death of their child with each other is deeply rooted. However, across bereaved parent couples there are wide variations in communication about their grief with each other. In this study, we explored the experiences of bereaved couples related to the process of talking and not talking. We used a thematic coding approach to analyze 20 interviews with 26 bereaved parents (11 interviewed as couples, four as individuals). Four main meanings emerged out of our analysis: not talking because of the inadequacy and pointlessness of words in grief, not talking as a way to regulate emotions in daily life, not talking as an expression of a personal, intimate process, and not talking because the partner has the same loss but a different grief process. In addition, we found that the process of talking and not talking can partly be understood as an emotional responsive process on an intrapersonal and interpersonal level. In this process partners search for a bearable distance from their own grief and their partners, and attune with their relational context. A better understanding of this process is sought in a dialectical approach, emphasizing the value of both talking and not talking in a tense relationship with each other. Implications for clinical work are described.

“The child is our focus”: On couple issues in child oncology treatment

This study explored the perspectives of child oncology professionals and parents about the attention professionals should give to the parent couple relationship during treatment of the child.

Groepsgezinstherapie met opgenomen depressieve jongvolwassenen en hun gezin

In de late adolescentie en jongvolwassenheid kunnen al langer bestaande problemen opeens duidelijker worden en kunnen zich angst- en depressieve klachten ontwikkelen. Deze patiënten bevinden zich midden in een herdefinitie van de relatie met hun gezin van oorsprong en daarom dringt een gezinsgerichte aanpak zich op. Binnen de afdeling Angst en Depressie van het Universitair Ziekenhuis Leuven ontwikkelden we hiervoor een groepsgezinstherapie. Na een korte beschrijving van de wetenschappelijke verwijzingen naar gezinsverbanden bij angst en depressie van jongvolwassenen bespreken we achtereenvolgens de doelgroep, de doelstellingen, de organisatie en het verloop van groepsgezinstherapie. Vignetten verhelderen het specifieke van een groepsgezinstherapie bij deze populatie.