Bereaved Adults’ Experiences Through the American Counseling Process Following the Death of a Loved One: A Phenomenological Study
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- O'Shaughnessy, Meaghan
- Graduate Program:
- Counselor Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 12, 2024
- Committee Members:
- P Murphy, Program Head/Chair
Elizabeth Prosek, Major Field Member
Mari Haneda, Outside Unit & Field Member
James Herbert, Major Field Member
Deirdre O'Sullivan, Chair & Dissertation Advisor - Keywords:
- grief counseling
American death avoidance
death competence
training counselors
grief illiteracy
grief and loss - Abstract:
- On the subject of grief counseling, and necessary death education for counselors, studies have been conducted in the United States examining professional counselors’ and counselor-trainees’ perspectives on their preparedness to work with bereaved clients. Studies have been conducted in other countries compiling views of grief counseling clients to assess their impressions of the counseling they received. So far, no studies were found that consider feedback from bereaved clients who sought counseling in the United States. The intention of this study is to derive from grievers best practices for training death competent counselors. This qualitative dissertation study used semi-structured interviews to thematically analyze five adult participants who had undergone grief counseling in the United States following the death of a loved one. All participants were white women between ages 45–70. The overarching research question was how do bereaved adults in the United States experience the counseling process following the death of a loved one, with an underlying question of what techniques beyond general counseling skills are indicated to benefit this population. Dominant themes that emerged included 1) the impact of American death avoidance on the grief counseling process, 2) counselor methods and behaviors that clients found helpful in healing their grief, 3) counselor methods and behaviors that clients found impeded healing of their grief, and 4) identification of grief-specific counseling interventions found to advance clients’ grief process. Across all domains, results suggested that the efficacy of American grief counseling is insufficient, and further research is needed.