Working with Continuing Bonds in Grief Therapy

Grief counseling and therapy have been revolutionized by the recognition that adaptive grieving commonly involves retaining bonds with the deceased rather than relinquishing them, but guidelines for how to integrate this shift into professional practice have been scarce. In this groundbreaking volume, leading bereavement scholars Robert Neimeyer and Edith Steffen provide a rich trove of therapeutic procedures to help grieving clients preserve valued relationships with the dead and address lingering issues with them. With astute attention to clinical and cultural contexts, specific instructions for a great range of approaches, numerous practice vignettes, and transcripts of actual sessions, Working with Continuing Bonds in Grief Therapy is required reading for all professionals who support the bereaved in living through loss while reaffirming or realigning bonds with their loved ones.

Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD, directs the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, actively practices as a trainer and consultant, and has published extensively on grieving as a meaning-making process. Edith Maria Steffen, PsychD, is an honorary associate professor in counselling psychology at the University of Plymouth and senior counselling psychologist in the UK's National Health Service. She also maintains a private practice in Surrey, UK.

1. The "Continuing Bonds Revolution" 2. When Continuing Bonds Are Hampered 3. Constructing the Therapeutic Alliance: A Meaning-Focused Perspective 4. Re-establishing a Narrative Presence through Sharing and Exploring Stories 5. Correspondence with the Deceased 6. Chair Work and Imaginal Dialogues 7. Experiencing Contact Using Visualisation and Imagery 8. Spontaneous, Facilitated, Assisted, and Requested After-Death Communication 9. On Griefbots and Avatars: Integrating AI into Grief Therapy 10. Embodied Dialogue 11. Continuing Bonds at the End of Life 12. The Healing Canvas: Expressive Arts Modalities for Cultivating a Continuing Bond 13. Contexts of Connection: A Creative Toolkit