Grief

Dr William Hoy, clinical faculty with Medical Humanities at Baylor University at Waco (yes I think that is the place) Texas among many other qualifications & associations. He has published books and journals which you should find on line if you are interested. His definitions of bereavement and complicated grief are the same as I have studied: Bereavement: reconstructs meaning to refocus life after significant loss. Complicated Grief: exists when the bereaved person persistently organizes life around the loss. This results in impairment of function to a clinically- significant degree. During this lecture it was discussed that there are people and families who experience high levels of disruption (secondary losses) following a death, including serious economic reversals. In the Harvard Child Bereavement Study, surviving parents who experienced the largest number of life-changing events following the death of their spouse had the highest levels of depression and their children also functioned less well over the two year follow-up (Worden, 1996 cited in Worden, 2009). Dr Hoy reported that American belief in God is 93%. Of 40% of people who had no religion, not one believed that their child had ceased to exist. Dr Hoy spoke of a Toronto, Vancouver and USA joint research study and found that 84% of patients said yes, regarding wanting to talk about faith and praying with their physician. 15% suffer from complicated grief; Impairment of function to a significant degree. Dr Hoy’s books include: Guiding People through Grief and Road to Emmaus. His newest book, Do Funerals Matter? The Purpose and Practice of Death Rituals in Global Perspective (Routledge, 2013). Dr Hoy spoke of differences among cultures when it comes to funerals and how funerals impact us and provide closure. I have written before about attending lectures where physicians here in Toronto actually pray with their patients before surgery. I do provide grief therapy and take names for group grief therapy which I believe is very beneficial for people without a good support system. However, if someone is suffering from complicated grief or someone is not able to divide their time equally with other clients because they are so focused on their own pain, than group therapy is not possible as it takes away from the group. For people interested in group or individual therapy please to not hesitate to contact me.