Search results
- Title
- A journey through unexpected sibling bereavement: an adolescent's grief and struggle to find meaning in adulthood
- Contributors
- Dana Norbeck (author), Judith Lapadat (Thesis advisor), Trudy Mothus (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
- Abstract
- Although extensive research relating to adolescent bereavement exists, studies relating specifically to adolescent sibling bereavement are limited in scope and rarely provide a longitudinal perspective. This study implements autoethnography to reveal a retrospective of the author's personal experience with grief after the unexpected death of her only sister during adolescence. The case study provides a longitudinal perspective of adolescent sibling bereavement as the author examines her grief from the moment that she found out her sister was killed, through to the present day, 22 years later. The author reveals many short-term and long-term effects of grief while examining her own experiences from both adolescent and adult perspectives. Also provided is an introduction to other literature on the topic. The study will present families, teachers, counselors, and other community members, with a more in-depth look at adolescent sibling bereavement, its long-term impacts, and suggestions for supporting an adolescent experiencing grief after the death of a sibling.--P.ii.
- Discipline
- Education-Counselling
- Date added
- 2017-04-10T22:09:55.275Z
- Title
- The lived experience of sensing the presence of the deceased
- Contributors
- Barbara Lynn McLean (author), Martha MacLeod (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
- Abstract
- A common experience among mourners is thinking they have seen, heard, or experienced the presence of the deceased. In counselling literature these experiences are characterized as hallucinations that occur as a symptom of grief. Mourners often believe they are in contact with another reality and as a result feel that mental health professionals misunderstand them, leading to a silencing of the phenomena. In order to be more helpful to these prospective clients, counsellors need a deeper understanding of the experiences from the perspectives of those having them. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological thesis is to portray the lived experience of perceiving the presence of the deceased as described by seven participants having had the experience. The interview data were transcribed and analyzed for common themes through a process adapted from Colaizzi (1978). Although much was discovered, the most fundamental findings were that the experiences were best described as spiritual and had positive effects on the participants. Other findings included the inability of participants to find words that could describe their experiences, the limited willingness to share their experiences with others, the inability of the participants to control their experiences, and the discovery that participants were not always grieving when the experiences occurred. These findings raise important questions concerning counsellors' approaches to clients. Knowing how to encourage disclosure of the experience, or how cultural differences affect the experiences, or the extent of effects that these experiences have on peoples' lives could be particularly beneficial to counsellors.
- Discipline
- Education-Counselling
- Date added
- 2017-04-10T22:15:03.611Z