An interdisciplinary approach to clinical intervention for childhood bereavement

Author(s): Clark, Elizabeth J., Barile, Laurel, de Jong, Ann F.

Journal/Book: Death Studies. 1988; 12: 41-50.

Abstract: Describes a creative arts therapy program for children who had lost a parent that was run in conjunction with a companion parent support group for the children's surviving parents. Creative arts were used to provide social sanction for juvenile grief through activities that extended the child's understanding and expressive skills over parental loss. The companion parent group provided didactic and open-ended discussion focused on the surviving parent's loss and his/her role as a widowed parent. Observations from having run these programs in a hospice since 1984 suggest that the child in grief must be considered within the context of the family system.

Note: creative art therapy & surviving parent support group; coping with grief over parental loss; children

Keyword(s): Art therapy; social support networks; interdisciplinary treatment approach; grief ; death and dying; parents ; children

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