What Has Become of Grief Counseling? An Evaluation of the Empirical Foundations of the New Pessimism Dale G. Larson Santa Clara University William T. Hoyt University of Wisconsin—Madison A pessimistic view of grief counseling has emerged over the last 7 years, exemplified by R. A. Neimeyer’s (2000) oft-cited claim that “such interventions are typically ineffective, and perhaps even deleterious, at least for persons experiencing a normal bereavement” (p. 541). This negative characterization has little or no empirical grounding, however. The claim rests on 2 pieces of evidence. The 1st is an unorthodox analysis of deterioration effects in 10 outcome studies in B. V. Fortner’s (1999) dissertation, usually attributed to Neimeyer (2000). Neither the analysis nor Fortner’s findings have ever been published or subjected to peer review, until now. This review shows that there is no statistical or empirical basis for claims about deterioration effects in grief counseling. The 2nd piece of evidence involves what the authors believe to be ill-informed summaries of conventional meta-analytic findings. This misrepresentation of empirical findings has damaged the reputation of grief counseling in the field and in the popular media and offers lessons for both researchers and research consumers interested in the relationship between science and practice in psychology. Keywords: grief therapy, grief counseling, treatment deterioration, scientist–practitioner model, bereavement Supplemental material: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.38.4.347.supp Raymond Rogoway [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Jul 25, 2008, at 8:22 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Raymond Rogoway" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected] > > > Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 11:12 AM > Subject: Re: [tips] Art in Thanatology > > >> It may or may not. One of my internships was with Hospice of the >> Valley in San Jose. There are many who, without bereavement >> counseling, will never heal. My father was a twin. When he die, >> his twin died six week later. What exactly do you mean by >> "exaggerated?" >> >> >> Raymond Rogoway >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> > The grief counseling paradigm is an ex-post facto design.Those > counselors do not have a choice as to who they choose to counsel. > > Michael Sylvester,PhD > Daytona Beach,Florida > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
