Overview

All losses are touched with ambiguity. Yet those who suffer losses without finality bear a particular burden. Whether it is the experience of caring for a parent in the grip of Alzheimer? or waiting to learn the fate of a spouse gone missing in a disastrous event, the loss is disastrously coupled with a lack of closure. Bereft of rituals and social support, persons who experience such ambiguous losses find it hard to understand their situation, difficult to cope, and almost impossible to move ahead with their lives. In Loss, Trauma, and Resilience, Boss, the principal theorist of the concept of ambiguous loss, offers new concepts and clinical practices for addressing this critical psychological experience that, in one form or another, touches all of our experiences of loss. Boss draws on research and extensive clinical experience working with families in order to frame a powerful but flexible therapeutic approach. The fundamental goal is to guide readers in the task of building resilience in clients who face of the trauma of loss without resolution. In Part I readers are introduced to the concept of ambiguous loss and shown how such losses relate to concepts of the family, definitions of trauma, and capacities for resilience. Over the course of these first three chapters Boss updates and expands her earlier understanding of ambiguous loss in a way that not only refines the character of the phenomenon but relates the phenomenon to other critical psychological and therapeutic categories. In Part II Boss leads readers through the various aspects of and target points for working with those suffering ambiguous loss. From meaning to mastery, identity to ambivalence, attachment to hope?hese chapters cover key states of mind for those undergoing ambiguous loss. Boss then offers techniques for fostering in clients a healthy and sustainable posture toward loss. Readers are encouraged to lead clients toward modifications of their more typical inclinations to control their situation and resolve all uncertainty. The therapeutic lesson is to learn to live with ambiguity and thereby nurture resilience in clients and their families. The Epilogue addresses the therapist directly and his or her own ambiguous losses. Closing the circle of the therapeutic process, Boss shows therapists how fundamental their own experiences of loss are to their own clinical work. In Loss, Trauma, and Resilience, Boss provides the therapeutic insight and wisdom that aids mental health professionals in not ""going for closure,"" but rather building strength and acceptance of ambiguity. What readers will find is a concrete therapeutic approach that is at once directive and open to the complex contexts in which people find meaning and discover hope in the face of ambiguous losses.

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Reviews

The author's many years of clinical experience in this area will help to educate and guide clinicians who encounter the growing number of clients who have experienced ambiguous loss. -- The Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic In a dominant culture that denies death and marginalizes those most closely affected by it, the work of Pauline Boss is indeed welcome....[D]efies many traditional Western ways of thinking about and responding to loss by examining it head on and giving voice to the experiences of those whom even mental health professionals may be least prepared to assist....[A] worthy contribution. -- Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care Comprehensive, clear, well-referenced guide....[that] presents valuable insight into the common feature in the situations so many people find themselves in... -- Counseling Resource

The author's many years of clinical experience in this area will help to educate and guide clinicians who encounter the growing number of clients who have experienced ambiguous loss. In a dominant culture that denies death and marginalizes those most closely affected by it, the work of Pauline Boss is indeed welcome...[D]efies many traditional Western ways of thinking about and responding to loss by examining it head on and giving voice to the experiences of those whom even mental health professionals may be least prepared to assist...[A] worthy contribution. Comprehensive, clear, well-referenced guide...[that] presents valuable insight into the common feature in the situations so many people find themselves in...

In a dominant culture that denies death and marginalizes those most closely affected by it, the work of Pauline Boss is indeed welcome....[D]efies many traditional Western ways of thinking about and responding to loss by examining it head on and giving voice to the experiences of those whom even mental health professionals may be least prepared to assist....[A] worthy contribution.

The author's many years of clinical experience in this area will help to educate and guide clinicians who encounter the growing number of clients who have experienced ambiguous loss.

Author Information

Pauline Boss, PhD, is emeritus professor at University of Minnesota. She is known worldwide for developing the theory of ambiguous loss and as a pioneer in the interdisciplinary study of family stress management. Dr. Boss is the author of Loss, Trauma, and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss and The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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