Development of a Creative Interventions Workbook for Adolescents and Young Adults Grieving the Loss of a Sibling

Date of Award

Spring 6-10-2016

Document Type

Doctoral Research Paper

Degree Name

Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology

Organizational Unit

Graduate School of Professional Psychology

First Advisor

Nicole Taylor

Second Advisor

Mark Aoyagi

Third Advisor

Jeanne Floerke

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Creative interventions, Sibling grief, Grief workbook, Adolescent grief

Abstract

The death of a sibling is a profound and terrible loss. It is a loss that is often unintentionally ignored in our society, and it is particularly difficult to process during the formative years of adolescence and early adulthood. Teens often prefer to try to work through problems on their own rather than reach out for help. Because of this, they may benefit from having a self-help workbook to guide them through the journey of healing. Creative interventions such as art, writing, and mindfulness have been found to be very helpful for the grief process. There are many teen grief journals available that include journal prompts to aid in the process of grieving a loved one, but very few that are specific to the loss of a sibling. These resources are comprised of prompts and some even offer a few ideas for activities, but very few explicitly walk the reader through the healing activity or art project. The unique challenges of sibling bereavement and the unique challenges of grieving as an adolescent or young adult coupled with the healing power of creative arts led to the idea for this project; the development and design of a creative interventions workbook for adolescents and young adults grieving the loss of a sibling. It includes contributions from over ten bereaved siblings who participated in a pilot study using these interventions, and their comments on the process as well. Contributors reported that the activities were helpful but also brought up difficult emotions.

Copyright Date

4-19-2016

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. Permanently suppressed.

Rights Holder

Katie Weiss

Provenance

Received from Author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

29 pgs

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