Unfolding Meaning From Memories: An Integrative Meaning Reconstruction Method for Counseling the Bereaved

Abstract

This conceptual article describes a specific bereavement counseling intervention method for elaborating relational memories. Based in an integrative meaning reconstruction process of change, we show in a practical way how by promoting the display of the continuing bonds with the deceased and favoring the activation of memories about the lost relationship, the bereaved is able to engage in a process of attributing meaning, from which a new personal worldview emerges as a therapeutic outcome of personal posttraumatic growth. Using a case example to explain how the specific set of procedures of the method are implemented in clinical practice, the article focuses on the description of the client's process of change, and how its components reflect the complementarity and interrelation of these theoretical constructs.