Attachment-Informed Grief Therapy ─ The Clinician's Guide to Foundations and Applications

Attachment-Informed Grief Therapy bridges the fields of attachment studies and thanatology, uniting theory, research, and practice to enrich our understanding of how and why people grieve and how we can help the bereaved. In its pages, clinicians and students will gain a new understanding of the etiology of complicated grief and its treatment and will become better equipped to formulate accurate and specific case conceptualization and treatment plans. The authors also illustrate the ways in which the therapeutic relationship is a crucially important—though largely unrecognized—element in grief therapy, and offer guidelines for an attachment informed view of the therapeutic relationship that can serve as the foundation of all grief therapy.

Phyllis S. Kosminsky is a clinical social worker specializing in work with the bereaved, particularly those who have experienced a traumatic loss. Over the past 20 years Dr. Kosminsky has provided individual counseling to hundreds of bereaved individuals and has conducted trainings for mental health professionals nationally and internationally in the treatment of normal and problematic grief.

John (Jack) Jordan is a psychologist in private practice in Rhode Island, where he has specialized in work with survivors of suicide and other traumatic losses for almost 40 years. He is the clinical consultant for grief Support Services of the Samaritans in Boston, Massachusetts, and the professional advisor to the Loss and Bereavement Council of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. For over 30 years, Dr. Jordan has provided training in the U.S. and internationally for professional caregivers, and he has published over 45 articles, chapters, and full books, including Grief After Suicide: Coping with the Consequences and Caring for the Survivors (Routledge, 2011).