Reflectionsfrommyowngrieving. . 1...... - 1674 Words

Reflections From My Own Grieving 1 Reflections From My Own Grieving Loren Harssar TATI: Art Therapy, Spirituality, Grief and Loss Friday, April 21, 2017 Claudia McKnight Reflections From My Own Grieving 2 The study of grief and bereavement has existed since the 1900’s when Freud came out with his idea of â€Å"Mourning and Melancholia†. Since then, there has been much more research done as well as theories created to make sense of the notion of losing someone. Within the current literature I have been reading on the topic, the use of stage theories of grieving are considered too rigid and are inaccurate representations of grief. As we know from basic†¦show more content†¦Every person has a narrative truth about themselves and the people around them, which changes overtime. The MRM is organized into 6 propositions: 1. Death can validate or invalidate the constructions we have or don’t have 2. Grief is an intimate experience that is tied to who we are as people 3. Grieving is something we do, not something that happens to us 4. Grieving either affirms or reconstructs a personal world of meaning 5. Feelings are efforts towards making meaning 6. Identities continue to be reconstructed. (Lister) This model focuses wholly on the person living with loss finding meaning. When I was twelve years old, a close family friend of mine named Evan (who was my age) was diagnosed with brain cancer. At that age, I hadn’t been introduced to death and nor did I really know or understand what cancer was or that it was possible for people so young to die. Before his death at age thirteen, my sister and I would spend a lot of time with him playing videogames, watching movies and swimming in his backyard pool. We watched the process of Evan losing his hair, having cancer treatments, doing physiotherapy and becoming very weak and fragile and rejecting treatments. I remember the day I found out that Evan had passed away so clearly. I was in grade eight and my mom had picked me up from school. When she broke me the news I