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Grieving the Child That Never Was: Treatment of Ambiguous Loss in Parents of Children with Down Syndrome

Grieving the Child That Never Was: Treatment of Ambiguous Loss in Parents of Children with Down... Many parents raising a child with Down syndrome (DS) express feelings of grief, sadness, disappointment, anger, and frustration related to the child's diagnosis (Sheehan & Guerin, 2017). Although previous authors have not directly used the concept of ambiguous loss when treating parents raising a child with a developmental disability, parents' thoughts and emotions align with ambiguous loss. There is also a cascade of losses for parents while raising a child with DS, such as developmental milestones or never seeing a child graduate. The empty‐chair technique (ECH) is used to increase emotional processing and expression of unmet desires (Tsvieli & Diamond, 2018). This article proposes the use of the ECH for parents raising a child with DS for processing the grief of ambiguous loss. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian and New Zealandjournal of Family Therapy Wiley

Grieving the Child That Never Was: Treatment of Ambiguous Loss in Parents of Children with Down Syndrome

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References (37)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 Australian Association of Family Therapy.
ISSN
0814-723X
eISSN
1467-8438
DOI
10.1002/anzf.1488
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Many parents raising a child with Down syndrome (DS) express feelings of grief, sadness, disappointment, anger, and frustration related to the child's diagnosis (Sheehan & Guerin, 2017). Although previous authors have not directly used the concept of ambiguous loss when treating parents raising a child with a developmental disability, parents' thoughts and emotions align with ambiguous loss. There is also a cascade of losses for parents while raising a child with DS, such as developmental milestones or never seeing a child graduate. The empty‐chair technique (ECH) is used to increase emotional processing and expression of unmet desires (Tsvieli & Diamond, 2018). This article proposes the use of the ECH for parents raising a child with DS for processing the grief of ambiguous loss.

Journal

Australian and New Zealandjournal of Family TherapyWiley

Published: Jun 1, 2022

Keywords: ambiguous loss; Down syndrome; empty chair; experiential therapy

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