Attending to the Grief of Grief Therapy A Supervision Tool for Developing Clinicians State of Mind Related to Grief

Unease has been studied with regard to developing clinicians’ comfort for delivering grief therapy with bereaved clients. The literature suggests a need for attending to novice clinicians’ dispositions towards grief therapy. In particular, their sense of preparedness or outlook for working with the bereaved and what may underlie or contribute to their perspectives requires attention. The aim of this dissertation is to develop an efficacious supervision tool to guide supervisors in supporting emerging clinicians’ in providing grief therapy. The tool guides supervisors with facilitating introspection, exploring key grief concepts, and further developing a supervisee’s awareness of their disposition and perspectives on grief. Supervisors in the field of grief therapy evaluated the tool and deemed it to match, and in some aspects exceed, their expectations regarding what such a tool should contain. Further development of the tool is discussed to ultimately produce a useful product that promotes quality care for bereaving clients being served by emerging clinician.