Lessons From the Field. Family Grief Care and Bibliotherapy: A Call for Models and Studies

Abstract

Objective For this Lesson From the Field report, I write as a family and grief educator to advocate for greater attention to bibliotherapy by family scientists, therapists, and educators. Bibliotherapy (also referred to as poetry therapy or therapeutic storytelling) is the use of literary resources, storytelling, or writing with the purpose of healing. Background Disruptive changes can result in altered personal or family stories. Grief educator Tom Attig (1996) reported that after significant changes, such as bereavement, many persons describe a process of relearning their world. Family therapist Karl Tomm (1990) asserted that a human task throughout life is to story and re‐story. Earlier and current models of family development include milestones of changing family stories (see Duvall, 1962; McGoldrick et al., 2011). A current collective example is personal and family disruptions in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic. Despite many accounts, journals like Family Relations have rarely explored the intersection of family changes (for this article, the focus is family changes that result in loss and grief) using the perspectives and tools of bibliotherapy. Method Disruptive changes and the resulting grief and loss for individuals and families were used as an example of a subject matter worthy of family scientists' attention. Conclusion and Implications Family grief care includes attention to changing family stories. Enhanced studies of bibliotherapy by family scientists can inform and enrich support for families through times of grief.

Insights from investigating early childhood ebooks on literacy, cognitive development, and social and emotional learning outcomes

“…Bibliotherapeutic stories have been found to enrich support for families through times of grief and loss (Bowman, 2021; Briggs and Pehrsson, 2008). In addition to trauma use cases, bibliotherapy can also promote empathy, compassion, and altruism in readers (Wilkinson, 2020).…”