Dr Edward K. Rynearson

​Traumatic Grief Treatment: Repair, Revise and Re-engage

Tuesday, 10^th May 2016

Violent death presents a more complex synergism of distress than the natural death of a loved one. After violent death, accommodation includes the processing of trauma distress to the violent dying act, simultaneous with the processing of trauma and separation distress to the irrevocable absence of the loved one. The internalised memory of the loved one (when they were alive) presents a dynamic, restorative focus that is dynamically opposed to the memory of the external trauma (re-enactment imagery of the violent dying act), and the clinical task of revising the internalised relationship with the deceased and the way they died (alone and unprotected) may be paramount. This dynamic is more complex than the internalised dynamic of a solitary, traumatic experience (rape or assault) that is narrowly aversive. Instead, accommodation to violent dying may be challenged by waves of re-enactment imagery complicated by remorse over failed rescue or caregiving – the memory of the life of the deceased may have been all but eclipsed by the traumatic and remorseful memory of their dying.

• differentiate traumatic grief after violent dying from complicated grief
• clarify and manage the horrific re-enactment imagery of traumatic grief
• understand a working model of traumatic grief and its treatment
• identify and master restorative techniques and indications for short-term treatment.

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