Cognitive Behavioral Therapy of Prolonged Grief Disorder
Barnaba Danieluk
Marie Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin; Institute of Psychologyhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5006-3649
Abstract
Aim: The purpose of this paper is to present the cognitive-behavioral models of the prolonged grief disorder, to compare the mechanisms that, according to individual authors, are the source of the persistence of symptoms, as well as the therapeutic protocols built on their basis, their components and the therapeutic techniques used.
Method: The introduction includes a brief history of understanding the prolonged grief reaction in its specificity as a distinctive nosological category currently included in the DSM-V-TR and ICD-11. The main part of the text contains a description of three cognitive models and corresponding therapeutic protocols intended for individual therapy, the one by Boelen, van den Bout and van den Hout, the second by Shear et al. (Prolonged Grief Disorder Theraphy – PGDT), and third by Pfoh, Rosner and Kotoučová (Complicated Grief – Cognitive Behavioral Treatment CG-CBT) as well as the presentation of research results on their effectiveness.
Conclusion: All three cognitive models derive the source of maladaptive, prolonged grief from the lack of integration of the loss experience with the patient’s cognitive-emotional system. However, the authors of the individual models emphasize different aspects of this disintegration: Boelen stresses deficits in the updating of the patient’s self-schema, Shear the lack of revision of the attachment model, Rosner the dysfunctional pattern of reaction to the experience of loss itself. The effectiveness of the described protocols was tested in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) procedure and the results of these studies prove their satisfactory effectiveness.
Keywords:
psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral, grief, prolonged grief disorderReferences
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Marie Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin; Institute of Psychology
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5006-3649
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