Lessons at the threshold
Subtitle: loss and grief in mid-life
By: by Inez Houlihan.
Published: 2006
Language: eng
Number of pages: 133
ISBN-13: 9780494160510
Subjects: Grief.; Loss (Psychology).; Separation (Psychology).; Midlife crisis.; Middle age -- Psychological aspects.; Middle age -- Social aspects.; Adjustment (Psychology).; Life skills.
Other titles: Loss and grief in mid-life.
Description: The study grew out of several personal and professional changes that seemed to challenge my conception of myself as a self sufficient person and my theoretical understanding of how to facilitate adult bereavement education. Specifically, my response to a sudden and unexpected marital separation in middle age left me feeling caught at the threshold between what to do and how to be. I knew that I could not return to what had been but I was uncertain about how to move forward.Adults remain dependent on one another throughout their lives. In the West, however, we tend to equate maturity with independence. One consequence of promoting self reliance is a preference for stoic responses to loss and grief. I believe that our silence interferes with the interrelated processes of grief resolution. In this thesis, my concern is how reflection, creativity, dialogue and action can help us to become more aware of the needs and values that influence grief resolution in mid-life.I called my experience core loss grief. Core loss grief is a sorrow for ourselves that may follow the loss of someone or something that has become entangled in our sense of who we are. It leaves us wondering about how we give meaning to our lives. To show how distinguishing between what we think should matter and what actually matters to us can help us to release the powerful, if painful, potential for personal and relational renewal that lies within sorrow itself, I draw from published theoretical and experiential accounts of loss and grief, holistic approaches to adult education and my own experiences of loss and grief in middle age.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2422.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2006.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-133)