Trauma Therapy for Death Row Families

Abstract

The family members of death row inmates undergo unique suffering that includes disenfranchised grief and intense psychological trauma. In Texas, where executions occur at a rate of 1 every 2 weeks, this class of trauma victims presumably is large, a fact that should generate public mental health concern. Yet the class remains virtually unknown to the therapeutic community. Very little has been done to address the trauma healing needs of death row families. This theoretical paper proposes that structural therapy designed to reengage attachment relationships and reempower family members' innate resources to emotionally regulate one another may provide one of the most effective means of helping this population survive trauma.

Keywords:

• death penalty
• capital punishment
• torture
• human rights
• trauma
• disenfranchised grief
• ambiguous loss
• PTSD
• structural family therapy