Grief memoirs: The familiarity of helping professionals with the genre and its potential incorporation into grief therapy

Abstract

The grief memoir is a fast-developing genre that in recent decades has become a popular form of public mourning and self-therapy in many Western cultures, especially in the United States and Great Britain. We surveyed 76 helping professionals to assess if the grief memoir is a genre with which they are familiar and whether they employ such narratives as an adjunct in their work with the bereaved. Most bibliotherapeutic studies focus either on self-help or affective literature. This study is unique in evaluating a life writing genre which promises to combine the therapeutic benefits of both.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission.