More about Prolonged Grief Disorder and its treatment:
www.prolongedgrief.columbia.edu
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Abstract:
Grief is the natural response to loss. Although it’s complex, timevarying, and multifaceted and everyone grieves in their own way, there are commonalities. Most people adapt to the loss of a loved one by accepting their new reality and restoring the capacity for wellbeing. However, for some bereaved people, early defensive responses to the loss become persistent and overly influential. When this occurs the process of adapting to the loss can be impeded, resulting in prolonged grief disorder (PGD; formerly known as complicated grief). PGD is characterized by persistent pervasive yearning, longing, or preoccupation with the loss lasting far beyond the period of time expected by the person’s social, cultural, or religious group. Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy (PGDT; previously called complicated grief therapy: CGT) is a shortterm therapy designed to address impediments and facilitate adaptation to loss. This presentation will introduce our model of grief and adaptation to loss and walk through seven "Healing Milestones" that promote adaptation to loss.

Speaker:
Dr. M. Katherine Shear is the Marion E. Kenworthy Professor of Psychiatry and the founding Director of the Center for Complicated Grief at Columbia School of Social Work. Dr. Shear is a clinical researcher who first worked in anxiety and depression. For the last two decades she has focused on understanding and treating people who experience persistent intense grief which is now an official diagnosis called Prolonged Grief Disorder in the DSM5. She developed and tested Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy (PGDT), a shortterm, strengthbased intervention that helps foster adaptation to loss and confirmed its efficacy in three large NIMHfunded studies.

Dr. Shear is currently collaborating with a faithbased civil rights organization with leadership in Harlem called Mobilizing Preachers and Communities. The project aims to refine digital tools and other means to support the work of pastors and community caretakers who are battling the social and emotional toll of the pandemic in the Harlem community.

Project:
A talk for 'Grief: A Study of Human Emotional Experience' a 4year AHRCfunded project at the Department of Philosophy, University of York.

​The overarching aim of 'Grief: A Study of Human Emotional Experience' is to develop a detailed, wideranging, and integrated account of what it is to experience grief, focusing on aspects of grief that are of considerable theoretical and practical importance but remain poorly understood.​