ABSTRACT
Human beings are inveterate meaning-makers, weaving strands of narratives that preserve a sense of continuity, coherence, and connection to centrally important people and principles that anchor their essential life stories. But when these same lives are assaulted by traumatic loss, survivors can become fixated on the horrific story of the dying or the tragic absence of their loved one from their ongoing lives. In such cases, they need professional support with both restorative retelling of the event story of the dying, and restorative reintegration of the backstory of the relationship to the deceased. In this chapter, we offer a framework for orienting to this process, as well as concrete guidelines for both interventions in a way that promotes reprocessing of the loss without re-traumatization, and re-accessing of the relationship as a resource without ruminative preoccupation with it. We conclude with a case vignette that illustrates this focus, suggesting the power of working directly with the presence within absence to the deceased as a vital approach to meaning reconstruction in the wake of loss.
