The central role of meaning in adjustment to the loss of a child to cancer: implications for the development of meaning-centered grief therapy.

Overview

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review describes research on meaning and meaning-making in parents who have lost a child to cancer, suggesting the need for a meaning-centered therapeutic approach to improve their sense of meaning, purpose, and identity and help with management of prolonged grief symptoms. RECENT FINDINGS: Several studies have demonstrated that parents bereaved by cancer experience unique meaning-related challenges associated with the caregiving and illness experience, including struggles with making sense of their loss, benefit-finding, their sense of identity and purpose, disconnection from sources of meaning, and sustaining a sense of meaning in their child's life. Meaning-centered grief therapy, adapted from meaning-centered psychotherapy, directly addresses these issues, highlighting the choices parents have in how they face their pain, how they honor their child and his/her living legacy, the story they create, and how they live their lives. SUMMARY: Given the important role that meaning plays in adjustment to the loss of a child to cancer, a meaning-focused approach such as meaning-centered grief therapy may help improve parents' sense of meaning and grief symptoms. It seems particularly appropriate for parents who lost a child to cancer because it does not pathologize their struggles and directly targets issues they frequently face.