Grief process of a single parent family with a father and two adolescent daughters after the loss of mother: A case study in Turkey

Abstract

The death of a family member is an important life event for the family and brings lots of different changes in the family members’ and family’s life. Every family was affected differently by the death and each family’s experience about the death is unique. This research tried to understand the case of a Turkish family’s interchangeable dynamics after the loss of the mother. Inductive Thematic Analysis (TA) was used to understand their dynamics. The therapy process consisted of 38 sessions. Selective coding was used, and the sessions were chosen by looking at two criteria. Firstly, all the family members presented at the sessions and then, they talked about the grief process or the deceased. Two main themes were found at the end of analysis: 1) ‘’The Enmeshed Relationship’’ and 2) ‘’Processing the Difficult Emotions’’. The result revealed that grief can be seen as a family process which includes both intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. The research indicated that the culture and religion were inseparable parts of grief and additional stressors affected the process. This research provided an in-depth perspective of a Turkish family’s grief process during COVID-19 pandemic. Implications for clinicians working with families during grief process were discussed.