Traumatic and Disrupted Bereavement

Course Description:

This course deals with the phenomenon of 'disrupted bereavement' as it took shape following the October 7 attack, and focuses on how mass trauma and ambiguous loss create multi-systemic disruptions in the grieving experience of bereaved families, and even more so of the families of the kidnapped victims.

In the absence of established literature and models, the course presents an organizing framework developed in the last two years in the field, which maps disruptions and interruptions along the normative continuum of bereavement: from the pre-announcement and pre-burial stages, through ceremonies and commemoration, to the mourning stage.

Throughout the meetings, we will analyze how the collapse of the mourning continuum, lack of information, receiving news of death without burial, delays in identification, burial without farewell, and institutional-public gaps shape patterns of delayed and unresolved mourning, along with ongoing disruptions in psychological-emotional, procedural, interpersonal-social, and political aspects.

Through a discussion of clinical examples and elaboration of dilemmas from the field, the course will provide therapists with conceptual and practical tools for working with disturbed bereavement, and will provide a response to the unique rehabilitation challenges of the current reality - even after the last of the deceased abductees has been returned for burial.

Course objectives:

1. To provide a current conceptual and clinical understanding of disrupted bereavement, with its unique characteristics in the context of mass trauma and ambiguous loss.

2. Develop the ability to identify and conceptualize disruptions along the grief continuum – psychological, procedural, interpersonal, and political – and their clinical manifestations.

3. To enable processing of countertransference processes, relationship boundaries, and professional-emotional positioning in working with bereaved families in the reality of shared pain.

4. To provide practical tools for intervention within a reality of ongoing disruption, while maintaining role boundaries, professional ethics, and durability over time.

Lecturer's speech:
Dr. Einat Yahana , clinical neuropsychologist and rehabilitation psychologist-instructor. Faculty member at the School of Behavioral Sciences at Tel Aviv-Yafo Academic. Lecturer and instructor at the Mifrasim Institute for Research and Teaching of Psychotherapy and director of "Namal Mivtachim" - a training center for the treatment and rehabilitation of victims of kidnapping and ambiguous loss. Since October 7, she has accompanied families of kidnapped and captive survivors and served as head of the rehabilitation department in the health system of the Abductee Families Headquarters. She has over two decades of clinical experience in the public and private sectors working with adults, children and families in situations of trauma, bereavement, loss and change (Lewinstein Hospital, Sheba-Tel Hashomer, and NYUMC). She treats October 7 victims in a private clinic and is also involved in training treatment personnel, counseling and continuing education for various organizations. Her research and scientific publications deal with the psychological mechanisms that influence perception and adaptation to loss following life events.

Target audience: Rehabilitation workers who accompany families and visitors.