Disenfranchised grief is a grief process which centers not just on the loss itself and our resulting grief, but also on the universal needs for human connection in our time of loss. As such, it comes with a great sense of irony that the one thing we truly require in a time of disenfranchised grief, is the one thing we aren’t getting from our neighbors - visibility.
There are very many examples of losses which tend to fall within the realm of disenfranchised grief - loss of an unborn child, loss of a pet, loss of purpose. However, the way in which certain types of losses are categorized and, to a large extent, justified, by our peers (as well as ourselves) can cause one to consider one loss as a greater loss when compared to another. For many, this is not necessarily an act of ignorance, nor is it often carelessness or thoughtfulness. For many, this is an act of compartmentalization - a method of distance from the loss itself.
Grief compartmentalization is as much a facet of the human experience as the grief experience is in and of itself. True, compartmentalization has a place in the larger scheme of our thought processes. Being constantly inundated with information that is available to us at literally any time of the day and night, as well as a litany of grievances for us to emotionally catalogue so as to avoid overwhelm, it stands to reason we might employ an adaptive technique like compartmentalization in order to stay cognitively afloat. But, while compartmentalization may serve us within that context, it neither serves ourselves, nor out neighbors within the context of grief.
That said, the primary focus of this program is to establish a foundational understanding of the disenfranchised grief experience, explore Thanatological frameworks which may help us to deepen our understanding, discuss examples of common scenarios which are often linked with a disenfranchised grief experience, consider some therapeutic techniques with which we may better approach working with our clients and families who are experiencing disenfranchised grief, and discuss the abundant need for offering non-intrusive visibility to our neighbors as they work their way through this difficult process.
