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Walking with the bereaved : a phenomenological investigation of the experience of the companion in grief

University of British Columbia

This research study sought to respond to the question; what is the meaning of the experience of the companion to a grieving person? This was accomplished through using a phenomenological method of research. The researcher was guided by dramatic form in creating a common story of the experience and its structural meanings. This study included three co-researchers, who were selected on the basis that they had each been a companion to a mother who had grieved the loss of her child through death. The co-researchers were Interviewed and asked to give detailed descriptions of their experience, which were taperecorded and transcribed, and the transcripts or protocols were analyzed by the researcher. A Phenomenological protocol analysis was used to extract meaning units and common themes from the three protocols. The themes were woven into an integrated narrative description, which was condensed into the essential structure or meaning of the experience. At each stage of the analysis, the researcher and co-researchers cooperated so that all the results were validated by the final interview. The results of the study included a list of twenty-four themes, a narrative description of the experience being investigated, and the essential structure, which presented the meaning of the experience as concisely as possible. It was posited in the discussion that the study had particular implications for practice.

Text

2010-10-06

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28963

Counselling Psychology

University of British Columbia

Graduate