The Efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Persons Who Have Experienced Miscarriage
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Insinger, Mikaela
Issue Date
2023-08-07
Type
Capstone
Language
en
Keywords
miscarriage , disenfranchised grief , bereavement , ambiguous loss , nonfinite loss , acceptance and commitment therapy , ACT
Alternative Title
Abstract
Miscarriage is both a physical and psychological event that influences the wellbeing of miscarried individual's life. Despite the high prevalence of miscarriage, the research underscores a lack of standardized care in supporting individuals during and after this unique loss. The purpose of this capstone is to explore literature detailing the experiences of miscarriage to understand how future research and counselling practices can support individuals through this all-encumbering experience. This capstone reviews literature on well-established grief theories and their application to miscarriage. Additionally, this capstone explores the use of more current and less researched modalities such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in supporting those affected by miscarriage. Despite a lack of research on ACT for miscarriage, there appears to be several benefits of the intervention, specifically the adaptability and flexibility of the modality to support client-centered care and goals (Ganjari & Nourimoghadam, 2022). Counsellors can support clients bereaved by miscarriage by offering empathy, validation, psychological flexibility, and an individualized client-centered approach. Further research is needed to understand how to holistically support those bereaved by miscarriage.