Post-Bereavement Hallucination (or Sensed Presence) in Psychotherapy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5944/rdp.v36i132.45682Keywords:
psychotherapy, loss, grief, voicesAbstract
Between 47-82% of bereaved people experience the presence of the deceased person, often in the form of a vision, voice, or felt presence. Although positive for most people (69-75%), such experiences are often kept private out of a fear of how other people may react. As a result of this, and despite being common and adaptive, post-bereavement hallucination (or sensed presence) is often overlooked in clinical practice. In a minority of cases, the experience itself causes distress. This brief review focuses on the empirical research on these phenomena accumulated over the past century, describing both their phenomenological properties and their impact on the bereaved. Based on this body of empirical evidence, a series of clinical principles is included in order to guide therapeutic support in this area.
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