Date of Award
Spring 5-17-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Major
Expressive Therapies
First Advisor
Wendy Allen
Abstract
Though a plethora of literature has explored the connection between bereavement and the body, much of that research has focused on bereavement’s effects on physical health. Little research has been conducted to explore bereaved individuals’ embodiment of their grief, and even less has investigated the implications of those embodied sensations on the possible use of embodiment in interventions for grief processing. This literature review aimed to gain a better understanding of how grief is felt by and expressed through the body. The literature was synthesized, and common embodied themes reported by bereaved individuals were identified. Additionally, a discussion of possible ways mental health professionals can use embodied grief to facilitate grief processing was introduced. The review and discussion of the literature revealed that, though embodied experiences of grief are highly variable and unique to each individual, the body is a clear modality of communication, and through identifying a salient sensation, a mental health professional can help guide a bereaved individual to follow that embodied sensation to its source in order to gain more insight into their body’s inherent knowledge, expression, and needs surrounding their grief processing journey.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Pratt, Mollie, ""With a Heavy Heart": A Literature Review Exploring the Embodiment of Grief and its Implications for Grief Processing" (2025). Expressive Therapies Theses. 2.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_therapies_theses/2
