The Harvard Child Bereavement Study served to highlight the importance of considering bereaved children in the context of their social and family systems (Silverman & Worden, 1993 ). This study involved a grounded analysis of data from semi-structured interviews with members of four families who had experienced the death of a father within the previous 18 months. The four widows and four adolescents, each of whom had attended a grief support programme, were asked about their personal and family's experience of coping with their loss and bereavement. A systematic analysis identified six themes including the Impact on Family Life, Family Functioning, Support for the Family and Issues for the Surviving Parents. This study raised or confirmed a significant number of gaps in the published literature about bereaved individuals and families. The most important themes and categories are discussed in relation to the existing research literature about widow, adolescent and family bereavement together with the role and future of supportive interventions for bereaved children and their parents. This study was primarily exploratory but was unique in several respects in particular because it involved a community sample and interviews with both surviving parents and adolescents in the same families. The experiences of these families and their comments about the grief support programme provide further evidence that confirms the need to design and fund controlled, longitudinal evaluative studies of grief support programmes for bereaved children and their families such as Winston's Wish.

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This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Clin.Psy.D. at the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. It consists of both the research and clinical work undertaken as part of the course. Throughout the thesis all identifying information has been changed to ensure confidentiality. Volume I of the thesis comprises the research component, presented in the format of two main papers, which have been prepared according to the requirements of Death Studies (See Appendix 8 for instructions for authors). Contrary to journal submission requirements, in order to aide the reader, tables and Figures have been integrated into the text. The two main papers focus on the notion of continuing bonds in bereavement. Continuing bonds are a sense of ongoing attachment to the deceased. The first paper is a review of the literature which introduces the concept of continuing bonds and the evidence for their existence, before considering the conceptualisation of continuing bonds within major bereavement models, and research evidence for their adaptiveness. The second paper is an empirical investigation into the role of factors that influence emotional reaction to continuing bonds in bereaved spouses'. The final section of Volume I comprises of the appendices, which include a Public Domain Briefing Paper. Volume II comprises five clinical practice reports, which reflect the clinical work carried out during the course. These include a case study of a 37-year old woman with social phobia formulated from cognitive and psychodynamic perspectives; a case study of a cognitive-behavioural and family-focused intervention with an 11-year old girl with OCD; a single-case experimental design exploring the unmet needs of a nursing home resident with dementia; a pilot evaluation of a video to provide information about psychology for clients with a learning disability; and a cognitive-analytic reformulation of a woman with breast cancer.

This thesis investigates the various coping experiences during bereavement by conducting ethnomethodological research involving bereaved individuals from three different countries: Taiwan, the UK and Australia. The main purpose of the research is to determine how one's socio-cultural background contextualises the process of grief and mourning, as part of bereavement, in order to subsequently gain a better understanding of how bereaved individuals from various cultures can best be assisted during bereavement, either through counselling or in a general sense.

Aim: To explore what is known about the psychological responses of staff to miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal loss in their workplace.

The loss of a child has the potential to be one of the most devastating events that a parent can go through because it represents an inversion of the natural order for a parent to outlive their child. Older parental bereavement is an under-studied phenomenon and the current research attempted to address this by using an in-depth case study design. This study investigated bereavement experiences of three older bereaved parents after the death of an adult child through illness. The data were analysed using a qualitative pluralist paradigm and u~ed three methods: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), Narrative Analysis and Discourse Analysis. The findings indicated that the influence of age in older parental bereavement is variable and alluded to the presence of ageist discourses. The results also highlighted the interpersonal difficulties of talking about the death of their adult child, including to family members and grief counsellors. Furthermore, the role of self-reflection, religion and agency as protective factors in bereavement were identified. The clinical implications of .~he current findings are explored as well as the limitations of the study are discussed as well as potential directions for future research.

One in 600 children develops cancer before the age of 15 (Cancer-UK 2004). The focus on providing supportive care throughout the course of a child's treatment is rightly prioritised. However, the provision of effective bereavement care must not be neglected. Although there are differences between diagnostic groups, approximately 30% of children die of cancer or resulting condition.

This empirical study uses qualitative methods to investigate experiences of bereavement after the death of a partner. The original research aim was to study the implications of death among older people, including those from ethnic minority groups, a neglected area of study. The research included participant observation at lunch clubs in centres attended by older White British and African Caribbean people, and semi-structured interviews recorded in 2007-2008 with 20 men and women over 60. Most participants lived in the city, and a small number lived in a rural area. African Caribbean interviewees were in the minority. The study took a material culture approach to bereavement; this generated data revealing what practical things people did, and what was important for them when their partner died. It found that in identifying 'ordinary' funeral practices people show their identifications with particular groups. Choices made by surviving spouses when dealing with the residual materiality of their partner's life revealed their agency in restoring a life for themselves despite living with loss. From an analysis of the data, themes were developed in relation to the literature. Death was studied through the lens of the intersubjective and embodied relationship of the marital couple, particularly in home life. Research questions asked what part material culture plays in the experience of bereavement; how memorialisation might enable the continued agency of the deceased; and whether and how 'ancestors' are created in Britain. The thesis follows the transition l1f a living person from their dying and death through to their funeral and disposal, and l1n to their formal and informal memorialisation. The research confirms that the deceased can continue to have a 'presence' and agency, which is not necessarily problematic, in the lives of bereaved people. In particular, it reveals the importance of everyday habits and practices in memorialisation.

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