Creative Writing after Traumatic Loss: Towards a Generative Writing Approach

Meaning-reconstruction theory explains bereavement in terms of an ongoing striving to find meaning. The expressive writing paradigm claims that writing, through disclosure, can facilitate meaning-reconstruction. In this article, we explore how writing, and specifically the writing of poetry, facilitates meaning-reconstruction for bereaved parents who are coping with a sudden traumatic loss of a child. Ten Israelis who lost a child in a terror...