Resolving Grief After Spinal Cord Injury

The purpose of this study is to examine the usefulness of the Grief Recovery Method in assisting persons with spinal cord injuries to achieve as complete a recovery as possible, thereby allowing for fuller participation in life.

Volunteers will participate in a series of weekly and twice-weekly sessions with a counselor who has obtained special training in the Grief Recovery Method.

The Grief Recovery Method is a structured process designed to help people with spinal cord injuries examine their knowledge of their injury, their emotional reaction to their injury, and their ability to acknowledge their grief over the injury in order to learn techniques to resolve the grief in order to achieve a more complete recovery. Participants will attend a total of 18 sessions, some one-on-one, and some in a group setting. The Grief Recovery Handbook, handouts, DVD (digital video disc) presentations and questionnaires will be used. Targeted activities to decrease isolation and assist volunteers to identify goals for recovery will be utilized.

A self-administered questionnaire with 22 questions designed to measure the subjective response to a specific traumatic event (for this study, the event is the spinal cord injury).

A self-reported 2-part questionnaire that asks the volunteer to circle responses to questions about past behavior and present feelings about their spinal cord injury.

Inclusion Criteria: * Persons with a spinal cord injury who are willing to participate in the program. Exclusion Criteria: * Unable or unwilling to participate.