Working with widowers can be one of the most challenging parts of a therapist’s career. Despite the need for better research and professional guidance, therapists have often been left alone to confront a group struggling with high rates of suicide, mortality, physical health problems, and depression. Counseling Widowers builds from the latest developments in grief research and men’s studies to bridge the gap between counseling practice and the needs of bereaved men. In these pages, therapists will find tools for adjusting their clinical strategies to work more effectively with these men. Through a more empathic understanding of widowers, therapists can help them build from their strengths as they face the loss of their partner.
Series editor’s foreword Mark S. Kiselica. Foreword Kenneth J. Doka. Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Overview of Widowers 2. Male Gender Role and Widowers 3. Overview of Grief Theories 4. Mediators of Widowers’ Grief 5. Men’s Grief 6. Common and Complicated Grief Responses 7. Processes and Techniques of Counseling Widowers 8. Widowers in Groups 9. Understudied and Minority Widowers
Biography
Jason M. Troyer, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. Dr. Troyer has taught college courses on death and dying and has provided individual and group counseling for bereaved college students and older adults. His research focuses on the grief experiences of widowers.
"Jason Troyer has provided an elegant and extremely useful understanding of the contributions therapists may make with grieving widowers, a population that is little understood and seldom considered in either grief research or therapy training. By sharing an instrumental model of engagement that is consistent with masculine development, readers will benefit from the beginning to the end of this very interesting, engaging, and informative text."
—Arthur M. Horne, PhD, distinguished research professor and dean emeritus, University of Georgia
"Counseling Widowers provides a thoroughly engaging review of the scholarly work on grief and loss and the psychology of men. Readers can expect to gain a more sensitive understanding of the pain, struggle, and existing resources of men experiencing the loss of their partner. The pragmatic clinical suggestions will greatly enhance the therapeutic understanding and skills of those working with men experiencing grief. This is a much needed and long overdue contribution of the field."
—Matt Englar-Carlson, PhD, professor of counseling and codirector of the Center for Boys and Men, California State University–Fullerton
"In this well-written book, Jason Troyer provides therapists and others who want to assist widowers with a full review of the relevant literature on grief and helping. He uses a gender-awareness perspective that maximizes the ability to understand and be effective to men in their time of need."
—Phyllis R. Silverman, PhD, author of Widow to Widow: How the Bereaved Help One Another
"Troyer’s broad familiarity with the literature of men’s psychology coupled with his knowledge of the thanatological literature keeps this book focused, insightful, and very pragmatic. It will advance the ability of any clinician to have greater empathy to understand and a richer array of skills to help men grieving the death of their partners. I hope that it will also inspire researchers to further study the complex but engaging issues surrounding grieving widowers."
Paul A. Metzler, Book Review Editor, OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying
