An open trial of meaning-centered grief therapy: rationale and preliminary evaluation
Open accessAbstract
Objective: To determine the preliminary feasibility, acceptability, and effects of Meaning-Centered Grief Therapy (MCGT) for parents who lost a child to cancer. Method: Parents who lost a child to cancer and who were between six months and six years after loss and reporting elevated levels of prolonged grief were enrolled in open trials of MCGT, a manualized, one-on-one cognitive-behavioral-existential intervention that used psychoeducation, experiential exercises, and structured discussion to explore themes related to meaning, identity, purpose, and legacy. Parents completed 16 weekly sessions, 60–90 minutes in length, either in person or through videoconferencing. Parents were administered measures of prolonged grief disorder symptoms, meaning in life, and other assessments of psychological adjustment preintervention, mid-intervention, postintervention, and at three months postintervention. Descriptive data from both the in-person and videoconferencing open trial were pooled. Result: Eight of 11 (72%) enrolled parents started the MCGT intervention, and six of eight (75%) participants completed all 16 sessions. Participants provided positive feedback about MCGT. Results showed postintervention longitudinal improvements in prolonged grief (d = 1.70), sense of meaning (d = 2.11), depression (d = 0.84), hopelessness (d = 1.01), continuing bonds with their child (d = 1.26), posttraumatic growth (ds = 0.29–1.33), positive affect (d = 0.99), and various health-related quality of life domains (d = 0.46–0.71). Most treatment gains were either maintained or increased at the three-month follow-up assessment. Significance of results: Overall, preliminary data suggest that this 16-session, manualized cognitive-behavioral-existential intervention is feasible, acceptable, and associated with transdiagnostic improvements in psychological functioning among parents who have lost a child to cancer. Future research should examine MCGT with a larger sample in a randomized controlled trial.
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Most prior interventions targeting psychological outcomes were not informed by psychological insights and proven psychotherapeutic approaches delivered by trained mental health professionals.
“This may be because most prior interventions, while targeting psychological outcomes, were not informed by psychological insights and proven psychotherapeutic approaches to promote adjustment to stress, grief, and trauma (21-24) delivered by trained mental health professionals.”
From EMPOWER: A Multi-Site Pilot Trial to Reduce Distress in Surrogate Decision-Makers in the ICU (2024) · cites this paper as [24]
The Methods (Intervention Description; page unavailable) describes a theory-informed grief therapy, and the Discussion (Future Directions; page unavailable) notes a need for interventions for bereaved parents. Neither passage assesses whether most prior interventions lacked psychological grounding, established psychotherapeutic approaches, or delivery by trained mental health professionals. Searches for those characteristics of prior interventions did not locate a passage making the attributed comparison. (LLM, conf=0.75)
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“In addition, MCP has also been used with people with grief (15) as the Meaning-Centered Grief Psychotherapy (MCGP) for parents who lost a child to cancer.”
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- Authors
- Lichtenthal, W. G., Catarozoli, C., Masterson, M., Slivjak, E., Schofield, E., Roberts, K. E., Neimeyer, R. A., Wiener, L., Prigerson, H. G., Kissane, D. W., Li, Y., & Breitbart, W.
- Affiliations
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US)
- Weill Cornell Medicine (US)
- University of Memphis (US)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Monash University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Lichtenthal, Wendy G.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Palliative and Supportive Care
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2019-01-26
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 2-12
- ISSN
- 1478-9515 (ISSN-L)
- 1478-9523
- PMC
- PMC6401220
- OpenAlex
- W2913322578
- Cited by
- 88
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 11.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- research.monash.edu
- Licence
- Locations
- Palliative & Supportive Care (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Monash University Research Portal (Monash University) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (UL1TR002384)
- National Cancer Institute (R03CA139944, K07CA172216, P30CA008748, T32CA009461, R35CA197730)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative and Oncologic Care
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Keywords
- prolonged grief disorder, meaning in life, existential psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, posttraumatic growth, depression, hopelessness, continuing bonds, videoconferencing, treatment feasibility and acceptability, health-related quality of life
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Aged, Anxiety, Clinical Trials as Topic, Depression, Female, Grief, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Psychometrics, Psychotherapy, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Hospice Care
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