Life Passage in the Face of Death

The process of a brief psychotherapy is captured on this video, presenting a patient who seeks help in coping with the care and anticipated loss of her terminally ill husband. The video documents a wide array of therapeutic interventions and their impact in just three weekly sessions.

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This revealing video presents the compelling process of a brief psychotherapy with a patient who seeks help in coping with the care and anticipated loss of her terminally ill husband. Documenting a wide array of therapeutic interventions and their impact in just three weekly sessions-with a unique follow-up session 8 months later after her husband's death-this remarkable video is divided into two main parts: (1) actual psychotherapy sessions with the patient interwoven with instructive comments and insights from the author and discussion and demonstration of the therapeutic engagement; and (2) the experience of grief and change in the patient's life after her husband's death. After an introduction by the author, 19 specific segments illustrate the development of specific psychodynamic interventions with the patient. This unique video highlights the author's technique of active psychotherapeutic engagement, focusing on the narrative structure of people's lives as a construct that gives meaning to the current crisis situation.
As witnesses to the patient's journey through a crisis of loss, -We learn-along with the patient-how her current experience relates to her emotional responses in early life. -We observe the therapist's interactions with the patient from initial consultation through often dramatic revelations along the way, including not only the patient's experience but also the recognition of underlying themes of her current distress-all in the midst of the unique therapist-patient dialogue. -And we see the therapist develop with the patient a new vision of her experience of the present in dynamic relationship to the past, leading the patient to revelations about not only her relationship with her parents, but also with her husband and children. For easy reference, this moving record of one patient's therapeutic experience is accompanied by a table of contents and an index of concepts listed by location on the videotape. Medical students, psychiatry residents, and mental health care professionals alike will welcome this powerful teaching tool for classroom or self-study use.