Pathos, paradox, and poetics: Grounded theory and the experience of bereavement

Too often in the professional community, the clinician's personal experience with loss and grief is viewed through a negative lens as a counter-transference that must be carefully monitored, rather than as a positive, integral, and invaluable asset in working with the dying and bereaved. This article proposes an approach to theory in bereavement and end-of-life care that integrates a focus on the lived experience of dying and bereaved clients with the clinician's reflective awareness of the meaning and impact: of suffering and loss in his/her own life. Using an auto-ethnographic approach, the author connects his personal narrative as both client and clinician with the cultural construction of bereavement theory and practice over the past several decades.