MEANING MAKING AND COPING: MAKING SENSE OF DEATH

ABSTRACT

Meaning making processes are crucial for finding coherence when confronting disruptive life events. This study explored the meaning making processes and the coping strategies that people use in order to adjust to the death of a loved one. In order to gain understanding of these processes from the individual�s point of view, I used interpretive phenomenological analysis, which resulted in identifying meaning making strategies, contents, ways of coping, social norms and beliefs and self and group change associated to loss. The results could be useful in developing an in-depth understanding and developing non-pathologizing counseling models for grief.

KEYWORDS: grief, meaning making, coping, phenomenological analysis.