Our Prolonged Grief treatment program offers individual therapy for people who have experienced the death of a loved one more than 12 months ago and continue to experience intense grief reactions that cause distress and interfere with their ability to complete daily tasks.

This treatment program is offered as part of a clinical research trial. The government has funded our Clinic with research grants to investigate treatments for prolonged grief reactions. These research grants enable us to provide a free and specialist service.

To be eligible for this treatment program, you need to meet the following criteria:

  • You must have experienced the death of a loved one,

  • You need to have experienced prolonged-grief reactions for longer than 12 months after your loss, and

  • You must be able to comprehend and speak English. 

Treatment will involve 11 weekly one-on-one sessions with an experienced Clinical Psychologist, each lasting approximately 90 minutes. We are providing assessments and therapy in our clinics at UNSW Randwick and at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research or via videoconferencing for people who cannot attend one of our clinics.

What is the treatment?

Our Prolonged Grief treatment program is based on the best available evidence from clinical trials. International studies have shown that Grief-Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is the treatment of choice, and more successful than other forms of psychotherapy or antidepressants. It involves recalling memories of the deceased in particular ways because this has been shown to lead to better mastery of these memories and reduced distress. It also teaches coping skills to manage the loss, and allows the person to develop new skills to manage life. CBT does not aim to abolish a person’s grief because it is appropriate to grieve those we love. Instead, CBT strives to help a person manage the loss and the emotions that have been painful in a helpful manner so they can live a more fulfilled life and not be stuck in the past. 

The current study aims to determine if we can improve current CBT by comparing the gold standard CBT with the same treatment that is combined with imagery work and skills training in how to develop positive mood. We expect both treatments to effectively help people with Prolonged Grief. Eligible participants will be randomly allocated by chance to our gold standard Grief- focused CBT or Grief-focused CBT plus these additional components.

  • You are welcome to contact our Clinic by phone or email. We will then walk you through an over-the-phone intake process to determine whether our treatment programs will be suitable for your needs. You will be asked some questions about your loss and how it is affecting you. This conversation should take approximately 30 minutes.

    If we think this program is right for you, we will proceed with a full assessment and then commence the program.

    You can find more information about our enrolment process and waitlist here.

  • If you need treatment but you are unsure whether this program will be appropriate for you, please feel free to contact us for further information or referral options.

More information about prolonged grief can be found here.

Note. This study is ethically approved by the UNSW Human Research Ethics Committee (HC230222).