Poetic Renarration of Disenfranchised Grief in Relation to Client Suicide

Abstract

The three poetically renarrated accounts presented below arise from data collected as part of a qualitative exploration of therapists' experiences of disenfranchised grief in relation to the suicidal deaths of their clients. The first poem encapsulates the raw emotions experienced by one of the participants, Murray, in relation to his client's death. The second and third poems reflect upon the ways in which his experiences were subsequently silenced by his client's widow and by his broader personal and professional contexts. As will become quickly apparent, by revisiting and recasting the original narrative data through a poetic lens, a richer and more palpable means of understanding the impact of client suicide on therapists is offered than that provided by conventional narrative text.