Divorce and Loss: Helping Adults and Children Mourn When a Marriage Comes Apart places loss and mourning at the center of the divorce experience and details how therapists can facilitate mourning through individual therapy and through interventions with parents. The book offers detailed clinical vignettes to illuminate family members reactions to divorce and to highlight interventions. Ehrlich also explores how failures of mourning in response to divorce create difficulties for people, including bitter, high-conflict divorces. He examines how therapists can intervene more effectively with difficult divorces and avoid ethical and clinical pitfalls. In addition, the book examines the very strong feelings that divorce elicits in therapists and how to deal with these constructively.

Joshua Ehrlich, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst who works with children, adolescents, and adults in his practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is an adjunct clinical instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan as well as a faculty member at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute.

TABLE OF CONTENTSAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPART I: DIVORCE AND MOURNING: CHALLENGES FOR CHILDREN AND PARENTSChapter 1: The Losses in DivorceChapter 2: MourningChapter 3: Failures of MourningChapter 4: Breakdowns in Connection Between Parents and Children Around DivorceChapter 5: Entanglement with the Ex-Spouse: Its Impact on ChildrenChapter 6: The Effects on Adolescents of Parents Difficulties Navigating DivorcePART II: INTERVENING: HOW THERAPISTS CAN FACILITATE MOURNINGChapter 7: Bearing Feelings, Facilitating MourningChapter 8: Working with Parents Together to Help ChildrenChapter 9: Helping Parents Bridge the Divide with their ChildrenChapter 10: Working with the High-Conflict DivorceChapter 11: Individual Therapy with Children and Adolescents Dealing with DivorceChapter 12: Individual Therapy with AdultsReferencesAbout the Author