Over the past 22 years, William E. Piper and colleagues have developed and tested two models for treating complicated grief (CG) with short-term group therapy. Extensive randomized, controlled clinical trials have demonstrated significantly higher effect sizes for the model treatments than other CG treatments, including individual therapy approaches.

This book begins with a meticulous, comprehensive review of research related to CG, including prevalence, risk factors, effects of patient characteristics and group composition on therapeutic outcome, and mechanisms of change in group therapies for CG. The chapters also describe how the two models were developed and tested. Finally, the book explains how to administer the models, including assessing patients, forming groups, preparing group members for treatment, and running and terminating the group.