The Impact of Story-Telling Group Experience on Survivors of Suicide

[[abstract]]AbstractThe major purpose of this study was to explore the impact of story-telling group experience on survivors of suicide, and to investigate what were those influence and what were those impact factors. A qualitative study method and the discovery -oriented method were designed for the study. Thirteen participants from two groups participated in this study. By using semi-structured in-depth interview, participants were interviewed individually both in the middle and at the end of the groups for data collection, and then content analysis was applied for data analysis. The findings were as follows:1. Fourteen categories of healing factors perceived by participants were: (1) Similarity of members ; (2) Group norms ; (3) Group cohesiveness ; (4) Humor ; (5) Install hope ; (6) Leader and interventions ; (7) Catharsis and emotional expression ; (8) Observational learning ; (9) Extended cognition ; (10) Mirroring ; (11) Self-awareness ; (12) Practice / interpersonal learning ; (13) Altruistic ; (14) Change in the group framework.2. The influence of group experiences on healing of grief were seven aspects, as follows: (1) Emotional aspect: reducing negative emotion, catharsis and release, reducing for fear of suicide, increasing emotional coping ; (2) Cognitive aspect: increasing knowledge of diseases, suicide and grief related issues, deepening thinking about the issue of suicide and death, enhancing multiple perspectives, and reducing suicidal ideation, change thoughts about bereavement and grief, emerging and affirming conviction ; (3) Behavior aspect: learn to accompany grievers, resulting in transfer of learning ; (4) Physiological aspect: curing of skin symptoms ; (5) Self aspect: practice of self expression and be myself, professionals as a griever obtained experiences and professional learning, and enhancing autonomy ; (6) Interpersonal aspect: exploring separation anxiety of intimate relationships, better understanding and had empathy for the grief of one’s own families, confronting the unfinished business with the deceased, beginning to establish new relationships ; (7) Spiritual aspect: changes in attitude towards life, and transforming grief.Finally, conclusions and suggestions were made both for further study and for practitioners in grief counseling.Keywords: suicide survivor, group counseling, story narrative, bereavement, membe