ABSTRACT
The visual image of the reenactment of a violent dying may become an agonizing icon of terror and helplessness for bereaved loved ones. This chapter draws upon an illustrative case and explains a particular method to modify and ameliorate traumatic death imagery. The Counting Method has four distinct phases. First, the author discusses the method, reviews how and why it could help, and schedules a session at a time that suited her and that came after sue had made some progress in therapy. Second, the author counts to 100 while she allowed herself to remember the worst of the traumatic experience, closing with the comfort of seeing Alex at peace, touching him, and walking from funeral to cemetery in the sun. Third, the author recounts what she remembered and concludes that, by the law of parsimony, the Counting Method is simplest and therefore preferable.
