ABSTRACT
Marriage and Family Therapists must sift through a diverse number of challenges in their work with clients as social dynamics and religious associations continue to shift in the twenty first century (Twenge, Sherman, Exline, & Grubbs, 2016). These changes pose a special kind of opportunity to consider what areas may be lacking in knowledge and application in family systems internationally.
One particular area of focus is to what degree family therapists experience challenges related to social dynamics and culture, including religion, are in the areas of loss and grief. This chapter explores existential questions relevant to contemporary family therapy practice in a near-to chaplaincy situation. This chapter suggests that the integration of psychoanalytic thought and philosophy may assist in filling the necessary gaps needed for the effective care of the people they serve through considering an object relations perspective in the treatment of families and exploring the diversity of the human experience in pondering death.
