Death, dying and bereavement education for MFT trainers in California

Research shows that counseling students receive relatively little death, dying, and bereavement (DDB) education from the graduate programs in which they are enrolled. This trend has been observed across many disciplines within the health care field, despite research findings that show DDB education positively influences students' DDB knowledge, attitudes and competency when working with individuals facing DDB related challenges. In this study, masters level graduating marriage and family therapy trainees (MFTTs) were surveyed in order to examine their DDB education and training experiences, as well as their knowledge of grief related phenomena, and interest in working with bereaved clients; their perceived competency in their ability to do so effectively was also investigated. In addition, accredited masters level marriage and family therapy (MFT) programs were surveyed in order to determine the amount of DDB education currently offered to MFTTs within that graduate program. All data were collected in the state of California using three surveys created for this study, the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (Faschingbauer, Zisook, DeVaul, 1987), and the Grief Counseling Experience and Training Survey (Deffenbaugh, 2008). Results showed that masters level MFT programs offered relatively low amounts of DDB education; MFTTs reported similar deficits. Predictions that MFTTs possess little knowledge of grief-related phenomena and low perceived competency in working with bereaved clients were partially supported. The expectation that MFTTs would report low interest in counseling bereaved clients was not supported. The hypothesized positive relationships between MFTTs' interest in providing bereavement counseling, and their grief knowledge, DDB education and training, and perceived competency in working with bereaved clients were not supported by study findings. Study strengths and limitations, implications of study findings, and directions for future research are also discussed.