Grief as a Transformative Experience: Weaving Through Different Lifeworlds After a Loved one has Completed Suicide

Using Heidegger’s hermeneutic phenomenology informed by van Manen & Benner’s work, this research is an exploration & interpretation of the lived experiences of survivors since the suicide of a close family member. Data from in-depth interviews with 6 participants, the author’s journal entries, & published literature were analysed. Findings gave rise to grief model where survivors moved through 4 modes of being-in-the-world characterized by 13 lifeworlds or themes. Surviving suicide was a transformative process that in time enabled survivors to discover new ways of understanding & relating to the world. (44 refs.)