Do clients really talk to dead people?
In this study, I interviewed twenty-one social workers about how they dealt with clients who felt they’d had what the literature called an “ideonecrophic experience (IE).” Three of these social workers were still in school, and the others averaged 12 and a half years of experience in the field. The responses shared by the students were almost identical to those shared by the MSWs. These social workers had worked with IEs experienced by: • schoolchildren, • people in both individual and group therapy, • people in therapy for grief-related issues, • people who were not particularly addressing grief-related issues, • people who were in the process of dying, and • clients who were seen in private practice, medical settings, and social service agencies. These clients shared the following kinds of experiences: • Felt Presence. By far the most frequent experience reported by social workers was the felt presence of the deceased. “…she absolutely felt her daughter’s presence right there in th
In this study, I interviewed twenty-one social workers about how they dealt with clients who felt they’d had what the literature called an “ideonecrophic experience (IE).” Three of these social workers were still in school, and the others averaged 12 and a half years of experience in the field. The responses shared by the students were almost identical to those shared by the MSWs. These social workers had worked with IEs experienced by: • schoolchildren, • people in both individual and group therapy, • people in therapy for grief-related issues, • people who were not particularly addressing grief-related issues, • people who were in the process of dying, and • clients who were seen in private practice, medical settings, and social service agencies. These clients shared the following kinds of experiences: • Felt Presence. By far the most frequent experience reported by social workers was the felt presence of the deceased. “…she absolutely felt her daughter’s presence right there in th
