The Web site for Pauline Boss, Ph.D.
Haiti and Ambiguous Loss
To all mental health professionals and clergy working with relatives and friends of the missing in Haiti:
At the risk of sounding self serving, I want to say that the book, Loss, Trauma and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss, provides guidelines for therapists working with people who have missing family members. It is a family and community based/ resilience approach. For those of you who are or will be working with Haitians with missing loved ones and no body to bury, the book provides guidelines to help with this unique traumatic loss. As a group of us in NYC learned after 9/11, working with island immigrant families of missing labor union workers, traditional grief and trauma therapies are insufficient. We held community meetings of multiple families and those without families, and healing occurred in ways I never studied. In the book above, I describe how we did this so that others can do the same when so many need help. While I am glad that I have spent a lifetime studying ambiguous loss and doing this kind of therapy, I am deeply saddened that it so often occurs.
Pauline Boss
To order Loss, Trauma, and Resilience (Norton, 2006), go to:
DESCRIPTION, REVIEWS and ORDER INFORMATION
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
March 19, 2010
Ackerman Institute for the Family
New York City
Workshop - "Complicated Grief and Ambiguous Loss: A Relational Approach
to Resiliency When There is No Resolution"
For more information, click here.
June 23-26, 2010
American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA)
Boulder, Colorado
Speaker - "In the Absence of Presence: The Relational Complications of Ambiguous
Loss & Co-Chair - Ambiguous Loss Interest Group
For more information, click here.
June 21 - 25, 2011
Association for Death Education & Counseling/International Conference on
Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society
Keynote speaker - date and topic to be announced
Miami, Florida
Books Available
Loss, Trauma, and Resilience, W. W. Norton, 2006
Ambiguous Loss, Harvard University Press, 1999
Family Stress, Classic and Contemporary Readings, Sage Publications, 2003
Family Stress Management, Sage Publications, 2002
HYPERLINK tto DESCRIPTION, REVIEWS and ORDER INFORMTION
The Ambiguous Loss Endowment
The Boss MN-NY Ambiguous Loss Endowment was intitated at the University of Minnesota after the tragic events of 9/11. While there is a generous amount in this endowment, our vision now is to increase this fund to create a permanent faculty position--an endowed chair--in ambiguous loss. To accomplish this goal will require fundraising in the amount of at least $1 million.
This chair will assure that the work of Dr. Boss will go forward in the training of new scholars in this critical area. The College of Education and Human Development and the Department of Family Social Science support this project as a high priority.
For more information on this project, or to make a gift, please contact Lynn Slifer, Director of External Relations at the College of Education and Human Development, 612-625-5511, slife001@umn.edu, or click on www.giving. umn.edu and follow the link to online giving. Your may also mail a check (made out to the UM Foundation--Boss Endowment) directly to the following address: University of Minnesota Foundation, CM-3854, PO Box 70870, St. Paul, MN 55170-3854.
Recent Presentations/Articles/Interviews/News
Boss, P. (2009). The Trauma and Complicated Grief of Ambiguous Loss. Pastoral Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:
10.1007/s11089-009-0264-0. Go to: http://www.springerlink.com/content/y161224247v4712w/
Dunn, S. (2009, January). When the Roof Falls In. O, The Oprah Magazine.
Go to http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/200901_omag_change_happens
Boss, P. (2008, September). Family focus on . . . Adoption: Rethinking adoptions that dissolve: What we need to know about research, practice, policies--and attitudes. National Council on Family Relations Report, FF39, F5-F7, F19. For more information, go to http://www.ncfr.org/.
The Measurement of Boundary Ambiguity in Families (Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, 1990) manual by Pauline Boss, Jan. R. Greenberg, and Debra Pearce-McCall is now available online. Go to http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/familydevelopment/DE3763.html.
Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methods by Pauline Boss, William J. Doherty, Ralph LaRossa, Walter R. Schumm, and Suzanne K. Steinmetz is now available in softcover (Springer, 2009). For more information, go to http://www.springer.com/psychology/counseling/book/978-0-387-85763.
Boss, P. (2007). Guest Editor, Ambiguous Loss and Boundary Ambiguity [Special Issue]. Family Relations, 56(2).
Ambiguous Loss Theory: Challenges for Scholars and Practitioners. Family Relations, 56(2), pages 105-11 For more information, go to http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117997763/issue
May 31, 2008
A Tribute, Not a Memorial: Understanding Ambiguous Loss
Dr. Boss' Tribute to Honor Jim Gray
University of California, Berkeley
HYPERLINK to webcast and podcast
(You will be leaving this Web site.)
Quinn, M. (2008, May 30). Berkeley Event to Honor Missing Scientist Jim Gray
Los Angeles Times
HYPERLINK to Los Angeles Times article
(You will be leaving this Web site.)
Calvert, S. (2008, May 25). Then Came Closure:
Tooth Found in Vietnam Ends Years of Doubt for Missing Md. Man's Family
Baltimore Sun
HYPERLINK to article
Fact Sheet: Caregiving and Ambiguous Loss
This fact sheet was prepared by Family Caregiver Alliance in cooperation with California's Caregiver Resource Centers. Written by Pauline Boss for Family Caregiver Alliance
HYPERLINK to Fact Sheet
(You will be leaving this Web site.)
Nancy Gonzalez's Blog: The N=1 Experiment, National Council on Family Relations (2008, February 4)
The Other Problem That had No Name--Ambiguous Loss
(You will be leaving this Web site.)
Morris, R. (2007, October 21). How Do Families Mourn Loved Ones They're Not Sure Are Really Gone?
Seattle Times
HYPERLINK TO Seattle Times article
(You will be leaving this Web site.)
Levine, B. (2007, October 2). Time Out: De-stress Your Family By Figuring
Out What Really Matters. Woman's Day, p. 72.
How To Live With Loss
MPR's Midday Show with Gary Eichten
August 14, 2007, 11 a.m.
Interview with Dr. Boss regarding the I-35W bridge collapse
HYPERLINK TO AUDIO INTERVIEW
(You will be leaving this Web site.)
Budd, A. (Summer, 2007). Pauline Boss: Charting Life After Loss. Connect, p. 14.
HYPERLINK: http://www.education.umn.edu/Pubs/Connect/2007summer/Boss.html
(You will be leaving this Web site.)
Black, H. (Spring, 2007). Coping With Ambiguous Loss. On Wisconsin Magazine. p. 52
HYPERLINK: www.uwalumni.com/media/images/photography/onwisconsin/pdf/Spring07ANews.pdf
(You will be leaving this Web site.)
Russo, Francine. (2005, November 27). The Empty Seat. Time Magazine.
(You will be leaving this Web site.)
Recent Speaking Engagements
April 18, 2008
"New Hope With Ambiguous Loss, Caring for a Loved One With Memory Loss"
Western Michigan Brain Injury Network -
"Touching the Spirit" Symposium
Grand Rapids, Michigan
May 8, 2008
"Dealing with Ambiguous Loss"
Third Annual Black Hills Brain Injury Conference
Rapid City, South Dakota
May 14, 2008
"Ambiguous Loss: Loss, Trauma, and Resilience"
St. Paul Senior Workers Assocation Spring Conference
St. Paul, Minnesota
May 16, 2008
"Helping Staff and Families Work With People Suffering Memory Loss"
Presbyterian Homes and Services
Annual DOVE (Dementia Orientation Values and Education) Retreat
Presbyterian Homes and Services, McKenna Crossing
13810 Shepherd's Path
Prior Lake, Minnesota
May 31, 2008
"A Tribute, Not a Memorial: Understanding Ambiguous Loss"
Tribute to Honor Jim Gray
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California
HYPERLINK: http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu:80/IPRO/JimGrayTribute
(You will be leaving this Web site.)
June 11, 2008
"Finding Meaning and Hope in Ambiguity and Loss"
Mental Health Summit II
Biloxi, Mississippi
September 24, 2008
Northern Plains Conference on Aging and Disability
Opening Keynote Speaker - "Finding Hope in Ambiguous Loss"
Fargo, North Dakota
September 27, 2008
"Ambiguous Loss: Living With the Unknown"
Phi Upsilon Omicron Conclave 2008
Embassy Suites Minneapolis Airport
Minneapolis, Minnesota
November 8, 2008, 8 pm
"Talk back" by Dr. Pauline Boss, Ph.D.
after performance of Forgetting, a
play by Trista Baldwin.
Playwrights' Center Waring Jones Theatre
2301 Franklin Avenue East
Minneapolis, Minnesota
November 12-13, 2008
Washington State Family Policy Council Partners' Summit
Great Wolf Lodge
Grand Mound, Washington
Wednesday, Nov. 12, 3:30 - 5 pm - "What Is Home" workshop
Thursday, Nov. 13, 8 a.m. - Keynote Address: "Ambigous Loss: A Family- and Community-Based Approach for Research and Intervention."
January 22, 2009, 9:15 am - 5:15 pm
"Loss, Trauma, and Resilience: A Family and Commnity Approach
to Ambiguous Loss"
Ausbildungs Institute, Melien (Zurich), Switzerland
January 22, 2009, 6:30 pm
Dr. Boss will read from her book, the recently released German translation
of Loss, Trauma, and Resilience ( original publication-Norton, 2006; translation-Klett-Clotta, 2008)
Schaffhauserstrasse 239, 8050
Zurich, Switzerland
Click here for more information.
February 11, 2009, 4:40-6:10 pm
"Abnormal Grief"
University of Minnesota Public Health Class 3040/6040 -
Dying and Death in Contemporary Society
3-125 Mayo Building
Minneapolis, MN
(Open to registered students.)
March 24, 2009, 1-4 pm
"Staying Connected Despite Mild Cognitive Impairment
and Related Disorders: Applying Ambiguous Loss Theory"
(Co-presenting with Faten Khoury)
Minnesota Social Service Association (MSSA)
116th Annual Training Conference & Expo--How Do You Like Us Now?
Sheraton Bloomington Hotel
Bloomington, MN
For more information, click here.
May 14, 2009
8:45 - 9:45 am - Keynote Address -"Loss Without Closure: Coping with the Ambiguous Loss of Someone Being Here-- But Not Here the Way They Used to Be."
10 - 11:30 am, 1:15 - 2:45 pm - Breakout sessions
Clinical Forum on Mental Health
Seven Seas Inn & Convention Center
Mandan, ND
For more information, click here.
June 7, 2009
Chair, Panel Discussion - "Family Stress, Traumatic/Ambiguous Loss, and
Resilience: Family Therapy Interventions"
Groves' 75th Anniversary: Celebrating Groves Conference: 75 Years of Future
Research, Theory, and Practice.
Chapel Hill, NC
For more information, click here.
June 25-26, 2009
American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA) Annual Meeting - Systemic
Response and Recovery to Disaster
Ambiguous Loss Interest Group--June 25, 10:45 am - 12:15 pm
Community Day Participant, Cultural Ambiguous Loss--June 26, 1:30 - 3 pm
New Orleans, Louisiana
For more information, click here.
September 14, 2009
Andreae Lecture Address
Alzheimer Society of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario
For more information, contact: Alzheimer Society of Toronto, 20 Eglinton Ave. West, 16th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M4R 1K8, 416.322.6560, or click here.
February 12, 2010
Pathways to Resilience
Sponsored by James A. Haley VA Hospital & the
American Red Cross-Tampa Bay Chapter
Embassy Suites, Tampa, Florida
Keynote Speaker - "Ambiguous Loss, Trauma, and Resiliency:
Working Together for the Polytrauma Patient"
(Open by invitation only to familes and staff.)