The Legacy of Unresolved Loss

Video: MONICA MCGOLDRICK’S THERAPY WITH A REMARRIED FAMILY

Considered by many to be the best clinical videotape in the family therapy field

“Monica McGoldrick has a gift for making the complex look simple. She packs into the eight sessions recreated on the Legacy of Unresolved Loss issues of gender, ethnicity, remarriage, teenage rebellion, step-parenting, and more. She does nothing fancy, nothing tricky, but at the end of this video you’re seen a master at work.”
— Olga Silverstein, M.S.W., Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy.
Monica McGoldrick is a pioneering voice for our understanding of how families’ respond to loss. In this dramatic recreation of key moments in the 18-week course of therapy, we see how the teenage daughter’s rebellious behavior masks unresolved loss across three generations of family members. McGoldrick’s interactions with this family, further illuminated by her commentary, offer step-by-step guidance in how to: use genograms to assess patterns of unresolved loss; assign homework & prescribe rituals that help families mourn their losses; evaluate how culture and gender impact a family’s ability to cope with loss; achieve therapeutic goals by combining family, individual and couple sessions. The accompanying viewer’s manual offers extensive information on McGoldrick’s treatment model, including concrete applications of the genogram for assessment and intervention, and a session-by-session review of the therapy case.