Effects of Induced After-Death Communication on Grief: A Randomized, Controlled Intervention Study

Abstract

Although most transpersonal experiences—those that transcend the usual personal limits of space, time, or identify—are spontaneous, some counseling/psychotherapy approaches have involved the facilitation of such experiences during actual sessions. One such approach is Induced After-Death Communication (IADC) for grief, in which the therapist helps the client process the core sadness of the grief, after which a majority of clients experience after-death communication with the person the client is grieving, that is, some sense of the presence of, and information transfer from the disembodied person. In a recent randomized controlled study at the University of North Texas, in which we compared IADC to traditional talk therapy for grief, IADC clients showed greater improvement overall on grief symptoms and both statistically and practically significant improvement on certain symptoms. In this presentation I’ll report on the study, describe spontaneous transpersonal phenomena that IADC therapists should be prepared to experience, and provide time for question and answer with the audience.

At the end of the presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Explain the discovery and development of IADC, along with preliminary research on it,
2. Describe the method and results of a randomized, controlled study comparing the effects of IADC vs.traditional talk therapy on grief symptoms, and
3. Describe possible spontaneous experiences in addition to IADC for which IADC practitioners should be prepared.

Presenter Bio

Janice Miner Holden grew up in the northwest Chicago suburbs. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology with honors from the University of Illinois, she taught high school psychology for 11 years and was a high school counselor for one year while she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in counselor education at Northern Illinois University. Since completing her EdD in 1988, she has been a member of the University of North Texas (UNT) Counseling Program faculty where she served 10 years as chair of the Department of Counseling & Higher Education and is currently professor of Counseling. Beginning with her doctoral dissertation, Dr. Holden’s primary research focus has been counseling implications of near-death experiences, after-death communication, and other transpersonal experiences—those that transcend the usual personal limits of space, time, and identity. In this research area she has over 50 refereed journal publications and over 100 national and international presentations. She served as lead editor of the 2009 Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation, and she co-edited the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling’s (ASERVIC’s) 2017 Connecting Soul, Spirit, Mind, and Body: A Collection of Spiritual and Religious Perspectives and Practices in Counseling. Among her professional service was three years as president of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, and since 2008 she has served as editor-in-chief of that association’s scholarly Journal of Near-Death Studies. She is a Texas Licensed Professional Counselor-Supervisor, a National Certified Counselor, and an American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences (ACISTE [pronounced “assist”]) Certified Mental Health Professional. For her career-long research on and advocacy for people who have had transpersonal experiences, Jan was awarded ASERVIC’s 2013 Research Award and the American Counseling Association’s 2015 Gilbert and Kathleen Wrenn Award for a Humanitarian and Caring Person. For her outstanding and sustained contributions to scholarly-creative activity, teaching, and service, Jan received the UNT Foundation’s 2019 Eminent Faculty Award, one of the highest faculty achievements whose recipient serves as an inspiration for the entire UNT community.