Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The first year following a loss is a period in which appraisals of the loss are formed, and in which those appraisals may consolidate in ways that later resist revision. Existing therapeutic approaches address distinct cognitive, emotional, relational, and existential aspects of grief. However, comparatively limited attention has been given to their integration within a common framework and to the explicit conceptualization of cultural meaning systems within grief-related appraisals. This article proposes the Savaş ECB-Grief model (Early Cognitive-Behavioral model for grief), a theory-driven framework in which five therapeutic approaches are organized around Beck's appraisal chain the appraisal is formed (Beck; Boelen), given content (Neimeyer), framed within an account of existence (Yalom), remains unvoiced (James and Friedman), or is voiced (Rosenberg). A sixth dimension, cultural and spiritual, is of a different order: it is the level at which the work of the preceding five is reassembled into a form the bereaved person's community can recognize. Developed within Turkish-Islamic mourning culture, the model treats religious meaning—kader, sabr, tevekkül—as the material of appraisal rather than as an obstacle to it, and specifies the conditions under which such meaning enables grief and those under which it forecloses it. A five-stage cycle is proposed as a conceptual account of how these dimensions may become clinically relevant over the course of early grief. The model originates in the author's grief counseling practice and is presented here without empirical evaluation.
DOI: 10.33417/tsh.1841869
Author: Esra Savaş
Institution: Yeditepe University
Language: Turkish
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7223862029