Abstract: |
Meaning-making is a core human activity, learned and practiced in childhood and adolescence as we become independent narrators of our own identities, which then manifest in our choices and commitments. Difficult experiences such as cancer may disrupt a sense of continuity of self or result in disconnection from sources of meaning. This is distressing for a patient of any age, but for adolescents and young adults, it may go beyond a sense of loss to actually feeling "lost" and affect the very process of identity development. Through meaning- and identity-centered techniques, psychotherapists working with adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer may support the reconstruction of a cohesive, stable sense of meaning and self that transcends illness and even death, the most human of limitations. Developmental considerations and adjustments, based in the understanding of normal and disrupted identity development and recent work with AYAs with cancer, make this work possible and impactful. More research is needed to standardize and validate this developmental adaptation and support dissemination to reach a larger population of AYAs with cancer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved) |