In the News
When People Go Missing, Devastated Families are Left Behind
But an upcoming weekend in Omaha will bring them a long way toward healing
By David Lohr
ID. Investigation - Discovery Channel
July 27, 2010
When a child or adult goes missing, we may see media coverage in the day or so following, but when the searches stop and the TV cameras have departed, there is a family left in the wake of the disappearance.
An upcoming weekend gathering, The Project Jason 2010 Keys to Healing Retreat, will offer a number of classes to teach families of the missing ways to take care of themselves emotionally and physically. They will come to understand how feelings of guilt, fear, and anger are normal, and how trauma impacts the body and brain, and how to counteract it.
One of the trainers is Duane Bowers, the foremost expert on the psychology of having an adult or child go missing.
“He understands the missing component,” said one of last year’s attendees, a woman whose husband was missing. “You can’t find that anywhere, I’ve researched, and you can’t find a counselor that knows what the families of the missing go through.
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Shattered: After public moves on, families of missing left wondering about what happened to their loved ones
By Lois Collins
Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah
July 11, 2010
There is a vocabulary unique to the missing, and it's very unlike that used when comforting those who have lost someone to death, says Duane Bowers, who is a national expert on families where someone has vanished.
You speak in terms of "grief" and "loss" at your peril, says the trauma loss expert. The families of the missing will reject you. It's "missing" and "separated." Hope may be all they have. They don't want "closure," although they pine for "resolution."
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