Mr. and Mrs. Jensen brought their 15-year-old daughter, Karena,
to PARTNERS after their 17-year-old son Trevor died from a car
accident. “I never thought my pain would end, let alone
Karena’s,” Ms. Jensen said.
Karena had witnessed her brother being hit by the car. She said, “I
knew my mom and dad were having a hard time dealing with it, I
thought it would just burden them to know what I was going through,
all of the thoughts and pictures I couldn’t get out of my
mind. The best part of PARTNERS was getting to talk to my
parents about everything that happened. Even though it was
hard at the time, it was also such a relief.”
The Jensens expressed that they benefited from the parent component
of PARTNERS therapy. “We both needed to learn ways to deal
with our own pain so that we could help Karena. It was great
to know she was learning with our therapist, too. I felt like
it took some of the pressure off of us. When we did talk
about Trevor’s death, we were ready and could support her the way
we needed to. It meant so much to me that our therapist also
was interested in helping us maintain our relationship with Trevor,
and incorporated our spiritual views along the way. I
actually had fun sharing our favorite pictures and stories as we
put together our memory book! I cherish that book and the
memories it represents. I am so thankful to the PARTNERS
program for helping our family come together to work through this
difficult time.”
As a therapist working with this family, I was amazed by their
resilience and strength as a family unit. Their care for each
other shone through in their commitment to learn new ways to manage
their feelings and to try things that can be scary at first, such
as talking about Trevor’s death. I feel honored to have
shared in their family traditions, learned their stories, and seen
pictures of their loved ones. PARTNERS allowed us all to have
a very rewarding experience in the Jensen family’s process of
healing.