Nacogdoches counselor says incarcerated youths could benefit from grief treatment

ANGELINA COUNTY, Texas (KTRE) - A new study found focusing more on grief treatment can help incarcerated adolescents and young adults.

The same type of therapy can ultimately improve behavior, which can keep them from jail. The study on grief-focused treatment was conducted by the American Psychological Association’s journal-it was aimed to reduce grief and prevent violent behavior in young adults.

The study states that most incarcerated youths reportedly lost a close loved one, and 70 percent of those youths lost two or more.

“Those experiences of grief loss and trauma have actually led to some of the behaviors that have caused incarceration, and then the non-adaptive emotions and behavior and cognitions that follow that,” Dr. Amanda Pruit of the Nacogdoches Counseling Services said.

Pruit said grief and trauma are often repressed.

“There’s an inability to process through the experience, and that it creates this kind of stored memory in a dysfunctional way, and they after leaving that experience there are certain things that can trigger that feeling.”

She said that processing that trauma and then storing those memories in a functional way will improve that person’s life. Pruit explained that community help and resources can be beneficial.

“Where we really need to get is way prior to that in order to avoid the incarceration in the first place which the behaviors are more than likely a trauma response and that comes down to community level intervention,” said Pruit.

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