Jodi Wellman’s scientific contributions

The practice of memento mori– acting on the Latin phrase that translates to “remember we must die,” has the profound potential to wake us up and breathe more life into our lives. While focusing on the end of our days may sound more morbid than meaningful, the contemplation of death allows us to appreciate the scarcity of the very time we’re looking to make the most of. In a world consumed with expanding the length of our lives, cultivating a more intimate familiarity with death can help us expand the metaphoric width and depth of our lives as well. We make our lives wider when we fill them with vitality and gusto– expanding the breadth of the pleasurable experiences that life has to offer while blasting us out of our autopilot tendencies. We make our lives deeper when we infuse them with meaning and purpose– elevating ourselves out of empty or mundane existences into lives that feel like they matter. This capstone explores how the field of positive psychology, with its dialectical appreciation of the positive and negative phenomena in life, is uniquely poised to explore the traditionally taboo topic of death. With the heft of all its theory, research, and practice, existential positive psychology encourages us to courageously confront death to live with more meaning and vitality... to pursue lives truly worth living.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States and second leading cause of death for persons aged 10–34. This population, known as suicide survivors, needs special support as they are often socially isolated and stigmatized, and likely to experience post-traumatic stress symptoms that can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Survivors of Suicide Loss (SOSL) was founded in 1981 to meet the unique needs of the suicide survivor community, evolving from a single support group into an organization now serving the greater San Diego area. However, the programs of suicide support and prevention that SOSL facilitates do not address post-traumatic growth (PTG), the positive psychological changes experienced as a result of adversity and challenge. We recommend a facilitator training program called Grief to Growth that will enable SOSL staff and volunteers to teach participants concepts, skills and interventions that will encourage flourishing through four components of PTG: personal strengths, relationships, meaning and an appreciation for life, and new possibilities. We believe that a 10-module program addressing these PTG factors will encourage personal growth toward greater flourishing in participants. We suggest measuring results through administering the PTGI scale before and after program participation.