Jared Becknell, in fulfilling the requirements for a PhD in Counselor Education & Supervision, Antioch University Seattle, has written and published a dissertation titled, Memento Mori: A Photo-Elicit Narrative Analysis on Grief.
Becknell conducts a photo-elicitation narrative analysis to examine how bereaved people engage grief by preserving and relating to artifacts from deceased loved ones. Using participant-selected images and stories, he maps practices of reconnection—curation, display, ritual use, and shared narration—and demonstrates how these acts sustain continuing bonds, support identity repair, and aid daily coping. He critiques symptom-focused grief models common in counselor training and argues for a pedagogy that centers meaning-making and relational maintenance. The study advances counselor education with concrete recommendations: integrate artifact-based interventions, teach narrative methods that privilege client authorship, expand supervision rubrics to recognize culturally situated mourning, and prepare counselors to welcome reconnection rather than pathologize it.
Becknell is a counselor educator and clinician based in Alaska. He works with children, adolescents, and families facing trauma, substance use, sexual abuse recovery and prevention, severe mental health concerns, and grief. His practice foregrounds postmodern, narrative therapy approaches that invite clients to re-author identities around values and strengths. He also contributes to community mental health and training initiatives that expand access to care.
Read and download Becknell’s dissertation, Memento Mori: A Photo-Elicit Narrative Analysis on Grief, here.
