When we experience the death of someone who is central to our lives, the once familiar grounding of our existence can be shaken and sometimes shattered, calling into question our world assumptions, our bond with our loved one, and even our sense of who we are and where we are going.  Viewed through the lens of meaning, grieving therefore presents us with not only painful and often preoccupying symptoms of distress, but also profound challenges to the significance of our everyday lives and the security of our core beliefs and spiritual commitments. 

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In this 2-day workshop, we distinguish between adaptive grieving and its more anguishing and prolonged forms, and review evidence-based risk factors for prolonged grief disorder.  We further consider tragic loss as a crisis of meaning, opening the door to the application of a great range of creative techniques to process the story of the loss, the back story of our relation to the deceased, and our self-narratives of who we are and are becoming.  Case studies, clinical videos and hands-on practice with tools for assessment and intervention will help learners engage the biopsychosocial challenges of grief, as well as their broader and deeper spiritual implications.

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Describe the multifaceted manifestation of grief reactions, both adaptive and complicated

• Conceptualize the impacts of loss using the Tripartite Model of Meaning Reconstruction

• Identify high-risk griever profiles through an integrative assessment framework

• Bridge from research on spiritual distress in bereavement to practical interventions to promote mourner resilience and even psycho-spiritual growth

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GRIEF COUNSELLING TOPICS COVERED

• What Colour Is My Grief?  Common Grief Reactions and Their Determinants

• Making Sense of Loss:  A Meaning-Focused Approach 

• The Toll of Bereavement:  Evaluating Grief-Related Functional Impairment

• Prolonged Grief Disorder:  Conceptualization and Diagnosis

• Complicated Spiritual Grief:  Assessment and Intervention