Re-composing the Self & System: Composition Work in the Wake of Loss

As the bereaved struggle to find new meaning and re-construct their lives following loss, they can benefit from exploring how this major life transition shifted or shattered their personal and relational identity, and from projecting a new configuration of a changed self in a similarly reconfigured family and social system. This module introduces Composition Work, a […]

Loss of Another, Loss of Self

As Thomas Attig might phrase it, grieving entails relearning the self and relearning the world, because both are challenged and changed by the significant loss of an intimate other.  In such cases, we may be deprived of crucial relationships that anchor our sense of who we are, lose parts of ourselves sustained by the attachment […]

Trauma-Informed Approach: Journaling and Embodied Dialogue

Adaptive grieving implies integrating the loss into our changed sense of who we are, as well as into the changed story of our lives.  In this module we consider two techniques for helping mourners discern the deeper significance of their experience, and in doing so identify the important needs and life lessons implicit in them. […]

Trauma-Informed Grief Therapy: Restorative Retelling

As contemporary models of bereavement have become more nuanced and empirically informed, so too have the practices available to counselors and therapists who work with complicated, prolonged and debilitating forms of grief.  This module offers in-depth training in several of these techniques, nesting them both within the therapy relationship and in the context of current […]

Attachment-Informed Approach II

Whether they are striving to restore a sense of secure attachment to a loved one lost to death or to resolve lingering relational issues with the deceased, mourners frequently need to reengage those they have lost rather than relinquish the bond and “move on.”  In this module, we will explore and practice several creative narrative, […]

Attachment-Informed Approach I

Death may end a life, but not necessarily a relationship.  Drawing on attachment-informed and Two-Track models of bereavement, we will begin by considering grieving as a process of reconstructing rather than relinquishing our bonds with those who have died, and the circumstances that can interfere with this natural process.  Clinical videos bearing on a range […]

Grief & Its Complications II

If you have completed Part l of this Core Course, you are acquainted with the distinction between adaptive grieving which moves forward from loss to its integration, sometimes with surprising resilience, and complicated, protracted and life-limiting responses to bereavement, such as Prolonged Grief Disorder. But beyond recognizing these latter struggles or syndromes, how can we […]

Grief and Its Complications: An Overview

The experience of loss and grief may be timeless, but our understanding of the psychological processes it entails has evolved greatly in recent years. In the first module of this Core Course Series, we will consider adaptive grieving as a process of reaffirming or reconstructing a world of meaning that has been challenged by loss. […]