Children’s Grief: Retelling the Death Story As An Active Agent
Traditional theories of childhood grief have largely relied on stage-based developmental frameworks, often linking children’s understanding of death to age-related cognitive capacities. Such approaches may imply that children grieve in predictable, normative ways, thereby overlooking the child’s individuality, relational context, and lived experience. This module challenges these assumptions by introducing a Transactional Developmental Model of […]
Aging, Ageism, and Care: Exploring the Needs of Families and Elders
We are living in a time when people are living longer, but they are also living longer with complex health issues, care needs, and greater dependence on the health care system and families. While the increase in longevity is something that allows for elders to be a part of the lives of several generations that […]
Navigating Ambiguous Loss and the Maze of Dementia
The impact of dementia is being felt worldwide at this time, with the number of individuals being diagnosed with some form of this debilitating condition expected to continue to rise exponentially over the next generation. While the focus tends to be on those who are directly affected, dementia care has a profound impact on families, […]
Widow’s Fire: Embodied Grief & Longing after Sexual Loss
Young widows, who are typically defined as being 50 years old or younger, confront many unique complexities that warrant attention. Much of the clinical literature about widowhood is derived from older widows; it does not fully capture the experiences of young widows, who usually face an untimely and traumatic loss. In this module, we will […]
Titrating Trauma, Rescuing Relationship: Clinical Strategies for Addressing Tragic Death
When a significant person dies by suicide, homicide, overdose or fatal accident, mourners often need more than the informal support systems in their lives can provide, calling for specialist intervention. And yet many professionals struggle to meet the daunting challenges that such violent and unnatural deaths pose, not only to the survivors but also to […]
Writing for Wellbeing
Grief is widely recognised as one of the most challenging and emotionally painful experiences we may face. Such an intense experience calls for a wide and varied range of methods that allow therapists, counselors, psychologists and social workers to support the individual needs of their clients. This module introduces Writing for Wellbeing (WFW) as one […]
Grief Therapy Learning Retreat
Join us in Bainbridge Island, Seattle, WA, USA, for our 5-Day / 4-Night Grief Therapy Learning Retreat that offers close access to a selection of internationally renowned Portland Institute faculty and guest speakers, who provide substantial training in the latest research and practice on meaning-oriented grief therapy approaches. Drawing on a blend of systematic instruction, […]
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 […]
When Dying Is Well Accompanied: A Quest for Meaning in Terminal Illness
13-14 July 2026 Singapore Presented by REGISTER NOW EARLY BIRD till 1 June 2026 Just SGD$900 for 2-day workshop! (Inclusive of lunch & 2 tea breaks) Earn Credits for 2 Orientation Modules and 2 Techniques Modules toward Certification in Meaning-Focused Grief Therapy or Certification in Family-Focused Grief Therapy Offered by the Portland Institute. In the face of […]
Writing Through Bereavement
Although retelling the “event story” of the death in an atmosphere of responsive witnessing represents a core component of Meaning Reconstruction, it is only one of a great variety of narrative procedures that can be used by grief therapists. In this workshop we explore the possible role of a sample of creative techniques in which […]