Recorded Training

Dialogue With a Bereaved Mother:
Symbol & Paradox after Traumatic Loss

This haunting, compassionate, and healing dialogue highlights the art making process, products, and mystical experiences of a bereaved mother whose journey is understood and guided by the tenants of meaning reconstruction, restorative retelling, and attachment informed grief therapy. Learners are invited into the inner workings of art therapy and a creative process with Lynne. She shares, at the three-year mark, her journey with James, who died in a fiery car accident on September 5, 2020. Symbol, paradox, and visual metaphor emerge in her artwork as transformative elements that hold the space for a vulnerable dialogue between client and clinician. This in-depth case study discussion is followed by the audience’s opportunity to enter the conversation of transformation and to explore their personal story through the creation of collage.

Note: This 3-hour CE module focuses on topics related to psychological practice, education, or research other than application of psychological assessment and/or intervention methods that are supported by contemporary scholarship grounded in established research procedures.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Describe the collage process and products through a meaning reconstruction focus on the event story, back story of the relationship with the deceased, and the personal story;
Summarize the components of the collage making process that are grounded in Rynearson’s Restorative Retelling, as highlighted in this discussion; and
Describe elements of the creative process that contribute to continuing bonds with the deceased as a cornerstone of continuing bonds theory.

Earn 3 Continuing Education (CE) Credits

Earn 1 Credit for Case Study Module toward
Certification in Art-Assisted Grief Therapy,
or Certification in Grief Therapy for Traumatic Loss,
Offered by the Portland Institute.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

This program contains the following video segments:

Raids on the Unspeakable: The Benefits of Art Therapy (46 mins)
Retelling and the Quest for Meaning: Visualizing the Event Story of a Tragic Death (45 mins)
Exploring the Existential: Stepping toward the Spiritual Narrative (45 mins)
Loss and the Co-Creation of Symbol: Embracing the Mystery (36 mins)