Grief after Suicide

Experiencing a death by suicide can have a profound impact on those left behind.  In addition to feelings of shock, guilt, anxiety, anger and rejection, they commonly struggle with daunting “why” questions that have no easy or consoling answers.  People bereaved by suicide also present increased risks of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicidal behavior […]

Grief & Loss in Families II

When a death happens in a family, how the surviving family members respond to the loss and cope with the resulting disruptions can be diverse.  In this module, we will consider several variables that influence the post-loss adjustment of the individual members and the family as a whole, as well as identifying strength factors and […]

Grief & Loss in Families I

Death is a crisis that all families will encounter and grief is a family affair.  In the aftermath of bereavement, no loss is experienced in a vacuum and no one is spared from its impact.  This module will equip learners to look at grief and loss through a meaning reconstruction lens, and appreciate the systemic […]

Grace in the Darkness

Loss, grief and mourning are ubiquitous human experiences that pervade the work of therapists, psychiatrists, counselors, and social workers alike.  Helping those who have experienced a significant loss can be challenging and confusing, largely because there is no single intervention that is well-suited for all individuals.  In what ways can we tailor our interventions to […]

Create, Destroy & Transform

This “user friendly” didactic and experiential module highlights the neurobiology of trauma as well as neurodevelopmental theories that inform expressive art therapy for complex trauma and prolonged grief disorder (PGD). Learners interested in art-based modalities are supported in best practices while planning empathetic and ethical treatment goals for clients suffering life-altering loss. Art therapy modalities […]

Addressing Diversity in Grief & Loss: African American & Asian Perspectives

Although loss is a universal experience, how people of different cultures and subcultures accommodate it can be surprisingly diverse.  In this module, we consider several of these variations, noting ethnic differences in grieving styles as a function of several factors, such as religious world views, individualistic vs. collectivist values, socioeconomic resources, exposure to violence, access […]

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 […]

Grief and the Expressive Arts: Activating the Creative Imagination

Significant loss, including but not limited to bereavement, can disrupt our practical identities, dislodge relationships with others, and alter our experience of belonging in place and time.  Adaptive grieving involves reconstructing a world of meaning that is enacted in the physical and social environment and shaped by cultural scripts.  Aesthetic activities are embodied and help […]

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 […]