Full Course Description

2-Day Grief Treatment Certification Course: Evidence-Based Strategies for Helping Clients Make Meaning After Loss

Program Information

Objectives

Differentiate relevant theories and models describing the physical and psychosocial effects of loss, grief, and mourning on the individual and family system and their clinical implications.
Determine how to plan and implement appropriate assessments, interventions and strategies to help individuals and families cope with loss and grief to improve treatment outcomes.
Perform a clinical assessment to inform the clinician’s choice of best treatment interventions for the reduction of symptoms of Prolonged Grief Disorder, disenfranchised grief, or Persistent Prolonged Grief Disorder.
Differentiate potential loss events occurring throughout the lifespan, including non-death situations, to inform the clinician’s choice of treatment interventions.
Analyze the ethnic, gender, and cultural factors that affect individual responses to loss-related situations as it relates to case conceptualization.
Evaluate factors that influence normal and complicated reactions to dying and grief in clients.
Determine one’s own cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions to death, dying, and bereavement, as it relates to professional practice with clients experiencing grief and loss.
Differentiate theories and models of individual, cultural, couple, family, and community resilience in relation to assessment and treatment planning.
Analyze the efficacy of various treatment interventions for complicated grief to improve clinical outcomes.
Determine the ethical and legal issues in end-of-life decisions, such as suffering, dying, and choice, and their clinical implications.
Utilize clinical strategies to assist grieving clients in the move from flight or fight to social engagement in session.
Utilize the co-regulating pathways of the social engagement system in session as an approach to managing symptoms of Prolonged Grief Disorder.

Outline

Types of Grief & Their Implications for Treatment

Explain historical and current relevant theories and models describing the physical and psychosocial effect of loss, grief, and mourning on the individual and family system.
Compare factors that influence normal and complicated reactions to dying and grief.
Disenfranchised grief
Persistent Prolonged Grief Disorder
Traumatic Bereavement
Prolonged Grief Disorder
- Common trajectories for grief
- Recognize Prolonged Grief Disorder
- Risk factors for Prolonged Grief Disorder
- Treatment Interventions
Types of Loss & Their Impact on Grieving
- Parental loss
- Child loss
- Widowhood
- Non-death losses

Grief & the Family: Guide Families Through Healthy Grieving

Differentiate potential loss events occurring throughout the lifespan, including non-death situations, and complicated bereavement.
Identify theories and models of individual, couple, and family resilience.
- Family systems theory: Family influences on individual grief
- Variables that complicate family adaptation
- Strategies to guide family adaptation to loss
- Develop respect for different grieving styles
- The role of gender norms
- Developmental considerations & milestones related to loss reactions for:
  - Children
  - Adolescents
  - Early adulthood
  - Middle adulthood
  - Later adulthood

Multicultural Considerations for Grief Treatment

Analyze the ethnic, gender, and cultural factors that affect responses to loss-related situations.
Increase awareness of one’s own beliefs, assumptions, and biases and how they may influence the establishment and maintenance of therapeutic relationships with culturally diverse clients.
Cultural factors affecting expression of grief
Impact on mourning practices
Culture’s impact on death anxiety & meaning of life
Determine where the identity emphasis lies
Cultural values regarding emotional expression and disclosure
The impact of society on grief

Assessment: Intake Considerations for Grieving Clients

Articulate how to plan and implement appropriate assessments, interventions, and strategies.
Perform a clinical assessment to inform the clinician’s choice of best treatment interventions for the reduction of symptoms.
Current conceptualization models
Factors impacting the grief experience
Assess for depression and suicide ideation
Differentiate between depression, grief & PTSD
Persistent Prolonged Grief Disorder
Take home assessment tools

Grief Treatment: Interventions & Strategies to Improve Clinical Outcomes

Analyze the efficacy of various treatment interventions for complicated grief to improve clinical outcomes.
Utilize clinical strategies to assist grieving clients in the move from fight/flight or freeze to social engagement in sessions.
Utilize the co-regulating pathways of the social engagement system in session as an approach to managing symptoms of complicated grief.
- Assist clients with expressing their pain
- Integrate a new inner image of the deceased
- Client self-assessment strategies for coping
- Foster client relaxation skills
- Let the client lead: Starting point, story & stopping point
- Cultivate acceptance
- Elicit emotional availability in clients
- Give clients “permission” to not share stories
- Develop healthy grief rituals
- Target guilt due to stopping grief rituals
- Build a bridge between memories, current behaviors & underlying values
- Help clients accept the finality of the death
- Navigate the treatment of multiple losses
- “Family coat of arms” activity

Professional Issues: Ethical Considerations for Working with Grieving Clients, Their Families & the Terminally Ill

Scrutinize the ethical and legal issues in end-of-life decisions, such as suffering, dying and choice, and their clinical implications.
Examine one’s own cognitive, affective, behavioral, and valuational reaction to death and dying and bereavement as it relates to professional practice with client’s experiencing grief and loss.
Ethical dilemmas that confront the terminally ill
Ethical principles of end-of-life decisions
The clinician’s role in addressing psychological suffering & needs of the terminally ill
Impact of cause of death on social isolation
Identify the core values and principles of professional ethical behavior
Boundaries of professional competence

Target Audience

Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Counselors
Addiction Counselors
Social Workers
Pastoral Counselors
Chaplains/Clergy
Funeral Directors
Nursing Home Administrators
Case Managers
Thanatologists
Marriage & Family Therapists
Mental Health Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 03/05/2020

Post-Traumatic Growth for Loss, Grief and Related Trauma: Guide Your Clients through the Losses in Life and Help Them Reinvest Themselves in a Life Worth Living

Program Information

Outline

Face Loss, Grief and Trauma with a Strengths-Based Approach
- Crisis of belief and existential shattering
- Meaning making and the importance of “why”
- Grief vs. complicated grief
- Abstract losses and the Ball of Grief
- Tapping into resiliency
  - Core competencies and key principles
  - Identify your clients’ strengths
- Current evidence on strengths-based approaches
Calm the Overactive Brain of Your Client
- The neurobiology of the traumatized brain
- Mindfulness and the art of noticing
- Containment skills
- Grounding exercises
- Affect regulation
- Breathing and soothing techniques
Tools for Managing Anger, Guilt, Shame and Traumatic Memories
- Dealing with anger
  - The REACH model of forgiveness
  - Certificates of debt
  - The power of surrender
- Address guilt and shame
  - How shame relates to trauma and loss
  - Faulty beliefs and getting stuck
  - Cognitive restructuring
- Manage traumatic memories with CBT coping skills
  - Distraction techniques
  - Positive self-talk
Move Clients Toward Post-Traumatic Growth With Interventions Informed by Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Shattered Vase Exercise - plant the seeds of possibility
- Creating narratives
- Letter writing
- Positive remembering and repositioning
- Reframe the meaning
Expressive and Somatic Therapeutic Interventions To Cultivate Post-Traumatic Growth
- Integrate left and right hemispheres
  - Art therapy
  - Writing to heal
- Access and reclaim compassion
  - Somatic resourcing
  - Remembered resources
  - Assess clients self-talk
Reinvest in a Life Worth Living: Rekindle the Desires of the Heart
- The PIE of life - brainstorm possibilities of growth
- Cultivate social connection and re-engagement
  - Support and grief groups
  - Toxic people
  - Working with families impacted by loss
- Choice and perspective
- Foster gratitude and a spirit of contentment after loss
- Measurements of Post-Traumatic Growth

Objectives

Specify how a case conceptualization based on the strengths of the client can tap into their potential for resiliency and improve clinical outcomes.
Analyze the neurobiology of the traumatized brain and effectively utilize clinical tools based in mindfulness and grounding to calm the biological stress response.
Articulate the relationship of shame to trauma and loss and communicate how cognitive restructuring can be used in-session to manage the emotions of clients and open them to new possibilities.
Employ powerful interventions informed by CBT, expressive therapies, and somatic psychotherapy to treat the devastating effects of loss and grief by reframing its associated meaning.
Characterize the impact on clients, as well as the relevance to clinical practice, of connecting individuals and families affected by loss with social support and grief groups.
Incorporate and individualize therapeutic interventions based in art and writing into treatment plans for loss, grief, and related trauma.

Target Audience

Counselors, Social Workers, Psychologists, Case Managers, Marriage & Family Therapists, Other Mental Health Professionals, Nurses, Chaplains/Clergy

Copyright : 06/13/2018

Suicide Assessment and Intervention: Today's Top Challenges for Mental Health Professionals

Program Information

Objectives

Conduct a thorough suicide assessment that includes both risk and protective factors.
Implement clinical techniques to support clients’ ability to self-regulate, problem solve, and communicate their needs.
Develop and monitor realistic safety plans that clients will participate in.
Create accurate and comprehensive documentation of clinical crises to protect all parties involved and minimize liability risks.

Outline

Assessment: Your Comprehensive Guide to Identify Suicidal Risk

Suicide, ideation, plan, means and intent
Why do people kill themselves?
Risk and protective factors
How to identify implicit suicidal intent
Strategies for asking direct questions (even when it’s uncomfortable)
How to engage shut down, withdrawn or resistant clients

Suicide Intervention Strategies: Supporting Clients From “Passive” Ideation to Full-Blown Crisis

Psychological interventions
Problem solving
Emotional regulation
Communication
Pharmacology: Short and long term interventions
Why “no harm” contracts are a dangerous idea (and what to do instead)
When to break client confidentiality
How and when to involve loved ones/caregivers
Hospitalization: Why, when, how
- Clinicians inside the ER: When to admit/planning for home
- After the ER: Limiting the risk
Documentation: Protect your client, protect your license

Other Clinical Considerations

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI)
Relationship between suicide, mental illness and trauma
Tips for managing clinician anxiety around suicidality

Target Audience

Social Workers
Psychologists
Counselors
Teachers
School Administrators
Marriage & Family Therapists
Case Managers
Addiction Counselors
Therapists
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals