Full Course Description

Grief Treatment: Current Evidence Based Approaches to Care Across the Lifespan

Program Information

Objectives

Evaluate current models of grief theory that go beyond the five stages and the treatment implications of each model.
Distinguish the unique experience created by different types of loss in relation to assessment and treatment planning.
Assess a client’s understanding of death and response to grief from a developmental perspective across the lifespan.
Determine how grief impacts the family system (individually and together), and how to better equip them to support each other in grief.
Appraise current and cutting-edge modalities used to treat typical and complicated grief in the clinical setting.
Integrate specific creative counseling interventions that engage the individual, couple or family in the process of grief.

Outline

Grief Theory Beyond Kübler-Ross

Tasks of Mourning
Dual Process Model of Coping
Continuing Bonds Theory
Grief and Attachment Theory
Potential criteria for “Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder”
Two creative interventions articulating these theories

Circumstances of Bereavement

Implications of Specific losses
- Pre-loss factors
- Relationship influence
- Type of and proximity to death
- Disenfranchised losses
- Living losses

Grief Counseling Strategies Across the Lifespan

Childhood and adolescence
- The occurrence of grief
- Developmental understanding of death
- Grief responses and adaptation to loss
- Six creative age appropriate interventions
Young and middle adulthood
- Grief circumstances
- Life stages and individual needs
- Assessments and interventions
- Family Systems
  - The family narrative
  - Use the Internal Family Systems Approach
- Six creative interventions appropriate for middle adulthood
Older adulthood
- Type of loss
- Grief responses and perception of death
- Treatment strategies based on developmental needs
- Six creative interventions specific for older adults

Grief Treatment – Current Evidence-Based Approach to Care

Typical Trajectory Griever
- Limitations to grief counseling/assessing effectiveness
- Assessment tools
- Expressive arts
- Companioning model
- Therapeutic presence
- Narrative therapy
- Creating space for suffering
- Limitations of the client-centered approach
Complicated Griever
- Assessment tools
- CBT
- Complicated Grief Treatment Model
- Grief and trauma intervention
- Meaning reconstruction
Ethical Considerations
- Socio-cultural context
- Gender bias
- Pitfalls in treating the family system
- Grief in the digital universe
- Spirituality and grief
- Personal death anxiety
- Countertransference
- The wounded healer
- Occupational stress
- The grieving therapist
- Self-care

Target Audience

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

Copyright : 02/05/2020

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