Full Course Description

3-Day Advanced Grief Counseling Certification Course: Interventions to Move Clients Toward Healthy Grieving, Growth and Meaning After Loss

A wave of grief and loss has impacted millions of people and more clients than ever before are seeking the help of professionals.

But if you’re like many therapists, in-depth training on counseling and treating grieving clients wasn’t part of your graduate program.

How can you make sure you’re ready to work with this rapidly growing client population?

This all new 3-day grief certification training features 2 of our very best received trainers in the area of grief and bereavement - both highly experienced clinicians with decades of experience in the field. Together they will provide you with the tools, techniques and clinical know-how to counsel and treat clients across the lifespan whose lives have been upended by losses of all kinds.

And unlike other trainings, this program will go beyond the basics, growing your clinical skills and confidence with interactive exercises, expert guidance, practical tips, and real-world case studies so you know exactly how to:

Uncover grief intensity and assess for risks like suicidal ideation
Recognize and respond to grief types with appropriate treatment plans
Employ over 30 specific clinical tools to facilitate healthy grieving and build resiliency
Successfully structure and facilitate grief support or treatment groups
And much more!

Program Information

Objectives

Investigate the clinical implications of distinctions between adult and youth responses to loss.
Assess for trauma, depression, substance use and anxiety in grieving clients.
Utilize two assessment measures for gathering grief responses.
Distinguish how the experiences created by different types of loss impact assessment and treatment planning.
Analyze the impact of death on the family system and the corresponding effects on treatment.
Evaluate contemporary models of bereavement as they relate to case conceptualization for grief therapy.
Asses the boundaries of professional competence in grief work and know when to refer out.
Investigate factors that can influence the grief process including the type of loss and support system.
Use the DSM-5 to diagnose/identify Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder.
Employ emotional regulation techniques to help calm clients who’ve experienced a traumatic loss.
Implement a bereavement plan of care for identified Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder.
Use CBT techniques to help bereaved clients manage guilt, blame and other maladaptive cognitions following loss.
Apply narrative approaches to help clients construct meaning following loss.
Utilize mindfulness interventions to reduce anxiety symptoms in clients with anticipatory grief.
Evaluate the clinical implications of cultural beliefs surrounding mourning and continuing relationships with the deceased.
Utilize best practices to structure and facilitate grief support or treatment groups.
Investigate ethical considerations to ensure proper management of terminally ill clients, minors, families an end-of-life decisions.
Develop strategies for self-care when working with grieving clients.
Analyze continuing attachment bonds and their relevance to clinical practice with bereaved clients across the lifespan.

Outline

The Process of Death, Dying, and Mourning

Grief and Loss Across Developmental and Life Stages

Distinctions between adult and youth responses to loss
Common grief reactions and coping mechanisms
Factors for assessing and counseling kids and teens at schools
The elderly – working with multiple losses, fewer supports and/or physical health issues
Ethics with minors, families, and the terminally ill

Types of Grief:
Implications for Counseling and Treatment

Normal grief and acute reactions
Complicated or prolonged grief
Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder
Ambiguous grief in the face of changes in the living
Chronic grief
Traumatic grief following sudden or violent loss
Anticipatory and disenfranchised grief
Delayed, inhibited, abbreviated other types of commonly overlooked grief

The Impact of Loss on the Family System

Impact on adult caregivers and siblings
Family adaptation to loss
Changing the family narrative
Intergenerational effect of grief and trauma

Contemporary Models of Bereavement for Grief Therapy

Assessment of Grieving Clients:
Uncover Trauma, Depression, Substance Use, Suicidal Ideation, and More

Intakes and gathering information
Two assessment measures for gathering grief responses
Assessment for depression, PTSD, trauma, substance use, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and violence

Differential Diagnosis

Differential diagnosis between uncomplicated and complicated grief
Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder
Differential using the DSM-5™ and upcoming DSM5-TR

Treatment Planning for Uncomplicated and Complicated Grief

Uncomplicated grief treatment planning
- Grief counseling vs. grief therapy
- Specific objectives based on the client’s grieving process
Complicated Grief Therapy
- Narrative Reconstruction Therapy for complicated grief
- Integrative Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for complicated grief
  - Specific objectives for complicated grief

Interventions and Treatment Approaches to Facilitate Healthy Grieving

Narrative and somatic techniques
Expressive arts techniques – music, writing, art, and more
Interventions for regret, forgiveness, shame, and guilt
Continued bonds and therapeutic bereavement rituals
Nature-based therapy
Systematic desensitization and flooding to reduce avoidance
EMDR for complicated grief and traumatic loss

Non-Death and Abstract Losses:
How to Effectively Work with Clients Who’ve Experienced “Living Losses”

End of relationship
Chronic illness and terminal illness
Deployment, job and/or retirement
Infertility, independence, and identity
Safety, meaning, and purpose
Spirituality and religion
Potential futures

Build Clients’ Resiliency and Move Them Toward Post-Traumatic Growth

Defining resiliency and post-traumatic growth
Employing a client’s strengths
Considerations to foster growth with traumatic and suicide loss

The Clinician’s Guide to Grief and Loss Groups:
How to Successfully Structure and Facilitate Grief Support or Treatment Groups

Differences between psychoeducational and therapeutic groups
Open vs. closed groups
Homogeneous vs. heterogeneous groups
Peer vs. clinician led
Participant screening and keys to effective facilitation

Grief Work with Clients of Diverse Race, Backgrounds, Cultures, and Beliefs

Cultural competency vs. culturally and difference intentioned/aware practice
Disenfranchised grief
How culture impacts mourning, rituals, expectation, and continued bonds
Working with spiritual and religious differences between clinician and client

Ethical Considerations in Grief Counseling and Treatment

Boundaries of professional competence and when to refer out
Research and treatment risks
Compassion fatigue
Self-care as an ethical imperative

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Marriage and Family Therapists
Psychiatrists
Addiction Counselors
Nurse Practitioners
Mental Health Nurses
Pastoral Counselors
Chaplains/Clergy
Thanatologists
Physicians

Copyright : 01/10/2022

The Missing Stage of Grief: Clinical Strategies to Overcome Anxiety in the Wake of Loss

Anxiety is common, but the fear and anxiety brought on by grief is its own breed and needs to be treated as such.

Yet in the famous five stages of grief, anxiety has never been part of the equation. And traditional grief therapy has often failed to take the uniqueness of anxieties caused by loss into account. You’re left feeling out of your depth, unsure of the best way to move anxious and grieving clients forward.

Claire Bidwell Smith, LCPC is an acclaimed bestselling author and expert grief therapist whose memoir The Rules of Inheritance has been published in 18 countries and is being adapted for film. Her latest pioneering book Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief combines experiences from her therapy practice, research, and personal life to give concrete strategies to help people heal the anxiety caused by loss.

Watch her at this groundbreaking seminar as she shares the practical techniques, skills and tools you need to take your practice beyond Kübler-Ross’ five stages and help your clients process their grief on a deeper level, manage their anxiety, find relief, and reclaim their lives. Step-by-step guidance will have you fully prepared to employ a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy, deep grief processing, and meditation techniques so you can help your clients unpack their fears about mortality, better bare vulnerability, and get their anxiety under control so they can come to terms with their losses.

Purchase today and breathe a sigh of relief knowing you’ll be prepared to treat anxiety following loss, and bring greater healing to clients facing one of the most difficult things they’ll experience in their lifetime.

Program Information

Objectives

Explore the connection between grief and anxiety and the implications for grief treatment.
Establish how clinicians can better recognize grieving clients who mask their anxiety.
Specify how mindfulness and meditation techniques can restore a sense of calm and interrupt pervasive anxious thoughts.
Characterize how techniques that help clients make amends with lost loved ones can help them overcome guilt driven anxiety.
Specify how personal narratives and grief recovery letters can be utilized in the treatment of grief and anxiety.
Communicate how clinicians can prepare themselves to work with anxiety in a variety of grieving client populations.

Outline

THRUST INTO A VULNERABLE PLACE:
How Anxiety Sneaks into Your Clients Lives during Grief

The link between grief and anxiety
Anxiety, loss and life’s unpredictability
Polyvagal Theory – how our bodies react to fear and sadness
Panic attacks, hypochondria and social anxiety following loss
Why anxiety surrounding death is unexpected
Complicated grief

TOOLS FOR ASSESSING GRIEF-RELATED ANXIETY

Where the traditional 5-stage model fails
How to measure intensity and duration
Identify grief and anxiety triggers
Recognize clients who mask anxiety symptoms

MINDFULNESS AND MEDITATION TECHNIQUES:
Calm Your Clients’ Anxiety and Open Them to Healing

Awareness techniques – identify where fear starts in the body
Mindful breathing to restore a sense of calm and peace
Simple mantras to rewire anxiety and grief
Exercises that free clients from pervasive thoughts
Reduce anxiety with present moment immersion

PRACTICAL COGNITIVE INTERVENTIONS:
Relieve Anxiety to Move Clients Forward

Strategies to normalize anxiety and panic attacks
CBT techniques for reducing anxious rumination
Exercises to break fearful thought-spirals
Make amends to overcome guilt driven anxiety
Replace fear with anchor thoughts

DEATH IS NOT THE END OF LOVE:
Creative Grief Processing Techniques to Rewrite Stories of Loss

Personal narratives to overcome anxiety and grief
Grief recovery letters
Exercises to overcome the fear of losing more
Maintain connection – death is not the end of love

WORKING WITH SPECIFIC POPULATIONS

Sudden deaths, violent deaths, and chronic illnesses
Loss of partner or child
Children’s grief strategies
Research limitations and treatment risks

Target Audience

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

Grief Work in Virtual Settings

We’ve all changed the way we work in the last year. And while we’ve become familiar with the technology and rules surrounding telehealth we still want to do better for our clients.

This recording will help you to up your game when working remotely with grieving clients!

Join grief expert and Fellow in Thanatology Alissa Drescher as provides you with the creative tools and effective online resources you need to master grief work via video conferencing, build your “webside” manner and make your treatment as impactful as possible when working virtually!

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze current research supporting the use of videoconferencing for behavioral interventions across many patient populations and clinical settings.
Investigate how online grief support networks can be used to reduce psychological distress and increase psychosocial benefits for clients.
Evaluate resources that can be used to facilitate the tasks of mourning when working remotely with clients.
Evaluate how distance-technology grief supports can be delivered to support clients with complicated grief.

Outline

The unique challenges of suicide survivors

A strengths-based approach to build resiliency and plant the seeds of possibility
Techniques to transform the survivor’s relationship with the deceased
Narratives to reframe the meaning attached to the suicide
Strategies to help clients access and reclaim compassion

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage and Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Case Managers
Addiction Counselors
Nursing Home Administrators
Pastoral Counselors
Chaplains/Clergy
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners
Mental Health Nurses
Thanatologists

Treating Grief After Suicide

Suicide survivors don’t come to you because they’re interested in growth. They don’t want to explore new possibilities. They just want to relieve the pain, ease the misery, and make sense of the death. But there’s no life in only asking why. On many levels, there will be no closure.

As clinicians, we can’t help survivors change unless we challenge them to step out and take risks. It’s critical to tap into the client’s potential for resiliency, open them to new possibilities, and walk with them along the path to post-traumatic growth.

Join Rita Schulte, licensed professional counselor, radio host, author, and suicide survivor to get the skills and strategies you need to transition grieving clients who’ve lost loved ones to suicide from “why?” to “what’s next?”

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze the treatment implications of the unique challenges faced by grieving suicide survivors.
Determine how the meaning clients attach to suicide can impede recovery.
Apply a strengths-based approach to tap into suicide survivors’ potential for resiliency.
Utilize narrative techniques to help suicide survivors make meaning following suicide loss.

Outline

The unique challenges of suicide survivors

A strengths-based approach to build resiliency and plant the seeds of possibility
Techniques to transform the survivor’s relationship with the deceased
Narratives to reframe the meaning attached to the suicide
Strategies to help clients access and reclaim compassion

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage and Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
School Counselors
School Psychologists
School Social Workers
Case Managers
Addiction Counselors
Pastoral Counselors
Chaplains/Clergy
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners
Mental Health Nurses
Thanatologists