Course Summary

Practice Level: Intermediate

Loss comes in many forms. Some patients grieve the loss of a loved one, while others mourn ambiguous or disenfranchised losses. Mental health and human services providers are in a unique position to help their patients identify, process, and navigate the emotions caused by grief and loss. The text, New Techniques of Grief Therapy, presents frameworks of grief, therapeutic interventions, techniques, and tools that prepare providers to assist clients suffering from complex and/or extended grief due to these different types of losses. Specific exercises and activities for social workers, psychologists, counselors, and marriage and family therapists to use in sessions with clients are provided. The purpose of this course is to prepare clinicians to evaluate grief and bereavement and, if indicated, to facilitate appropriate therapeutic approaches.

Clinicians can apply the therapeutic tools and methods found in this course as they work with bereaved clients who are trying to navigate the initial phases of grief, process sudden or traumatic deaths, and engage in meaningful lives after loss. This learning material helps providers assist patients in articulating their emotions around specific and ambiguous losses, practicing self-care, revising personal meaning, and reaffirming attachment. Other topics presented in the course include and are not limited to culturally sensitive approaches, fostering compassion, self-reporting assessments, evidence-based evaluations tools, and the therapeutic uses of imagery, re-storying loss, and validation. Upon completion of this course, providers will be able to apply evidence-informed grief therapy techniques when facilitating bereavement work.

Course Format

This course is based on a book available for purchase here and a posttest. When you’re ready, purchase the test by clicking the “Add To Cart” or “Enroll” button. This will let you take the test and receive your certificate for CE credits.

Learning Objectives

  • Describe modern frameworks of grief and bereavement.
  • Discuss tools and techniques for evaluating grief experiences and expressions.
  • Recognize benefits of techniques used for assisting clients in the grieving process.
  • Identify approaches and interventions to help bereaved clients articulate feelings around ambiguous or disenfranchised losses.
  • Differentiate presentations of grief and depression.
  • Discuss therapeutic approaches to help clients foster compassion for themselves and others.
  • Describe exercises and models that assist clients to work with their emotions through the bereavement process.
  • Differentiate appropriate uses of imagery in treatment after the loss of a loved one.
  • Explain effective techniques to help clients move beyond loss through the revision of personal meaning.
  • Recognize techniques often applied to help clients reaffirm attachments and transition out of bereavement.
  • Apply techniques utilizing dialogues with the deceased for grieving clients.
  • Discuss treatment approaches that validate clients’ emotions as they process a significant loss.
  • Apply effective re-storying interventions to reframe meaning after loss.
  • Explain various therapeutic interventions to facilitate loved ones support of bereaved clients.

Course Syllabus

  • Framing the Work
  • Evaluating Grief
  • Moving Through Bereavement
  • Articulating Ambiguous Loss
  • Practicing Self-Care
  • Fostering Compassion
  • Working With Emotion
  • Utilizing Imagery
  • Revisiting Personal Meaning
  • Reaffirming Attachment
  • Dialoguing with the Deceased
  • Validating Lives
  • Re-storying Loss
  • Facilitating Support

Author

Robert E Neimeyer, PhD, Editor

Robert A. Neimeyer, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, where he also maintains an active clinical practice. Neimeyer also serves as Director of the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, which offers training and certification in grief therapy.

Accreditation Approval Statements

CE4Less.com, provider #1115, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 8/8/24-8/8/27.

Social workers completing this course receive 12 clinical continuing education credits.

This course has been approved by CE4Less.com, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #91345, CE4Less.com is responsible for all aspects of the programing.

We are committed to providing our learners with unbiased information. CE4Less never accepts commercial support and our authors have no significant financial or other conflicts of interest pertaining to the material.