Beth Eckerd – Counseling Grief Clients: Practical Interventions from New Theoretical Insights

Outline

WHAT RESEARCH TELLS US ABOUT GRIEF

• The cost of loving and caring
• Models for understanding grief
  • Older, familiar models
    • The “griefwork” hypothesis
    • Kubler-Ross stages
  • Current theories and approaches
    • Attachment theory
    • Phase and task models
    • Meaning reconstruction
    • Dual process model
    • Continuing bonds
• Expressions
  • Emotional and cognitive expressions
  • Physical manifestations
  • Behavioral expressions
  • Social behaviors and societal reactions
• Predictors and mediators of the experience
  • Background: grief is highly individual
  • Personality and other vulnerability factors
  • Who died; quality of relationship
  • Social, contextual, and cultural influences
  • Mode of death
  • Other influences
• Non-death losses

ASSISTING OUR CLIENTS THROUGH THE JOURNEY OF GRIEF

• Grief counseling
  • How is it different from other types of counseling?
  • Who often benefits (and who may not)?
• Components of a general approach
  • The 3 Rogerian conditions
  • Power of presence
  • Being a companion/therapist for your grief clients
• Cross-cultural and other diversity considerations
• Dealing with emotional intensity
• Grief vs. trauma
• Interventions
• When clients’ grief is disenfranchised
• Working with couples or families who have experienced the “same” loss
• Preparing for grief “spikes”
• Post-traumatic growth

WHEN GRIEF BECOMES COMPLICATED

• Common trajectories for grief
• What is “complicated” grief and how do you recognize it?
• Risk factors for complicated grief
• Overview of treatments for complicated grief

ASSESSMENT AND DIAGNOSIS OF GRIEF-RELATED SYMPTOMS

• How to differentiate between depression, grief, and PTSD
• Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder
• Use of Adjustment Disorder diagnosis with grief clients
• Measurement/assessment of grief

BEING A GRIEF COUNSELOR

• The risks and joys of this work
• Self-awareness
• Self-care
• Training opportunities in this field