Working with Continuing Bonds in Grief Therapy: A Clinician’s Toolbox

Course Overview

(previously known as Techniques of Grief Therapy Series: An Attachment-Informed Approach to Grief and Loss)

Death may end a life, but not necessarily a relationship. Drawing on attachment-informed and Two-Track models of bereavement, we will begin by considering grieving as a process of reconstructing rather than relinquishing our continuing bonds with those who have died. But at times both the circumstances of the death and the nature of the relationship in their shared lives can pose profound challenges for survivors in establishing a sustainable bond to the deceased, creating impasses in doing so that can become the focus of grief therapy. Thus, we will discuss research on both circumstantial factors (e.g., sudden or violent death, inability to tend to the loved one at the end of life) and relational complications (unresolved issues between the living and dead) that characteristically leave many questions unanswered, much that is unsaid, and multiple longstanding concerns unaddressed. To redress these relational complications, we will introduce a scale for identifying complex relational histories that need to be processed, as well as several arts-assisted techniques to review and revise the character of the bond with the deceased. In addition, through actual therapy recordings, we will demonstrate how symbolic conversations in both correspondence and chair work formats can help clients repair the relationship with someone who they typically have loved, even if ambivalently, and lost before setting things right.

Course Objectives:

After the course, participants would be able to:

Describe the concept of continuing bonds and its role in adaptation to bereavement;
Summarize research on sudden and traumatic bereavement and its relation to both unfinished business with the deceased and intense or prolonged grief symptomatology; and
Practice various meaning-focused techniques to renegotiate the terms of attachment with the deceased and bridge to relational reconstruction.

Who Should Attend

All counsellors, healthcare workers, social workers, psychologists, art / music / expressive arts therapists, school personnel, pastoral staff, and people involved in the helping professions.

Course Duration

Upcoming Schedule: 9 - 10 July 2026 (Registration opens on 30 Jan 2026)

Total Training Duration (Hour)

2 days, 9am - 5pm

Course Outline

Understanding grief and loss through an attachment lens
Differentiation between continuing bond and maladaptive bondage
Examining who the deceased was through Acrostic Eulogy
Crafting of Our Relationship Tree to review the relationship history
Use of Rückenfigur to facilitate access to the Back Story of a difficult relationship
Implementation of the Unfinished Business in Bereavement Scale for assessing residual conflicts and disappointments in the relationship
Practice of correspondence with the deceased and possible extensions
Architecture and choreography of chair work to process the unfinished business

Certification Obtained and Conferred by

Participants who meet 75% class attendance will be awarded a Certificate of Completion by Portland Institute for Loss and Transition & Academy of Human Development.

For certification enquiries, please email carolyn@portlandinstitute.org

Medium of Instruction & Trainer

Dr Carolyn Ng, PsyD, FT, MMSAC, RegCLR maintains a private practice, Anchorage for Loss and Transition, for training, supervision and therapy in Singapore, while also serving as an Associate Director of the Portland Institute. Previously she served as Principal Counsellor with the Children’s Cancer Foundation in Singapore, specialising in cancer-related palliative care and bereavement counselling. She is a registered counsellor, master clinical member and approved supervisor with the Singapore Association for Counselling (SAC), a Fellow in Thanatology with the Association of Death Education and Counselling (ADEC), USA, as well as a consultant to a cancer support and bereavement ministry in Sydney, Australia. She is a trained end-of-life doula and advanced care planning facilitator. She is also trained in the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, USA, community crisis response by the National Organisation for Victim Assistance (NOVA), USA, as well as Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) by LivingWorks, Canada. Her recent writing concerns meaning-oriented narrative reconstruction with bereaved families, with an emphasis on conversational approaches for fostering new meaning and action.Find out more at: www.anchorage-for-loss.org.