Grief and Its Complications: A Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Approach

Course Overview

When we experience the death of someone who is central to our lives, the once familiar grounding of our existence can be shaken and sometimes shattered, calling into question our world assumptions, our bond with our loved one, and even our sense of who we are and where we are going. Viewed through the lens of meaning, grieving therefore presents us with not only painful and often preoccupying symptoms of distress, but also profound challenges to the significance of our everyday lives and the security of our core beliefs and spiritual commitments.

In this workshop, we distinguish between adaptive grieving and its more anguishing and prolonged forms, and review evidence-based risk factors for prolonged grief disorder. We further consider tragic loss as a crisis of meaning, opening the door to the application of a great range of creative techniques to process the story of the loss, the back story of our relation to the deceased, and our self-narratives of who we are and are becoming. Case studies, clinical videos and hands-on practice with tools for assessment and intervention will help learners engage the biopsychosocial challenges of grief, as well as their broader and deeper spiritual implications.

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

2 days, 9am - 5pm

Course Outline

What colour is my grief? Common grief reactions and their determinants
Making sense of loss: A meaning-focused approach
The toll of bereavement: Evaluating grief-related functional impairment
Prolonged grief disorder: Conceptualization and diagnosis
Complicated spiritual grief: Assessment and intervention

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

Course Objectives

Describe the multifaceted manifestation of grief reactions, both adaptive and complicated
Conceptualize the impacts of loss using the Tripartite model of Meaning Reconstruction
Identify high-risk griever profiles through an integrative assessment framework
Bridge from research on spiritual distress in bereavement to practical interventions to promote mourner resilience and even psycho-spiritual growth

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.

Dr Robert A.Neimeyer, PhD, is a Professor Emeritus of the Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, and maintains an active consulting and coaching practice. He also directs the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition (www.portlandinstitute.org), which provides online training internationally in grief therapy. Neimeyer has published 33 books, including the Handbook of Grief Therapies and New Techniques of Grief Therapy: Bereavement and Beyond, and serves as Editor of the journal Death Studies. The author of over 600 articles and book chapters and a frequent workshop presenter, he is currently working to advance a more adequate theory of grieving as a meaning-making process. Neimeyer served as President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and Chair of the International Work Group for Death, Dying, & Bereavement. In recognition of his scholarly contributions, he has been granted the Eminent Faculty Award by the University of Memphis, made a Fellow of the Clinical Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association, and given Lifetime Achievement Awards by both ADEC and the International Network on Personal Meaning