A Death in the Family: Grief Therapy for Individuals and Systems

Course Overview

The impending death of a loved one through terminal illness or other life-threatening circumstances can profoundly challenge the functioning of the family and the individuals within it. This training will introduce evidence-based, meaning-oriented perspectives on anticipatory grief as well as adaptation to bereavement, offering practical tools for identifying vulnerable family members, facilitating family communication at the end of life, and supporting survivors following its conclusion. Using systematic presentation, clinical videos of actual clients, and small group practice, this two-day onsite workshop will enhance the skills of learners in assessing and intervening at individual and systemic levels to support grieving families in recovering resilience in the course of difficult transitions.

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

The threat of separation: Anticipatory grief and the crisis of meaning
Read the need: Pre-loss risk assessment for post-loss complications
Talking and not talking: Sharing bad news and addressing secrets and taboos
Regulate to relate: Opening the relational window of tolerance for mutual grief within family systems

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

Map a course for individual and family grief support using the Tripartite Model of Meaning Reconstruction in Loss
Practice tools for alleviating family distress and enhancing communication at the end of life
Facilitate adaptive grief rhythms within and between family members contending with a shared loss

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