Who am I now without you? A Toolkit for Self-Reconstruction in Bereavement

What's In It For Me

Learn to:

  • Discuss research on the Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) scale in bereavement and apply this visual analogue task to self-assessment of a significant relationship that has been or will be lost;
  • Use Masks of Self to empower children, adolescents and adults to unmask their grief and any unaddressed or hidden emotional pain;
  • Practice Seasons of Transition to explore significant shifts in our community of self across the course of loss and reconstruction;
  • Implement the Dialogical Self technique to construct a meaning bridge between two facets of personal identity that stand in some contrast or tension;
  • Conduct a Future Self Interview to foster self-compassion balanced with self-reconstruction; and
  • Measure Post-Loss Growth anchored in the relationship with the deceased, rather than arising from the trauma of the death per se.


Course Overview

Although the death of a highly significant other naturally gives rise to grief over their loss, it also commonly confronts us with loss of parts of ourselves that were anchored in that relationship. This 2-day workshop extends our previous training on the Loss of Another, Loss of the Self by expanding our clinical toolkit for addressing self-reconstruction in the wake of bereavement, offering opportunities to try out a range of written, verbal, visual and arts-assisted methods for recognizing how the loss of another can erode our own sense of identity, while also opening pathways for necessary change and growth.


We begin by introducing a research-based visual analogue task for assessing the degree to which the lost other was included in the self, and reflecting on which if any of the traces of the relationship remain with us still. We then represent the masks of grief we often wear, and the possible discrepancy between the public selves that we project and the private selves that we protect. Subsequent methods help us symbolize our shifting community of self across seasons of change, to voice our own inner wisdom about how to become the person we wish to be as we move into a changed future, and to acknowledge aspects of our own growth anchored in our continuing bond with the lost other. Participants will complete the training with practical tools for assessing clients’ risks and resources stemming from their unique bond with the deceased, and several flexible procedures for fostering self-reconstruction in grief therapy.

 


Training Type

Full Time


Who Should Attend

Helping professionals, community/outreach workers, befrienders/volunteers, pastoral staff and others, who are keen in rendering bereavement support to those suffering from suicide-related loss.


Course Duration

2 days, 9am - 5pm

14 - 15 Jan 2027


Total Training Duration (Hour)

14 hours


Course Outline
  1. Assessment of clients’ relational risks and resources stemming from the bond with the deceased
  2. Art-assisted methods as visual representations of the grieving self 
  3. Dialogue with parts to bridge internal tensions or conflicts
  4. An attachment-oriented framework for scaffolding self-change
  5. Processing the seasons of changes through creative symbolic expression
  6. Using an internalized-other interview to envision a future self 
  7. Measuring identity development in bereavement with the Post-Loss Growth Questionnaire


 


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
  • Discuss research on the Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) scale in bereavement and apply this visual analogue task to self-assessment of a significant relationship that has been or will be lost;
  • Use Masks of Self to empower children, adolescents and adults to unmask their grief and any unaddressed or hidden emotional pain;
  • Practice Seasons of Transition to explore significant shifts in our community of self across the course of loss and reconstruction;
  • Implement the Dialogical Self technique to construct a meaning bridge between two facets of personal identity that stand in some contrast or tension;
  • Conduct a Future Self Interview to foster self-compassion balanced with self-reconstruction; and
  • Measure Post-Loss Growth anchored in the relationship with the deceased, rather than arising from the trauma of the death per se.



Medium of Instruction & Trainer

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


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.

 


Funding Information

NCSS PCG pre-approved funding to be advised.


Price
Discount / Promotion Fee
(Apply to original fee only)		 Fee Payable After Discount / Promotion
Before GST With GST (9%)
Early Bird Fee *Refer to EB closing date below $900.00 $981.00
Course Fee Payable
Original Fee Before GST With GST (9%)
Course Fee $975.00 $1,062.75

Early Bird Fee (Before GST): S$900 (register & pay by 3 Dec 2026)

NCSS PCG pre-approved funding to be advised.

Please note that prices are subjected to change.
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