Embracing Life After Loss: Therapeutic Tools that Promote Healing and Hope Among Children, Adolescents and Adults – Erica Sirrine

“How do I move on after this?”, “Sometimes, I wish it was me who died.”, “I feel like it is all my fault.”, “I’m not sure I will ever find happiness again.”, “My friends keep telling me to keep busy.”, “I’m hurting and no one understands.”

The voices of these and other clients will come to life in this unforgettable workshop about grief and loss. Drawing on her expertise as a bereavement counselor and educator, Dr. Sirrine blends remarkable case stories with creative intervention strategies for an engaging and unforgettable workshop. You will gain the skills necessary to become an effective grief counselor while learning to help clients of all ages authentically mourn and reconcile their losses.

Through interactive demonstrations, you will leave this workshop with over 25 concrete techniques that will forever change your clinical practice. Dr. Sirrine brings a “tool-kit” of her favorite therapeutic strategies, so you can easily develop your own following the training. The intervention techniques presented are easy to use and promote client engagement in the mourning process, ultimately leading to healing and reconciliation following a loss. Dr. Sirrine’s presentation style is uplifting and emphasizes the importance of promoting client hope following loss.

Whether your client is experiencing feelings of premature grief due to the anticipated death of a loved one, pain and loss following a divorce, or feelings of disbelief and shock following a traumatic death, this workshop will prepare you to skillfully intervene. While tailored toward clients experiencing a death, you will find much of the information applicable to other types of loss including divorce, chronic illness, military deployment, termination of parental rights, and more.

1. Analyze the differences in clinical presentation of depression as compared to bereavement.
2. Evaluate developmentally appropriate grief symptomology across the lifespan and assess for clinical concerns.
3. Design individualized therapeutic interventions for bereaved children, adolescents, adults and families using various modalities.
4. Explore continuing bonds after death and their relevance to clinical practice with bereaved clients.
5. Create a support group for bereaved children, adolescents, and/or adults with corresponding therapeutic activities.
6. Incorporate therapeutic techniques to address client grief associated with other forms of loss including divorce, chronic illness, military deployment, and termination of parental rights.

Understanding Loss

• Grief vs. Mourning
• Depression and Bereavement: A Distinction
• Secondary Losses after Death
• The Problem with “Getting Over It”
• Inhibitors of Healing after Loss

Love, Attachment, and Loss

• Maintaining Proximity after Separation
• Assessment and Expression of Continuing Bonds
• Adaptive vs. Maladaptive Continuing Bonds

Assessment of Grief and Loss

• Qualities of Effective Grief Counselors
• Honoring the Sacred Space of the Heart
• Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Reactions to Loss
• Factors Influencing the Mourning Process (i.e., Age, Culture, Gender, Spirituality)

Anticipatory Grief Counseling

• Normalizing the Dying Process and Grief Experience
• Anticipatory Grief Intervention Techniques
• Strategies for Funeral Ritual Preparation

Differences Between Adult and Youth Responses to Loss

• Common Misconceptions about Grief and Mourning
• The Paradox of Pain
• Central Components/Tasks of Mourning
• Importance of Client Self-Care
• Grief Symptomatology with Case Examples from Infancy-Adulthood
• “Things We Want Adults to Know About Our Grief”
• Signs of Concern/Red Flags

25+ Interventions and Strategies to Promote Healing among All Ages

• Bibliotherapy
• Journaling, Scrapbooking, Poetry, and Letter Writing
• Therapeutic Art and Photography
• Interactive Family Activities
• Remembrance Music
• Therapeutic Games
• Memorialization Rituals
• Grief Retreats and Camps
• …and more!

Grief and Loss Support Groups for Children, Adolescents, and Adults

• Family Involvement
• 6-8 Week Curriculum/Session Topic Outline
• Creative Facilitator Activities and Techniques

Healing and Reconciliation

• Journey through Grief
• Hope as a Therapeutic Tool
• Light Amidst the Darkness