About this course

Learning Objectives

• 1. Participants will understand the history of modern grief theory and its applications to clinical practice.
• 2. Participants will understand perspectives on grievers related to perspectives on dying, healthcare interactions, and family roles.
• 3. Participants will understand perspectives on grievers related to advanced care planning and end-of-life decision-making. Participants will understand perspectives on grievers related to values, attitudes, and gender factors affecting the expression of grief and the impact on mourning practices
• 4. Participants will identify and assess clinical considerations related to cause of death, meaning making, advance care planning, cultural considerations, values and attitudes, gender.
• 5. Participants will assess clinical considerations related to the cause of death, meaning making, values and attitudes related to traumatic death.
• 6. Participants will discuss concepts related to death education and review perspectives on death, dying and bereavement.

Learning Levels

• Beginner; Intermediate

Target Audience

Course Instructor(s)

• 

  Kathy Couch

  LCSW, FT, EMDR Consultant

  Kathy founded Rewired360, a EMDR Consulting/Training business and Willow Creek Counseling, an EMDR therapy business. Certifications are held with EMDRIA as a EMDR Certified Therapist/Approved Consultant, the Association of Death Education and Counseling, and is a Level 2 trained Gottman Institute clinician.

  Kathy has 10 years of teaching experience at Boise State University, with specializations in in program evaluation, research and small business development. Specialties include areas of death, grief, bereavement, couples, addiction, child welfare, probation and parole, TF-CBT, substance abuse and domestic violence. She regularly provides EMDR and Couples Intensives and lives in Twin Falls, Idaho with her family daughter, twin boys and family dogs.

• 

  Stephanie Pearce

  Owner of Stephanie Pearce Therapy

  Stephanie Pearce is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in PA & NJ. She obtained her MSW from Rutgers University in 2002 & has worked in the social work field for 23 years in settings ranging from a family crisis unit to an outpatient setting. Ms. Pearce currently facilities a private practice in the Pocono, PA area that customizes services for individuals & couples impacted by grief & loss across the life span, maternal mood disorders, reproductive trauma, developmental trauma & infertility.

  Ms. Pearce is a certified EMDR therapist, certified in Brainspotting, a certified perinatal mental health professional & a certified grief informed professional. She is passionate about participating in ongoing learning & is awaiting her Thanatology professional certification exam results.

  She enjoys working with students in the academic environment. Ms. Pearce also works as an adjunct instructor through Grand Canyon University, as well as supporting students in their social work field work programs through Marywood University. She facilitates CEU trainings for the Nurturing Mamas Network & for NASW-PA.

  Stephanie enjoys hiking with her family including an energetic rescue dog. She is a lifelong NY Jets & Mets fan.

References

• Alexander, Jeffrey (2004). Towards a theory of cultural trauma. In J. Alexander, R. Eyerman (et al) (Eds). Cultural trauma and collective identity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Caruth, C. (1995). Trauma exploration in memory. Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Clewell T. Mourning beyond melancholia: Freud's psychoanalysis of loss. J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2004 Winter;52(1):43-67. doi: 10.1177/00030651040520010601. PMID: 15089015.
• Doka, K. (2006). Social, cultural, spiritual, and psychological barriers to pain management. In K. Doka (Ed.) Pain Management at the end of life: Bridging the gap between knowledge and practice. Washington, DC: The Hospice Foundation of America.
• Fagan, A. (2020). What Is Metacognition? How Does It Help Us Think? Psychology Today. Retrieved June 30, 2023, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-moment-youth/202010/what-is-metacognition-how-does-it-help-us-think
• Klass, D., Silverman, P., & Nickman, S. (1996). Continuing Bonds New Understandings of Grief. Taylor and Francis.
• Kessler, D (2019). Finding Meaning-The Sixth Stage of Grief. New York, USA: Scribner
• Lebow, H. (2022, January 22). Anticipatory Grief: Are You Mourning Before a Loss? PsychCentral. Retrieved July 13, 2023, from https://psychcentral.com/health/anticipatory-grief
• Lunney, J.R. Lynn, J., Foley, D.J., Lipson, S., & Gualnik, J.M. (2003) Patterns of functional decline at the end of life. JAMA, 289, 2387-2392.
• National Health Care for the Homeless Council. (January 2018). Patient-Centered Care: Case Studies on End of Life. Healing Hands, 22:1. (Author: Melissa Jean, Writer). Nashville, TN. Available at: www.nhchc.org
• Nelson, H.L., & Nelson, J.L. (1995). The patient in the family: An ethics of medicine and families. New York: Routledge.
• Prigerson, H.G., & Maciejewski, P.K. (2—6). A call for sound empirical testing and evaluation of criteria for complicated grief proposed by the DSMV. Omega, The Journal of Death and Dying, 52, 9-19.
• Servaty-Seib, H. (2007). Handbook of Thanatology (3rd ed. P. 27-318). Association of Death Education and Counseling.
• Suarez-Orozco, M.M. & Robben, Antonius, C.M.G. (2000). The management of collective trauma. In C. Antonius & M. Suarez-Orozco (Eds.), Culture under siege: collective violence and trauma. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Stroebe, M., & Schut, H. (2021). Bereavement in Times of COVID-19: A Review and Theoretical Framework. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 82(3), 500–522. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222820966928
• Valent, P. (1998) From survival to fulfillment. Philadelphia PA: Brunner/Mazel.
• Williams, L. (2018, February 14). Grief Work: The grief theory of Erich Lindemann. What's Your Grief. Retrieved July 3, 2003, from https://whatsyourgrief.com/grief-work-grief-theory-erich-lindemann/