FOR WJCS STAFF ONLY

Dates: 5/14/24 & 5/21/24              Time: 9:00-10:30am
Enrollment limited to: 30           Contact Hrs: 3                  CEU’s: 3

Grief is a natural reaction to loss and everyone will experience grief at some point in their lives. Unfortunately, despite the naturalness of grief, many people struggle to process their feelings after the loss of a loved one or are impeded in their processing by other barriers. In particular, COVID-19 and subsequent isolation have both increased the number of individuals experiencing death and grief and decreased access to typical grieving resources like community support and ritual. More and more clinicians are receiving referrals for grieving clients asking for support in their bereavement process.
The current course aims to provide clinicians with a grounding in psychoeducation and theory behind grief responses in order to increase clinician confidence in working with clients who are experiencing bereavement. Additionally, this course will provide clinicians with examples of and hands-on practice with activities they can use in session to help support clients on their journey through grief and healing. At the close of each day of the course, space will be provided for clinicians to process their thoughts
and feelings related to working with grieving clients in an effort to normalize conversation about death and dying and dispel some of the discomfort or concern about supporting grieving clients.

Method: Lecture, discussion, and hands-on activities.

Instructor: Gillian Rittmaster, LCSW; Sedef Orsel, LMSW

Learning Objectives:

• Dispel bereavement “myths” that may impede clinicians from working with grieving clients and provide education on current theories of grief
• Learn steps for assessing functioning of grieving clients
• Differentiate “normal” grieving and Prolonged Grief Disorder
• Understand and be able to provide psychoeducation to clients about the concepts of disenfranchised grief, ambiguous loss, continuing bonds, and grief reminders
• Learn about and practice therapeutic modalities and activities to do with grieving clients
• Process countertransference related to death, dying, and grief

Location: Live online.
Cost: No cost to staff

Westchester Jewish Community Services is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0101, and by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Worker as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW0067.

Please note: To receive CE credits, one must attend the entirety of the class. Partial credit will not be awarded to those who attend only a portion of the class. Therefore, late arrival or an early departure of greater than 10 minutes constitutes not attending a class in its entirety. To document attendance, participants must sign in and out of the class and complete an evaluation at the end of each class.