Recorded ACGB Webinars

Webinar Overview: Induced After Death Communication: A Powerful and Innovative Therapy for Grief

After-death communication (ADC) is a spontaneous and naturally occurring phenomenon in which a living person experiences a feeling or sense of direct contact with a deceased person. Studies indicate that one-third of people across cultures, genders, education levels, incomes, and religious or non-religious affiliations have experienced spontaneous ADC's. This presentation will provide an overview of Induced After Death communication (IADC) Therapy, a variation of EMDR therapy that uses similar principles to assist clients in processing the sadness associated with grief and, in about 70 percent of cases, experience an ADC. Research by the University of North Texas (in publications) shows that IADC clients experience a more significant and lasting reduction in distressing symptoms of grief than those in traditional talk therapies. The ability to achieve a perception of joyful present-moment contact with a deceased loved one challenges conventional notions that the most adaptive response for grieving clients is minimal sadness and the emergence of positive memories of the deceased. IADC Therapy suggests that a perception of loving communication with the deceased may be a yet more adaptive state. This presentation will introduce participants to this remarkable and promising way of healing grief and transforming feelings of loss and separation into a perception of loving present-moment connection. This webinar has been designed for social workers, counsellors, psychologists and healthcare workers.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Participants will receive an overview of IADC Therapy, its goals, and its key elements
• Participants will understand the major considerations in assessing a clients suitability for IADC Therpay
• Participants will learn the typical outcomes for clients that undergo IADC Therapy

Presenter Bio: César Valdez

César Valdez has been practicing psychotherapy for over 25 years, having earned his Master of Social Work degree from the university of Michigan in 1996. He is a Certified EMDR therapist and a Level II graduate of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute. He is also a certified trainer of IADC Therapy., an innovative and specialised treatment for grief, and a member of the IADC International Board where he serves as Associate Director. César offers individual and group consultation to developing therapists and has taught Master-and Doctoral-level candidates at a University of Michigan psychotherapy training institute. He is a co-founder of Partners in Healing, a psychotherapy training organisation based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. César has given presentations at various international conferences including the EMDR International Association, the Association for Death Education and Counsellors, and the International Gathering of the Spiritual Guidance Wisdom School. In 2021, he opened Valdez Consulting where he offers his transformational skills to visionary clients and groups throughout the world in a consulting, coaching, ad mentorship role. César's chapter, "Induced After0Death Communication," is now available in New Techniques of Grief Therapy: Bereavement and Beyond by Robert Neimeyer.

Webinar Overview: Music Therapy and Grief

This webinar will provide new insights into ways of using music as part of the grieving process. Drawing on knowledge from the profession of music therapy, the presenter will identify four keyways of using music with grieving people. Together, we will explore simple approaches to using sons, using instruments, using music and imagery, and music listening to meet the needs of individuals, families, and groups. This webinar will use examples to illustrate how music has been used in the presenter's work with children, teenagers, young and older adults. The emphasis will be on thinking about the unique relationship every person has with music and discovering what is the most useful way to integrate creative experiences into a therapeutic process. Helpful and unhelpful ways of using music will be explored, particularly for those who are ruminating or struggling with a range of adverse experiences. Some experiential and self-reflective opportunities will be integrated to make sure learning is grounded in what is real for each participant.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• To discover how music can be used in helpful ways to support the grieving process
• To expand understandings about how to use music in grief and loss
• To identify when music use is helpful and how to consider music listening habits

Presenter Bio: Professor Katrina Skewes McFerran

Dr Kat McFerran is Professor and Head of Creative Arts Therapy at The University of Melbourne in Australia. She is a registered music therapist and researcher whose PhD was on working with bereaved teenagers and she has practiced in community based palliative care (Mercy Western Palliative Care), paediatric palliative care (Very Special Kids) and at the Royal Children's Hospital. She also had a consultancy for many years and provided workshops to adults and youth about using music as part of the grieving process, both related to bereavement and other adverse experiences. Kat's research has often incorporated a focus on less and grief and she has extensively explored how people use music in their everyday life as a form of self-care, and the ways music can sometimes be used in unhelpful ways as part of patterns of dependence or emotional self-harm. She has published more than 100-peer reviewed journal articles, as well as 5 books, a fre Massice Open Online Course called 'How Music Can Change Your Life' (with more than 25,000 enrolments) and a TedX Talk called 'Returning From the Darkside with Music' (with more than 88,000 views).

Webinar Overview: An Expressive Arts Approach to Healing Loss and Grief

This webinar will introduce core concepts and practices of Expressive Arts Therapy. This approach uses 'all of the arts' and 'artistic retellings' in helping people to discover imaginative and artistic resources that promote resilience in loss and bereavement. This webinar has been designed for helping professionals from all disciplines who wish to work more imaginatively and creatively in assisting grieving and bereaved people in a variety of circumstances.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Define expressive arts therapy and its intermodal characteristics
• Describe the core concepts of ‘poses’ and ‘decentering’
• Learn how to assist clients to finish ‘unfinished business’ through poetic writing
• Describe how an expressive arts therapy approach restores capacity in a problem saturated situation
• Identify arts-based self-care practices

Presenter Bio: Dr Irene Renzenbrink

Webinar Overview: Using Deliberate Practice to Achieve Better Results

Current evidence suggests that we not only do not improve with experience (Chow et al. 2015; Wampold & Imel, 2015), our typical professional development efforts by attending workshops (Neimeyer & Taylor, 2010) and engaging in clinical supervision (Watkins, 2011) does not lead to better performance. Gleaning for the field of expertise in other professional domains, the primary purpose of this workshop is to help practitioners use the principles of deliberate practice to improve their therapeutic effectiveness, and push their effectiveness to the next level (Chow, 2017; Miller, Chow, Hubble, 2020). This webinar has been designed for mental health service providers, counselling, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, psychotherapists, clinical supervisors, agency administrators, and clinical managers.

Learning Outcomes:

What can participants expect to have learned after watching this webinar:

• Integrate the use of feedback informed treatment (FIT) approach into clinical practice to optimise service deliveries (Miller, Hubble, Chow, Seidel, 2015)
• Apply the four principles of deliberate practice to help you develop and sustain a lifelong individualised professional development plan (Chow, 2017; Miller, Hubble, Chow, 2020).

Presenter Bio: Dr Daryl Chow

Webinar Overview: Working With Traumatic Grief: Understanding and Managing the Conflicting Processes Of Trauma and Grief

Many traumatic experiences involve loss and grief. Whenever loss occurs in circumstances that are tragic, sudden, horrible or involve great suffering there is a traumatic dimension to the grief. Such loss needs to be distinguished from the pain of loss that may be natural, expected and yet still sad and painful. This webinar will describe the bodily, emotional and mental processes involved in the natural trauma and grief responses. Much has been learned about trauma and grief in the last half century although they may occur together and we may think that any grief is traumatic, it is helpful to recognise they are quite distinct responses to different threats. Grief involves the loss of someone who is part of ourselves and their absence in the real world causes pain and motivates a process of accepting and adapting to it. Trauma involves an experience of threat to self or other and activates physical and psychological responses to cope that may not subside but keep reactivating the experience causing post-traumatic stress. These two adaptive responses - grief and trauma have distinct physiological emotional and psychological patterns and require distinct techniques to facilitate recovery from them. In traumatic grief they alternate and often conflict or cut across each other preventing recovery. The webinar will describe each of these processes so they can be recognised and discuss the strategies and techniques required to help them resolve. Examples and illustrations will be used to clarify the material.

Learning Outcomes:

What can participants expect to have learned after watching this webinar:

• The defining patterns and responses of traumatic stress
• The defining patterns and responses of grief.
• How these two responses interact in traumatic stress
• Broad strategic principles for disentangling them and facilitating recovery.

Presenter Bio: Dr Rob Gordon

Webinar Overview: Grief, Bereavement and Prolonged Grief Disorder

Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) is a clinically important condition that until very recently has been overlooked in medical and psychiatric practice, in mental health research, and in our official diagnostic nomenclature. In the last year, PGD has finally become recognised as a mental condition by both the ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR. Its recognition is of great consequence because the syndrome occurs with relative frequency, characterises a population at high risk for ongoing distress, suffering, medical morbidity, and psychiatric comorbidity. For individuals with PGD, ongoing life may seem empty, unrewarding, and untenable, and recurrent thoughts of 'joining' the deceased are common. PGD can be diagnosed by history alone, and when properly managed, can carry an excellent prognosis. Time limited, grief-focussed psychotherapy is the treatment of choice. This presentation will describe diagnostic clues, differential diagnosis, risk factors and treatment. This webinar has been designed for Psychiatrists, Clinical Psychologists and other Mental Health providers.

Learning Outcomes:

What can participants expect to have learned after watching this webinar:

• Describe key characteristic and features of acute and integrated grief
• Describe key characteristic features of Prolonged Grief Disorder.
• Differentiate Prolonged Grief Disorders for ordinary grief, Major Depressive Disorder and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
• Learn an evidence-based treatment approach to Prolonged Grief Disorder.

Presenter Bio: Sidney Zisook, MD, Distinguished Professor, UC San Diego, Department of Psychiatry

Webinar Overview: Does Help Really Help?

In this webinar Henk Schut will address the questions whether volunteer and professional help offered to bereaved people is helpful. Additionally, he will challenge those improvements in terms of grief, mood, or general functioning during grief intervention and even satisfaction of bereaved clients says little about the intervention being effective. Henk will discuss ways in which we can more accurately and more correctly address and assess which kinds of help are indeed helpful for which bereaved people. Henk will illustrate his line of reasoning by a study he conducted and discuss the value, as well as the pitfalls and weaknesses and the complexity of such a way of working in daily practice.

Learning Outcomes:

What can participants expect to have learned after watching this webinar:

• To have developed a critical approach on grief intervention effects
• To appreciate the complexity of finding answers to whether help helps and not go for the easy answers.
• To be able to more critically and constructively consider the value of collaboration between researchers and people working in bereavement care
• To be able to challenge some of one’s own assumptions about grief and bereavement care.

Presenter Bio: Henk Schut

Webinar Overview: Facilitating Resilience and Life After Loss: Using the Twin Lenses of Two-Track Model of Bereavement (TTMB) in Clinical Work..

The loss of a close family member has the potential to be a catalytic and / or cataclysmic, life-changing event. In this webinar, our focus will be on understanding this model and its applications and utility in working with the bereaved. The early formulations of the Two-Track Model of Bereavement (Rubin, 1981, 1999), sought to clarify and chart a pathway to make sense of the tremendous variation in response to loss. The passage of time has added clinical and research data underscoring the importance of maintaining a bifocal approach for the examination of response to loss across the life-cycle (Rubin, Malkinson & Witztum, 2012, 2020). The first track of the response to loss addresses the biopyschosocial response to loss over time. The Track I domain focusses on response to traumatic and extremely stressful life events. All such events require adaption, change and integration, and all can result in variable mixtures of positive, neutral and negative influences on those affected. The second track, focuses most powerfully on the nuances of the relationship to the deceased. Track II places the preloss experience of the relationship, and the post loss bond to the deceased, at the centre of attention. Together with the Death Story, understanding the nature of the bond with the deceased both prior to and following the loss are critical to understanding the challenges of working with the bereaved. In this webinar, I will present new insights and perspectives based on the model, its evolution over time, and some of its relevance for those working in the field today. We shall consider this model's relevance for focussing assessment and interventions related to continuing bonds, traumatic and non-traumatic loss, and overall resilience. To do so, we shall use art, film and clinical material along with theory and research data in our meeting. This webinar is designed to engage clinicians, researches, the bereaved and those who support them, in our shared quest to facilitate resilience following loss and bereavement.

Learning Outcomes:

What can participants expect to have learned after watching this webinar:

• A clear understanding of the Two-Track Model of Bereavement (TTMB) and its implications for theory and practice
• A paradigm for applying the insights of the model in assessment and intervention and suggestions for deciding how to balance and when to prioritise Track I, Track II, or both tracks of the TTMB.
• How to interplay between subjective and objective elements of how loss impacts the bereavement experience in “traumatic bereavement” and how to use the TTMB to assist in assessment and intervention.
• Presentation of several strategies and techniques and their connection to particular elements of the TTMB with the goal of fostering resilience in the bereaved.

Presenter Bio: Simon Shimshon Rubin, Ph.D

Webinar Overview

This presentation describes disenfranchised grief as grief that is not openly acknowledged, socially sanctioned, or publicly mourned. The presentation explores the contexts and causes of disenfranchised grief as well as complications arising from disenfranchisement. The webinar will emphasise the cultural factors that can disenfranchise grief. A strong emphasis of the presentation is on interventive strategies that can enfranchise grief.

Learning Outcomes

Following this webinar you will:

• Define disenfranchised grief, discuss causes of disenfranchisement, and describe five contexts of disenfranchised grief
• Discuss ways that disenfranchisement complicates the process of mourning.
• Describe interventive strategies that are effective with disenfranchised grievers.
• Discuss the cost of enfranchising disenfranchised grievers.

Presenter Biography

Dr. Kenneth J. Doka is a Professor Emeritus at the Graduate School of the College of New Rochelle and Senior Consultant to the Hospice Foundation of America. A prolific author, Dr. Doka has authored or edited over 40 books and over 100 articles and book chapters. Dr. Doka is editor of both Omega: The Journal of Death and Dying and Journeys: A Newsletter to Help in Bereavement. He has authored two books on disenfranchised grief.

Webinar Overview

This webinar will explore the question of how to find up to date grief and bereavement research and how to critically read research articles and determine the take-away message. For this webinar we invite you to participate in this short online survey which will help us best answer your questions about bereavement research. .

Learning Outcomes

Following this webinar you will:

• Where can I find bereavement research.
• How can I critically read bereavement research.
• How to extract key information from research.
• How to undertake bereavement research.

Presenter Biography

Wendy G. Lichtenthal, Ph.D., is Director of the Bereavement Clinic and Associate Attending Psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine. She completed her undergraduate studies at The University of Chicago, her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, her clinical psychology internship at Payne Whitney/Weill Cornell Medicine, and a postdoctoral research fellowship in psycho-oncology at MSK, where she was Chief Research Fellow. Dr. Lichtenthal’s research has focused on grief and bereavement, meaning-making, intervention development, and cancer survivorship. Her research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the T.J. Martell Foundation, and Cycle for Survival. Dr. Lichtenthal was the recipient of the Kawano New Investigator Award from the International Psycho-Oncology Society in 2012 and the Research Recognition Award from the Association for Death Education and Counselling in 2019. As a licensed clinical psychologist, her practice focuses on helping cancer patients and their families cope and find meaning in the face of adversity.

Webinar Overview

Grief is the natural response to loss. It’s complex, time varying and multifaceted. Everyone grieves in their own way, but there are commonalities. Grief is permanent after someone close dies, finding a place in the life of a bereaved person. Its intensity subsides as the person finds a way to accept the reality of the death and restore wellbeing. However, for some bereaved people, troubling thoughts or feelings, problematic behaviours or severe social or life problems block adaptation to the loss. The result is complicated grief (CG). CG is associated with impairment in functioning and increased suicidal thinking. This condition can be reliably identified, and research suggests that people suffering in this way respond significantly better to targeted complicated grief treatment (CGT) than to proven efficacious treatment for depression. CGT is a time-limited approach that uses methods from a range of evidence-based treatments to address grief complications and facilitate adaptation to loss. .

Learning Outcomes

Following this webinar you will:

• Explain the model of acute, integrated and complicated grief.
• Identify grief complications.
• Analyse the seven themes addressed in complicated grief treatment as they relate to overall objectives of the treatment.
• Assess for complicated grief.

Presenter Biography

Dr. M. Katherine Shear is the Marion E. Kenworthy Professor of Psychiatry and the founding Director of the Center for Complicated Grief at Columbia School of Social Work. Dr. Shear is a clinical researcher who first worked in anxiety and depression. For the last two decades she has focused on understanding and treating people who experience persistent intense grief. She developed and tested complicated grief treatment (CGT) a short-term targeted intervention and confirmed its efficacy in three large NIMH-funded studies. CGT is strength-based and focused on fostering adaptation to loss. Dr. Shear is widely recognised for her work in bereavement, including both research and clinical awards from the Association for Death Education and Counselling and invited authorship of articles for Up to date and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Webinar Overview

The death of a loved one by suicide plunges family members and friends into a whirlpool of grief reactions. Your challenge as a clinician is to help your client identify feelings, reveal deep thoughts, and examine expectations as the reality of the loss begins to fill their life space. In this webinar we will examine an array of grief reactions following suicide, with particular focus on guilt and anger. We will then review suggestions for helping our clients ad their children gradually move forward with their lives while finding ways to self-care and integrate this life-altering event.

Learning Outcomes

Following this webinar you will:

• Assist suicide survivors in coping with guilt, anger and responsibility.
• Learn ways to help children cope with the grief of suicide loss.
• Identify strategies for helping clients with self-care following a suicide.
• Understand the broad range of reactions to a suicide.

Presenter Biography

Dr. Bob Baugher is an instructor at Highline College near Seattle, USA where he teaches courses in Psychology and Death Education. As an ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) educator he has trained more than 1,500 people in suicide intervention. He has given more than 800 workshops and has written many articles and several books on grief and loss, including “After Suicide Loss: Coping with Your Grief” co-authored with Dr. Jack Jordan.

Webinar Overviews

Intervening in Meaning: New Directions in Grief Therapy: Viewed from a constructivist perspective, a central process in grieving is the attempt to reaffirm or reconstruct a world of meaning that has been challenged by loss. As research with bereaved young people, parents and older adults indicates, both natural and violent death losses can leave mourners struggling to process the event story of the death and to make sense of its implications for their lives, and to access the back story of their relationship with their deceased loved one in a way that reaffirms their sense of secure attachment. This presentation will summarise Dr Robert Neimeyers recent studies of the psychological and social struggle to make sense of loss, outline several validated measures of meaning-making processes and outcomes, and describe current research to evaluate the impact of novel meaning-oriented interventions to help people find growth through grief.

Presenter Biographys

Dr Robert Neimeyer: Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD, is 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, which provides training internationally in grief therapy. Neimeyer has published 30 books, including Techniques of Grief Therapy: Assessment and Intervention and Grief and the Expressive Arts: Practices for Creating Meaning, the latter with Barbara Thompson, and serves as Editor of the journal Death Studies. The author of over 500 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 Counselling (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 the Association for Death Education and Counselling and the International Network on Personal Meaning.

Webinar Overview: Rising From Shattered Lives.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Explain Basic concepts of working with existential principles.
• Describe Four world model
• Discuss Emotional Compass model.
• Dialectic of time model
• Paradox and conflict model
• Values and purpose model
• Understanding of psychological upheaval of the five million
• New ideas about resilience
• Notion of thriving on existential crisis
• The importance of passion and engagement

Presenter Bio: Dr Emmy van Deurzen

Webinar Overview: The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life

The uniquely human fear of death has a pervasive effect on human beings' thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. Humans manage the terror of death by adhering to culturally constructed beliefs about reality that provide a sense that one is a person of value in a world of meaning, and thus eligible for either literal or symbolic immortality. The quest for immortality underlies some of humankind’s most noble achievements. It also, however, engenders some of our most ignominious affectations, including: hostility and disdain for people with different beliefs; attraction to ideological demagogues; indifference to, or contempt for, the natural environment; and, the mindless pursuit of material possessions which, if unchecked, may render humans the first form of life responsible for their own extinction. This presentation will share an overview of these ideas and empirical work that corroborates them, and then consider the implications of these notions for grief and bereavement processes and practices.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Familiarity with Ernest Becker's claims in The Denial of Death that humans manage existential terror by embracing cultural world views that confer a sense that one is a person of value in a world of meaning.
• Describe basic terror management theory (TMT) research demonstrating that: self-esteem buffers anxiety; reminders of death instigates culture worldview defence and self-esteem striving; and, threats to cherished beliefs or self-esteem bring non-conscious death thoughts more readily to mind.
• Understand the role of death anxiety in self-destructive health behaviours and psychological disorders.
• Consider the implications of these ideas for grief and bereavement practices.

Presenter Bio: Dr Sheldon Solomon

Webinar Overview: Emotional Problems After Traumatic Bereavement: Nature, Correlates, and Treatment.

Traumatic bereavement refers to the sudden, unexpected death of a loved one under circumstances that are unnatural and traumatising. Examples are losses due to traffic accidents, terrorist attacks, suicide, and homicide. Traumatic losses can lead to severe depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and prolonged grief disorder (PGD). In this presentation, Paul Boelen will discuss the nature and prevalence of different types of emotional problems that may follow traumatic bereavement. Secondly, he will discuss risk factors and protective factors involved in the development and persistence of such problems. Finally, psychological interventions that can be used to treat emotional problems following traumatic loss will be discussed, with a specific focus on cognitive behavioural interventions. All these issues will be connected with research on the consequences of homicide, the MH17 plane crash, and traffic accidents that Paul has been involved in.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• To have more clarity about the distinction between uncomplicated/normal and disordered/complicated grief
• To have more knowledge about the impact of unnatural/traumatic loss events on grief
• To understand that traumatic grief can be considered as an interplay between separation distress (grief) and traumatic distress.
• To know more about risk factors and protective factors that influence the emotional consequences of unnatural/traumatic losses.
• To know more about interventions that can be used to alleviate disordered/complicated grief following unnatural/traumatic losses.

Presenter Bio: Professor Dr Paul Boelen

Webinar Overview: Attachment and Loss: From Practice to theory and back again.

Presentations like this one offer abundant opportunities to learn, to share, and to reflect on what we have come to understand about grief, loss, and the work of providing support to those affected by painful life changes. They also provide a forum for discussion of the limitations of what we know – and of what it is possible for us to know – about the deepest, most profound and most personal of human experiences. In this keynote, webinar, the speaker will present a narrative of her 25 years of work with the bereaved, with the explicit goal of illustrating how her understanding of grief, her therapeutic approach and her views regarding the role of a grief therapist have evolved throughout the course of her career. Factors in this evolution include the de facto, continuous collection of data on the grief experience that clinical work provides, and efforts to make sense of this data by turning, on a regular basis, to the literature on the roots of normative and complicated grief and on progress in addressing the needs of the bereaved. In her book, Attachment Informed Grief Therapy: A Clinician’s Guide to Foundations and Applications, co-authored by John R. Jordan and published in 2016, Dr. Kosminsky passes on what she has learned about how attachment shapes the development of the self, the character of our relationships, and our response to loss. Learning, like life, is a continuous process of unfolding and growth, and she looks forward to engaging with participants in this webinar.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Explain how theory related to grief and loss have evolved over the past twenty five years and factors that have influenced that evolution
• Describe contrasting approaches to work with the bereaved and their underlying assumptions
• Discuss the practice implications of theory, research and clinical reports linking insecure attachment and complicated grief.
• Understand how experienced clinicians integrate theory and practice over time, and in so doing, develop an increasingly refined and meaningful understanding of grief and grief therapy.

Presenter Bio: Dr Phyllis Kosminsky

Webinar Overview: Intervening in Meaning: New Directions in Grief Therapy.

Viewed from a constructivist perspective, a central process in grieving is the attempt to reaffirm or reconstruct a world of meaning that has been challenged by loss. As research with bereaved young people, parents and older adults indicates, both natural and violent death losses can leave mourners struggling to process the event story of the death and to make sense of its implications for their lives, and to access the back story of their relationship with their deceased loved one in a way that reaffirms their sense of secure attachment. This presentation will summarise Dr Robert Neimeyers recent studies of the psychological and social struggle to make sense of loss, outline several validated measures of meaning-making processes and outcomes, and describe current research to evaluate the impact of novel meaning-oriented interventions to help people find growth through grief.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Summarise research supporting a meaning reconstruction model of adaptive grieving
• Identify four complementary measures of meaning that can be used to assess struggles in sense-making in the anticipation or aftermath of a loss
• Describe three programs of research investigating the process and outcome of narrative constructivist models of grief therapy as well as their representative interventions

Presenter Bio: Dr Robert Neimeyer

Webinar Overview: How COVID-19 is changing the way we experience loss, grief and bereavement.

With profound changes to funeral practices, record-breaking job losses and increasing physical isolation; children, families and communities are grappling to make sense of these seismic changes in their lives. With the COVID-19 crisis producing distress and anxiety through our communities, it is going to cause unprecedented reactions across the world in relation to grief and bereavement. Made up of three specialist panellists, this webinar will provide viewers with an overview of the effects of COVID-19 on children, families and the community. The panellists will also provide information on practical applications for viewers.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Understand the importance of child agency as a way to strengthen children's ability to cope with and adapt to the challenges of disaster and pandemic. What does research tell us?
• Learn ways to work with children in their experience of the challenges, losses, fears and new normal of the pandemic.
• Identify the challenging issues facing family members during and after a pandemic
• Identify a range of strategies that can be used to support people and families who have experienced a death as a result of COVID-19
• Understand and be able to offer simple techniques for managing strong emotions within a community that has experienced loss as a result of COVID-19 or disruption of their support patterns.
• Understand the impact and consequences of both grief and trauma in the care of people and communities facing such difficult losses and the associated disrupted social life.
• Have strategies for working therapeutically with individuals and communities experiencing grief and trauma reactions to isolation and disruption
• Identify the key issues stemming from multiple losses from isolation and lockdown within a community
• Increase confidence in working with individuals within a community that has been affected by these issues

Presenter Bio: Michelle Roberts

Presenter Bio: Dr Rob Gordon

Presenter Bio: Associate Profession Lauren Breen

Webinar Overview: Ageing, Ageism and Care: Exploring the Needs of Families and Elders

Ageing, Ageism and Care: Exploring the Needs of Families and Elders. Identify the unique needs and issues of an ageing population upon clinicians, health care, and families. This webinar will be beneficial for people who support elders and their families, both professionally and informally.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Develop awareness of demographic trends about ageing and their implications.
• Understand how social attitudes about ageing affect care delivery and supports.
• Explore the impact of ageing relatives on family systems.
• Articulate the concerns and losses that are often felt by older individuals.
• Examine the losses associated with ageing using current bereavement theory and practice.
• Define the roles and responsibilities of professional caregivers who are involved with elder care.

Presenter Bio: Dr Darcy Harris

Webinar Overview: End of Life Conversations

For patients and families facing advanced illness, the medical interventions and quality of life that lie ahead are largely determined through a series of conversations they have with their health care providers. These discussions, which can occur from before illness is diagnosed and continue through bereavement care, include many emotionally charged topics, such as unfavourable prognoses and treatment failure, treatment choices and family responses to them, advance care planning, concerns about one's ability to cope, life goals and other life-closure issues, anticipatory mourning, and the meaning of the illness and the suffering it creates. When these often-difficult discussions are avoided or are managed poorly, the efficacy of medical care and the quality of remaining life for patients can be seriously jeopardised.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Identify barriers to end-of-life discussions in advanced illness and end-of-life care
• Identify concepts and skills that can enhance the quantity and quality of end-of-life conversations
• Identify programs that can enhance the quantity and quality of end-0f-life conversations
• Identify the personal and professional challenges end-of-life conversations present for health providers

Presenter Bio: Dr Dale Larson

Webinar Overview: Multiple Losses

When people experience multiple losses from death in a short period of time, they often experience what Kastenbaum calls “Bereavement Overload.” Their grief may seem overwhelming and become shut down or manifest itself in physical and psychological symptoms. Strategies for helping them jump-start the process in a way that feels safe and enables them to better process their grief will be discussed. Ten cases from the presenter’s practice will illustrate the issues involved and appropriate treatment interventions.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• To identify the key issues stemming from multiple losses
• To understand how multiple losses may result in “Bereavement Overload
• To learn how to help mourners process multiple losses without getting stuck, or if stuck, how to move forward towards the best adaptation to these losses
• To identify the key issues stemming from multiple losses

Presenter Bio: Dr William Worden

Webinar Overview: Bereavement Care in a Coronial Setting

How well do you understand families' current or past experiences of the systems they come in contact with following an unexpected or unexplained death reported to the Coroner? How confident would you be in helping someone to navigate an unfamiliar, confusing, and often disempowering medico-legal system at a time of extreme distress, or delving back into the ‘system’ to help find information, answers and meaning that a family desperately needs? Would you like to develop your skills and knowledge to better understand people’s unique experiences, facilitate access to accurate information where available, provide informed choices where possible, and offer targeted, timely and effective support? All unexpected or unexplained deaths are reported to the Coroner which sets in motion a multi-faceted and often misunderstood medico-legal process of inquiry into the who, how, where, when and why of the death. The effects on grief may be exacerbated or alleviated depending on the bereaved person’s experience of the systems with which they are forced to interact due to the nature or circumstances of the death. This webinar will introduce a model of practice in a Coronial and Forensic Medicine setting that can be adapted and applied to help you to develop your skills and knowledge to better understand people’s unique experiences and more confidently and effectively respond to their needs relating to sudden bereavement.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Practice principles in relation to viewings, disaster victim response, and supported access to sensitive information and Coronial documents (e.g. suicide notes, autopsy results, scene photos, post mortem reports).
• Knowledge and skills in the application of the principles of ‘informed choice’, dignity and respect for deceased persons, and critique of ‘systemic paternalism’, within a non-pathologising practice framework.
• Approaches, beyond self-care, to sustainable practice in rewarding but challenging areas of work.
• To reflect on your own practice to increase confidence and effectiveness in advocacy and influencing systemic change to improve experiences and outcomes for those who encounter the Coronial system.
• To recognise and respond to: the prevalent issues, risks and impacts of bereavement; and the preventative, early intervention, health promotion, and public health opportunities of bereavement care in a Coronial setting.

Presenter Bio: Danny Nugus

Webinar Overview: Working with Migrants and Refugees Experiencing Grief

This webinar will explore the experiences of migrants, refugees, and international students, as well as the impact of migratory grief and associated bereavement on the process of migration and cultural adjustment. Evidence-based implications for counselling and psychological practice and professional support will be discussed and suggestions for further research will be noted. The webinar will draw upon recent findings of the relevant research, clinical experience, and existing literature. Topics including disenfranchised grief; migration; refugees; asylum seekers; and resettlement, rehabilitation, and relocation will be discussed. This webinar is appropriate for practitioners and students at all levels of expertise.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Develop a strong understanding of migratory grief.
• Improve their awareness of the impact of bereavement due to migration on general wellbeing and coping.
• Acquire evidence-based techniques that maximise the effect of work with migrants and refugees, and their families and friends.
• Enhance their sensitivity toward the experiences of migrants in order to improve their counselling, clinical and general professional practice.
• Be able to describe the factors that contribute to disenfranchised grief and its impact on bereavement.
• Be able to identify the latest research findings and suggestions for further investigation in the area of migratory grief.

Presenter Bio: Dr Lefteris Patlamazoglou

Webinar Overview: Parental Grief and Its Impact

This webinar will provide an understanding of the unique factors associated with grieving the death of one’s child and strategies and techniques to assist before and after the death. This webinar focuses on grief and loss, bereavement support, and couples and family counselling. Those who will benefit from attending this webinar include counsellors, clergy, volunteers and others providing support to bereaved parents.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Understand the unique stresses experienced by bereaved parents.
• Be able to explain the stresses on the marriage often brought about by the death of a child
• Gain knowledge of the impact on the family associated with the death of a child.
• Understand intervention strategies intended to help parents and families before and after the death of the child.
• Be able to explain the types of counselling and support that may assist grieving parents.

Presenter Bio: Jim Monahan

Jim Monahan has over 25 years of hospice experience, including patient care, bereavement support and executive leadership. Jim has a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology – Counselling and has been a Licensed Professional Counsellor in Texas and a Certified Grief Counsellor. Jim has been named “Consultant” by the Chinese Association for Life Care in Beijing and was named “Director of the Year” by the Texas & New Mexico Hospice Organization. He has lectured about grief, patient care, and hospice in England, Australia, New Zealand, China, Portugal and Barbados. He has authored numerous publications, including co-authoring a chapter with J. Worden, Ph.D. on parental grief in the book, “Hospice Care for Children” published by Oxford University Press.

Webinar Overview: Supporting those Bereaved after an Unexpected Death

Given that bereavement is a universal human experience webinar content will be relevant to everyone, including those working with clients who have experienced a sudden and unexpected death. Given that a sudden and unexpected death can occur anywhere webinar content may be relevant to those working in a wide variety of clinical areas including surgical settings, medical-surgical units, outpatient settings, and firefighters, police, and emergency responders who may be first on scene after a sudden death. The aim of this webinar is to provide evidenced-based content on best practices for supporting those bereaved after a sudden and unexpected death.

Those who will benefit from attending this webinar include physicians, nurses, emergency medical personnel, counsellors, clergy, social workers, counsellors, hospice staff, and others who may encounter those suddenly bereaved after a sudden or unexpected death.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Define grief, loss, and bereavement
• Appreciate what we know, and do not know, about grief, loss and bereavement, especially after a sudden and unexpected death (aka NASH deaths)
• Identify how stages of dying, grief theories, and models of coping with bereavement have changed in recent years
• Discuss the unique aspects associated with a sudden and unexpected death including impacts on family systems
• Identify evidence-based strategies to support suddenly bereaved survivors
• Recognise the importance of self-care after supporting survivors of sudden and unexpected death

Presenter Bio: Dr. Dorothy “Dale” Mayer

Dr. Dorothy “Dale” Mayer is a cardiovascular clinical nurse specialist with research interests focused on the universal human experiences of grief, loss, and bereavement. She will share her experiences with sudden death as both a professional nurse and a family member. She has published a study of family bereavement experiences after sudden cardiac death and a paper on supporting the suddenly bereaved. Dr. Mayer has extensive teaching experience and has spoken about sudden bereavement at local, regional, national, and international meetings.

Lecture Overview

This recording is of our 2019 Annual Grief Lecture; Death in the Public Eye which saw five panelists come together to discuss; Those who experience a bereavement that is marked by violence, suddenness or due to human actions are forced to navigate two worlds - one populated by the media, the coroner, the legal system and public curiosity and a second, less visible world, of private grief. The 2019 grief lecture will examine what transpires when a death takes place in the public eye. The role and impact of the legal system, a coronial investigation, and the scrutiny of the media will be explored. The lecture will also examine impact upon the bereaved person, and the role played by bereavement counselling and support.

Panelists

Webinar Overview

This webinar will present a culturally appropriate Aboriginal designed model called the Seven Phases to Integrating Loss and Grief that integrates into a non-Aboriginal loss and grief model derived from ‘lived experiences’. It is focussed towards highly developed professionals in the justice and health industries.

Learning Outcomes

Following this webinar you will:

• Understand through the Seven Phases how and why the presenter had a ‘contemporary major grief reaction’ that was not just a physical experience but a deeply spiritual one. In so doing, you will learn the value in ‘hearing voices’ that are spiritually bases and not a part of a mental illness.
• Understand through the presentation of the Seven Phases how critical it is to understand how childhood and adolescent losses and unresolved grief can ‘stunt’ mental and emotional growth, causing immaturity in adulthood for life, unless a culturally appropriate grieving process is available. Participants will learn what are ‘inner children and adolescents’ versus an ‘inner child’.
• Through the Seven Phases, participants will learn why the loss of traditional culture is critical to understand when supporting Aboriginal people. In so doing will learn how suppressing ancestral grief becomes intergenerational which then compounds and complicates contemporary Aboriginal losses and unresolved grief.
• Participants will learn why traditional Aboriginal culture had developed a multitude of systems that gave them not just practices to survive but thrive over 60,000yrs, including traditional grieving ceremonies for the health and wellbeing of their physical body.
• Participants will learn why traditional Aboriginal culture had developed a multitude of systems that gave them not just practices to survive but thrive over 60,000yrs, including traditional grieving ceremonies that maintained the health and wellbeing of the spirit ‘staying’ connected to the physical body.
• Participants will learn how the Seven Phases had the capacity to develop a culturally appropriate counselling program & workshops:
  1. Bi-cultural Awareness, Safety for Inclusion workshop
  2. Aboriginal Loss, Grief and Suicide Prevention workshop
  3. Become your own Advocate workshop
• Participants will understand why it’s important to develop a new discipline called Griefology to train Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students who are seeking a culturally appropriate approach to preventing ‘Aboriginal’ disadvantage and help Aboriginal people develop ‘Aboriginal’ prosperity.

Presenter Biography

Rosemary Wanganeen

Rosemary is a proud South Australian Aboriginal woman! She founded the Sacred Site Within Healing Centre in 1993 preceded by Australian Institute for Loss and Grief in 2005. She applied her personal ‘lived experiences’ to research and develop her now published Seven Phases to Integrating Loss and Grief. As a Griefologist she’s been accepted into Adelaide University for her Master in Philosophy with a view to completing a PHD to further develop griefology as a new discipline. Her proudest moments:

Understanding the Legislative Changes and Implications Relating to Voluntary Assisted Dying

Webinar Overview

This webinar aims to provide an overview of voluntary assisted dying and its implications, especially those relevant to mental health and social care professionals.

The webinar is aimed at an introductory to intermediate level of professional who will be affected by the legislative changes.

Learning Outcomes

Following this webinar you will:

• Have an overview of the wider context and debates about VAD.
• Have gained an understanding the role of health professionals in end-of-life care.
• Have received a description of some research on assisted dying and grief outcomes for bereaved family members; and on suicide and age, physical health concerns, and pain.
• Have garnered an appreciation of the meaning and challenges of decision-making capacity in the context of VAD.
• Have been presented an outline of the practical and ethical implications for mental health and social care professionals working with clients who might consider end-of-life options in jurisdictions where VAD is legal and where it is not.

Presenter Biography

Lauren Breen is an Associate Professor in psychology at Curtin University. Lauren is a Registered Psychologist, an Associate Editor of Death Studies, a Fellow in Thanatology: Death, Dying and Bereavement, and a member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement. Lauren was successful in the inaugural round of the prestigious Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Awards for her project exploring family caregiving and bereavement and has authored 10 book chapters and over 80 journal articles.

Webinar Overview

End of life caregivers are prone to burnout and compassion fatigue given the intense emotional and existential nature of their work. Previous research has provided strong evidence that support the inclusion of art therapy within clinical supervision for it can effectively reduce work-related stress and enhance emotional health. Integrating the practice of mindfulness meditation in art therapy based supervision, with reflective awareness complementing emotional expression, has immense potential for self-care and collegial support, of which could ultimately cultivate compassion and sustained resilience among those immersed in the fields of palliative care and bereavement support.

This webinar presents the foundational knowledge on burnout, resilience and self-care. It will also provide the theoretical underpinnings and clinical framework of Mindful Compassion Art Therapy (MCAT), as well as, the findings of a Randomized Wait-List Control Trial that assess its efficacy for reducing burnout and promoting holistic wellness among 56 palliative care professionals in Singapore. Narratives and experiences of MCAT’s participants will be shared to illuminate the inner workings of this novel and promising psycho-intervention modality for enhancing end of life care provision via caring of caregivers.

Learning Outcomes

Following this webinar you will:

• Understand the causes and effects of stress and burnout on caregivers, particular those immersed in the fields of palliative and bereavement care.
• Understand the relationship bewtween burnout, compassionate fatigue and moral distress, and their impacts on holsitic health.
• Discuss the current literature and research on resilience, mindful-compassion and expressive arts, and their intergration for promoting self-care.
• Discuss the empirical foundation for integrating mindfulness meditation and art therapy for self-help and clinical supervision purposes.
• Intergrate an empirical model of Mindful Compassion Art Therapy for supporting self and others emotionally, psychologically and spiritually within the context of palliative and bereavement care.

Presenter Biography

Dr Andy Hau Yan HO is Assistant Professor of Psychology and Joint Honorary Assistant Professor of Medicine at Nanyang Technological University Singapore. He serves as Board Director of the Association for Death Education and Counselling (ADEC), and the International Work Group of Death Dying and Bereavement (IWGDDB). Andy’s research and teaching focus on psychosocial gerontology, palliative and bereavement care, holistic therapy and community empowerment. He has authored over 70 top-tier journal articles, books, chapters and research reports; and presented over 130 keynote, plenary and invited presentations. Andy is the first Asian Recipient of the 2018 ADEC Academic Educator Award, whilst his scholarly contributions are recognized with distinction by academic and professional bodies around the world.

Webinar Overview

Social media has evoked a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. Every minute billions of people share their lives and emotions through Facebook and Instagram in real time, and social media has become the primary source of communication for many people.

However, social media users also die, and the question arises: how do people cope with grief online? Social media has changed the cultural and social norms of mourning. News of death is often communicated via social media, and bereaved people look for support in online bereavement groups. Online, people can grieve the loss of someone in relative anonymity, without being in direct contact with the immediate family members. Digital resources for the bereaved include social media profiles of and for the bereaved, online support groups, blogs, memorial sites, grief accounts on Instagram and Twitter.

Even though social media can be a helpful part of coping with grief in finding social support, a number of ethical and critical questions need to be addressed. Can you ‘defriend’ a dead person? Can you ‘like’ it when someone has died? How should family members handle the social media account of a deceased person? How do bereaved people deal with negative comments about the deceased person or trolling? Is grief Instagrammable? Are online support groups helpful?

This webinar gives the opportunity to discuss these new aspects of mourning and to provide scientific knowledge of the impact of social media use and grief.

Suitable to counsellors, bereavement support workers, therapists, family members and medical personnel, this webinar aims to provide a practical guideline on the use of social media and to develop a better understanding on mourning norms in social media.

Learning Outcomes

Following this webinar you will:

• Have learned about the appropriate use of social media and grief.
• Have reflected on your own social media behaviour in the context of grief.
• Acquired knowlegde of the efficacy of online-support groups for the bereaved.
• Increased your knowledge of online mourning norms.

Presenter Biography

Birgit Wagner, PhD, completed her psychological education at the Freie University Berlin and received her PhD at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Birgit has been a professor of clinical psychology and behavioural therapy at the Medical School Berlin since 2013. She has extensive expertise in implementation of new technologies in the field of traumatic stress disorder and prolonged grief disorder. Dr. Wagner has been principal investigator in a large number of controlled trials involving Internet-based interventions in Germany, Switzerland and Arab conflict regions. She was also involved as principal investigator in several longitudinal studies and prevalence studies in the field of post traumatic stress disorders and prolonged grief. She is currently principal investigator on an online-based prevention for bereaved siblings and a web-based group intervention for bereavement after suicide. In all these studies the implementation of new technology in diagnostic assessments and psychotherapeutic interventions have been her major interest.

Webinar Overview

This webinar will introduce and explore the inclusion of ambiguous loss in understanding the experiences of families of missing people. This webinar aims to identify current evidence-based interventions relevant to counselling, when addressing the needs of people with ambiguous or unresolved loss. This webinar also aims to create a space for professionals to reflect on their own capacity to tolerate ambiguity. 

This webinar is aimed at an introductory to intermediate level and will be suitable for:

• Psychologists/Social workers/Counsellors with a special interest in grief and loss in ambiguous or complicated circumstances.
• Those working in bereavement services, generalist counselling or with victims of crime.
• Those who are curious about emerging areas of practice in the grief and loss space.
• Health professionals who are keen to understand how knowledge about ambiguous loss may assist them in responding to trauma, family relationship issues and losses where information is incomplete about the manner and cause of that loss.

It is recommended that attendees have emerging or enhanced skills in grief and loss interventions, are professionals currently working with individuals or groups, or are researchers with an interest in complex grief or uncommon experiences of loss.

Learning Outcomes

Following this webinar participants will be able to:

• Understand and define ambiguous loss.
• Reflect on the incidence and prevalence of missing persons cases in Australia and understand the needs of those loved ones left behind.
• Review the current evidence-based interventions relevant to the provision of counselling for people living with ambiguous loss.
• Reflect on health professionals capacity to tolerate uncertainty, and the role of reflexive practice when working with complex loss experiences.
  
  

Presenter Biography

Dr Sarah Wayland works in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. Prior to starting a career as an academic, Sarah has worked since 1999 as a trauma counsellor and manager of state-wide counselling services as a Social Worker. She received her PhD, along with the Chancellors Medal, in 2015 from the School of Health, University of New England focussing on the experiences of hope for those left behind when a loved one is missing.

As a qualitative researcher, and previously as a mental health clinician, she actively engages consumers in her research and specialises in data collection and analysis of participants from vulnerable and marginalised population groups. Sarah is also a renowned researcher in the space of missing people. She regularly provides comment to mainstream media on the experiences of missing.

Webinar Overview: Religion, Belief and Spirituality in End of Life Care

This webinar is focused around increasing literacy in religion, belief and spirituality in end of life care.

This webinar would be useful for hospice and palliative care professionals, practicing in end of life settings and in the community; including medical doctors, nurses, hospice social workers, psychologists, Chaplaincy in hospitals and hospices and Health and social care professionals more widely.

The aim of this webinar is twofold. First, to introduce and examine the pressing need for increased literacy in how professionals in end of life care respond to religion, belief and spiritual identities of service users (inclusive of families and friends). Next, to present and discuss a religious literacy model for end of life practitioners, towards achieving better care in this domain.

Those that will benefit most from this webinar are hospice and palliative care staff that work with people in critical conditions and families and friends who are experiencing the imminent loss. Also, researchers in the area of how religion and end of life care intersect would benefit from this webinar as well.

This webinar is aimed at an introduction and intermediate levels. That said, it is desirable that participants acquire some knowledge about hospice and palliative care as the webinar will not focus on explaining this area of practice, but participants can either have excessive knowledge and skills in spiritual care in hospice and palliative practice, or be in the very beginning of their career, without particular expertise.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Have an enhanced understanding of the ongoing relationship of religion, belief and spirituality with end of life care
• The ability to critically appraise the necessity for further dialogue and exploration in this area;
• The ability to apply a religious literacy model as continuing professional development;
• To critically examine a value-based framework through which religious literacy can be more effective.

Presenter Bio: Dr Panagiotis Pentaris

Dr Panagiotis Pentaris is a Senior Lecturer for the Department of Psychology, Social Work and Counselling at the University of Greenwich. He is also a Postdoc Research Fellow for the Faiths & Civil Society Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. Panagiotis is a thanatologist, as well as a qualified social worker with specialty in hospice social work, as well as clinical social work in end of life care. His research stretches from death policies to professional practice, while he has written widely about the intersection of religion and death and is focusing on professional practice and policy in these areas.

Webinar Overview

When grieving is conceived as a process of reaffirming or reconstructing a wold of meaning that has been challenged by loss, grief therapy becomes a process of collaborating with clients in processing the “event story” of the death itself and its implications for clients’ ongoing lives, and in accessing the “back story” of their relationship with the deceased to restore a sense of attachment security and to address unfinished business. Doing so requires a vulnerable offer of presence on the part of both therapist and client, as well as a delicate reading of the process of therapy that assists both in identifying and addressing clients’ specific implicit needs and readiness to address them.

Led by the interests of participants in the webinar, Neimeyer is open to discussing all aspects of meaning reconstruction as a trauma-informed and attachment-informed intervention, as well as its possible relevance to difficult cases brought forward for consultation.  Equally, at the discretion of questioners, he can share selected results of recent research with his collaborators on such topics as network analyses of complicated grief and post traumatic growth, social validation and invalidation of mourners’ meaning-making efforts, the role of meaning in mediating the impact of numerous risk factors for complication in bereavement, and the assessment of unfinished business in relation to the deceased.

This webinar will be suitable for bereavement support workers and grief therapists with experience in dealing with complex processes that both hinder and facilitate adaptation to life-altering loss.

Learning Outcomes

Following this webinar participants will:

• Distinguish two major dimensions of meaning reconstruction in bereavement.
• Identify the three “P” principles that shape the practice of grief therapy.
• Determine markers of client need and readiness to engage a particular focus.
• Select and appropriate technique or strategy to maximise therapeutic change.
• Work with resistance to change as an aid rather than impediment to therapy.
• Summarise the most recent findings arising in research on meaning making.
  
  
   

Presenter Biography

Robert A. Neimeyer, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, where he also maintains an active clinical practice. Since completing his doctoral training at the University of Nebraska in 1982, he has conducted extensive research on the topics of death, grief, loss, and suicide intervention.

Neimeyer has published 30 books, including Techniques of Grief Therapy:  Creative Practices for Counseling the Bereaved and Grief and the Expressive Arts: Practices for Creating Meaning, the latter with Barbara Thompson. The author of nearly 500 articles and book chapters, he is currently working to advance a more adequate theory of grieving as a meaning-making process, both in his published work and through his frequent professional workshops for national and international audiences.

Neimeyer is the Editor of the respected international journal, Death Studies, and served as President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling. In recognition of his scholarly contributions, he has been granted the Distinguished Research Award, the Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Eminent Faculty Award by the University of Memphis, elected Chair of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement, and given the Research Recognition, Clinical Practice and Lifetime Achievement Awards  by the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Most recently, he has received the Phoenix Award: Rising to the Service of Humanity from the MISS Foundation, been given ADEC's Lifetime Achievement Award, and been recognised as an Honored Associate of the Viktor Frankl Association for his lifetime contributions to the study of meaning.

Webinar Overview: Difficult conversations: Delivering Bad News

The proposed aim of this webinar is to provide practical, applicable tools for those who will or must deliver bad news. The content of this webinar would be suited to Medical Personnel, Counsellors, Family members, Police, Fire fighters, Clergy, Disaster teams or anyone who needs to deliver bad news. 

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Improve on their listening and communication skills   
• See a reduction in the helplessness in the face of the task of delivering bad news
• Have an improved understanding of what it is to receive bad news 
• Increase their awareness and interpretation of body language    
• Enhance their psychosocial adaptation of the reciever of bad news   
• Avoid increasing distress unnecessarily

Presenter Bio: Lynne Halamish

Lynne Halamish has over two and a half decades of counselling experience with severely ill persons and their families during both illness and bereavement. She has extensive experience in the counseling of persons suddenly bereaved by accident, illness, violence or terror of any kind.
Lynne has taught and lectured extensively in Europe, the Middle East, Russia and the USA. She has specialized in in-hospital staff training particularly in departments with high mortality rates.
Lynne is also the co-author of “The Weeping Willow: Encounters with Grief”.

Webinar Overview: Family Bereavement After the Loss of a Child

This webinar aims to provide an introduction and overview of grief and bereavement following the death of a child. Including; how to respond and support parents and families following the loss, (i.e., what to say and what not to say), the similarities and differences with loss at different stages and ages (e.g., early miscarriage versus infant loss), managing milestones (e.g., anniversaries) and a guide to available resources for the bereaved and for those trying to support them.

This webinar will benefit medical and allied health professionals who work in children’s hospitals, fertility clinics, private practice, emergency departments or community organisations as well as individuals who work with families and expectant mothers.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Understand the different types of child loss
• Distinguish the similarities and differences between the different types of child loss
• Respond to a family after child loss
• Have strategies for supporting a family after child loss
• Have the resources available for families after child loss

Presenter Bio: Danielle Graber

Danielle is the Director of 12 Points Psychology. She is a clinical psychologist with over 12 years experience working with children, teens and adults in a variety of settings including; inpatient units, early parenting centres, community services agencies, schools and universities. Danielle has additional qualifications in medical science and animal-assisted therapy and draws on her diverse training and experience to provide individualised, client-centred psychological services to people with experiences of: mood and anxiety disorders, trauma, grief (including pet loss), chronic illness and personality disorders. She is looking forward to translating her clinical experience into engaging and relevant training sessions.

Webinar Overview: Depression and End of Life Care

This webinar will provide information about the identification, diagnosis and treatment of depression at end of life. Topics surrounding palliative care and psycho-oncology will be discussed.

There are no pre-requisites to attending this webinar and it will be suitable for those working in a palliative setting or working with individuals at end of life.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Have an understanding of the diagnostic criteria for depression in a palliative setting.
• Be able to distinguish depression from grief in a palliative setting.
• Have an understanding of demoralization in a palliative setting.
• Have an understanding of the treatment and management options for depression in a palliative setting.

Presenter Bio: Jane Fletcher BA., Grad.Dip.Appl.Psych.

Jane is a health psychologist with over 15 years experience in psycho-oncology and palliative care. She established, and is the director of, Melbourne Psycho-oncology Service, a specialist psycho-oncology private practice at Cabrini Health, Epworth Freemasons and St John of God Berwick. Jane holds an adjunct appointment with Monash University and has recently co-authored a book chapter titled Distinguishing and Managing Severe Psychological and Psychiatric Distress for the new Springer publication Textbook of Palliative Care. Jane has extensive experience dealing with depression, and the grief and loss at end of life. She is a member of a range of committees and working parties and speaks widely to both community and professional audiences.

Webinar Overview: Bereavement of Same-Sex Partners: Implications for Practice

The increasing legal acknowledgement, visibility and sociocultural inclusivity on a global scale has seen an growing number of LGBTIG-identifying individuals seeking counselling and psychological support. This webinar will provide an enhanced understanding of the experiences of bereaved same-sex-attracted partners and the impact of grief and bereavement on subsequent romantic and sexual relationships. Implications for counselling and psychological practice and support will be discussed and suggestions for further research will be noted. The webinar will draw upon recent findings of relevant research and existing literature.

Those that would benefit from this webinar are social workers, counsellors, psychologists, palliative care workers, mental health practitioners and students who would like to enhance their knowledge about the bereavement of same-sex-attracted individuals and its impact on the creation, maintenance and quality of subsequent intimate relationships following the death of a same-sex partner.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Develop a further understanding of the bereavement of same-sex partners based on findings of recent research findings
• Identify the coping styles of same-sex bereaved partners
• Distinguish the similarities and differences in the experiences of bereaved same-sex-attracted and heterosexual partners
• Acquire practical tools in order to work effectively with bereaved same-sex-attracted partners, their friends, and family
• Improve their awareness of the impact of bereavement due to the loss of a same-sex partner on intimate relationships
• Increase their sensitivity toward the experiences of same-sex partners in order to improve their counselling, clinical and research practice
• Describe the factors that contribute to disenfranchised grief and its impact on bereavement

Presenter Bio: Lefteris Patlamazoglou

Lefteris Patlamazoglou is a registered psychologist with experience in the areas of grief and bereavement. He has worked extensively with clients with a variety of mental health and fertility issues as well as court-ordered parents and their children. Lefteris is also a lecturer of online, on-campus, and offshore postgraduate counselling and psychology subjects at Monash University. He is an experienced researcher and presenter with particular interest in understanding the bereavement of LGBTIQ+ partners, its impact on intimate relationships and disenfranchised grief.

Webinar Overview: Supporting Families Living with a Cancer Diagnosis

This webinar aims to provide guidance on areas of exploration to address while working with a person with cancer and their family. Topics related to emotional, spiritual, physical and social challenges will be addressed. The ideas discussed may also be utilised by those working with or helping individuals and families with other diseases.

This webinar will benefit professional and lay helpers who provide counselling or assistance to individuals with cancer and their families. Suggested topics of exploration or conversation will be offered as well as discussion on self care and boundaries.

Webinar attendees should have counselling skills, experience working with individuals with life threatening diseases and experience working with families.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Areas for exploration with a person living with the challenges of cancer.
• Practical questions to use while exploring the challenges of living with cancer.
• How to assist the person with cancer to develop coping strategies.
• How grief is a natural part of living with cancer.

Presenter Bio: Jim Monahan, M.Ed., ACHE

Jim Monahan has been engaged in hospice work for almost 30 years. He has worked as a patient and family counsellor, bereavement counsellor and educator. He has provided training in Australia, New Zealand, England, China and Portugal. He was a national trainer for the American Association of Retired Person’s Bereavement Services and wrote and delivered training for a national program to support those impacted by September 11. He has taught death and dying in college. Among his publications is a chapter in the book Hospice Care for Children that he co-authored with J. William Worden on parental grief.

Webinar Overview: Supporting Those With Families Transitioning To Aged Care

This webinar provides information and shares knowledge about the psychological processes that are occurring for people who are transitioning to aged care and their families so that clinicians can help to provide emotional and psychosocial support to family members.

This webinar would be useful for those people who provide support for families of people going into aged care.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Identify changing roles for family members during aged care transition
• Discuss the changing concept of “home” during aged care transition
• Understand William Bridges model of transition and identify strategies to support family members during each transition stage
• Describe the concept of ambiguous loss and apply this concept to family member support during aged care transitions
• Recognise the importance of supporting the dignity of people going into aged care for the benefit of all family members
• Evaluate strategies for managing family conflict during aged care transitions
• List key factors identified in research that contribute to successful transitions to aged care

Presenter Bio: Dr Brenda Bentley

Dr Brenda Bentley is a counselling psychologist who specialises in providing psychosocial support to people with life-limiting conditions and their family members. She is a senior lecturer at Murdoch University in the postgraduate counselling program where she formerly served as the discipline head. Her research focus is on improving wellbeing for patients and families at the end of life and into bereavement. Brenda is a registered Clinical Counsellor with the Australian Counselling Association and the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia. She is also certified Counselling Supervisor who supports counsellors who work with people and families confronting illness and death.

Webinar Overview: Grief Associated With Sexual and Institutional Abuse

This webinar aims to look at the relationship between child sexual abuse and grief and loss in later life. To view this in the light of the findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to child sexual abuse, and to look at helpful responses to survivors and their families.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Why child sexual abuse is so impactful
• The gender differences in these impacts
• What we have learned from the Royal Commission about these impacts
• The relationship between loss and grief and the trauma of child sexual abuse
• What are helpful responses that assist in recovery and healing

Presenter Bio: Julie Blyth

Julie Blyth was the Clinical Advisor at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse,over the past 5 years, leading a team who provided support and counselling to all who engaged with the Commission. She has a Social Work background and worked extensively in counselling, training and consultancy in responding to the trauma of violence and abuse.

Webinar Overview: Approaches to Self Care for those working in the field of Grief and Bereavement

The webinar aims to teach listeners about the importance of self care and the impact of Vicarious Traumatisation/Compassion Fatigue in the context of working with grief and bereavement. It will go through a practical understanding of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, linking it to the current field and provide a range of personal and professional self care strategies. This will also look at how to use mindfulness to be aware of how stress affects us, and Identify how to care for ourselves in these situations.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Understanding what self care is and the importance of self care for those working in the field of grief and bereavement;
• Gaining an understanding of stress, how it happens, how our body reacts during stress and different types of stress;
• Gaining an understanding of Vicarious Trauma, Burnout and Compassion Fatigue;
• Learning about the signs of stress in the context of Compassion Fatigue from a holistic perspective;
• Ability to recognise ones’ own symptoms of stress;
• Learning about specific issues related to self care for grief and bereavement workers;
• Becoming aware of various tools available to measure stress related issues;
• Developing a Compassion Fatigue prevention/stress resiliency toolkit;
• Looking at ways in which organisations can support Compassion Fatigue in the workplace;
• Looking at ways in which peer groups can support processors to help prevent Compassion Fatigue;

Presenter Bio: Kylie Duncan

Kylie Duncan is a Social Worker with over 20 years of experience as a counsellor with the majority of her career spent working in the field of grief and bereavement with individuals and their families. Kylie currently works in Palliative care in Northern NSW. She has extensive experience in counselling, group work and providing education with expertise in grief and bereavement, end of life issues, compassion fatigue and self care. Kylie is passionate about supporting people to remain connected and empowered as they move towards the end of their lives or as they support their loved ones as they move toward the end of their lives.

Webinar Overview: Supporting Those Who Have Experienced Sudden Grief or Loss

This webinar aims to provide practical tools for professionals and laypeople when encountering the suddenly bereaved.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Improved communication skills at point of contact with griever
• Reduced helplessness in the face of sudden grief;
• Practical Applicable tools to support grieving persons;
• Improved understanding of the impact of sudden unexpected death

Presenter Bio: Lynne Halamish

Over two and a half decades of counselling experience with severely ill persons and their families during both illness and bereavement. Counseling of persons suddenly bereaved by terror, accident, illness or violence of any kind. Teaching and lecturing extensively in Europe, the Middle East, Russia and the USA. In-hospital staff training particularly in departments with high mortality rates. Co-author of The Weeping Willow: Encounters with Grief.

Webinar Overview: Grieving the Loss of An Animal

Learning Outcomes:

Webinar Overview: Alcohol and Other Drugs - Why a Person May Choose To Use

This webinar aims to; dispel some of the myths around substance use and substance users, to explore the underlying factors that may contribute to a person’s choice to use substances, to analyse the affects that different types of substances have on the central nervous system, to examine the life events that may increase the probability of a person using substances and to discuss the ways in which a therapist may work (therapeutically) with a substance user.

This webinar is a beginner to intermediate level designed for anyone working in social services, counselling, psychotherapy or case management who wishes to increase their knowledge about the intersection of substance use, trauma (including developmental), mental health, attachments styles, grief and loss. This webinar aims to increase people’s awareness and understanding of substance use and substance users. This webinar is not for experienced AOD counsellors. This webinar intends to increase the knowledge base and expertise of individuals grappling with the often very difficult question of “how do I engage with a substance user in a more emphatic and therapeutic manner”.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• A clearer understanding of substances (drugs) and their affects on the central nervous system
• Increased understanding of the relationship between, trauma (including developmental), attachment style, shame, grief & loss and substance use.
• A more robust understanding of how to engage emphatically and therapeutically with a person using substances
• Increased knowledge of co-morbidity (a co-occurrence of substance use and mental health issues).

Presenter Bio: Tony Johannsen

Tony is a forensic drug and alcohol clinician who specialises in working with complex clients. Tony also works in the field of Family Violence as a Men’ Behaviour Change Facilitator. Through working with mandated forensic clients, Tony has come to understand that substance use is a far more complex issue than the broader public often acknowledge. “Most clients I work with have experienced numerous traumas and developmental setbacks throughout their lives. I am yet to work with a problematic substance user who has not been or traumatized at some point in their history. I feel the traditional narratives for substance users are now very outdated”.