Helping clients identify, develop and utilise resources

Working with people who are grieving is not just about helping them come to terms with their loss, but helping them move back into productive, connected lives. For many of our clients, progress toward this goal is impeded and they feel "stuck" in their grief. How do we help these clients? Apart from offering emotional support, what can we do?

The answer to this question often lies in identifying resource and skill based deficits that are interfering with people's ability to recognize and cope with their loss. These can include anything from being able to manage strong feelings, to having the skills to establish and maintain relationships with others, to feeling confident about managing a household budget.

An important part of our work, then, is to help people identify obstacles to healing, and help build them build resources and skills that they may not have needed, or developed, up to the point of their loss. Dr. Kosminsky will describe her experience using a resource based model, with case examples to illustrate what it looks like in practice. A framework will be provided to guide clinicians and clients in establishing resource oriented treatment goals and strategies for meeting them.

Learning Outcomes:

Presented by Dr Phyllis Kosminsky

Phyllis Kosminsky, PhD, FT, is a clinical social worker in private practice and at the Center for Hope in Darien, Connecticut, where her work focuses on grief, loss and trauma. Dr. Kosminsky has written on a range of topics related to bereavement and loss and lectures frequently on these subjects to professional and lay audiences. Her first book, Getting Back to Life When Grief Won't Heal, draws on her fifteen years in the field and provides a description of the challenges that often accompany the loss of a loved one, as well as resources for moving through complicated grief. She has also authored with Dr. Jane Bissler and Dr. Sheri Goldstrohm, Coloring Your Grief, a colouring book designed for adults who are experiencing a grief or a loss which facilitates non-verbal exploration of the outlined concept areas and to help clients to recognize and express feelings of grief, discover their own grieving process and facilitate growth. Her most recent book, co-authored with Dr. Jack Jordan, Attachment-Informed Grief Therapy: The Clinician's Guide to Foundations and Applications, bridges the fields of attachment studies and bereavement, provides a new understanding of the etiology of complicated grief and its treatment.

Prices

This is a free event