Grieving entails not only acknowledging the significance of a valued past, but also embracing an indefinite future. Grief therapy therefore requires a framework that validates both movements, and that integrates them into an ongoing process of self-reconstruction, as we review a potentially traumatic experience of loss, reorganize our attachment to the deceased, and struggle with frequently anguishing questions of who we now are in their absence.  This 2-day webinar will first consider how to assess client needs in terms of the Tripartite Model of Meaning Reconstruction in Loss, conceptualizing obstacles to processing the event story of the death, securing the back story of the relationship with the deceased, and revising the personal story of the mourner’s own sense of identity in the shadow of bereavement.

Illustrating these themes through video recordings of clients dealing with sudden natural death as well as the violent death of loved ones to suicide or overdose, we will then introduce and practice a range of creative clinical procedures to help clients reconstruct their lives as they grow through grief.  Participants should leave with a well-stocked toolbox of techniques for facilitating self-change arising from unwelcome life transitions.