Can We Talk About It? The Top 10 Things Needed To Start the Conversation about Loss and Grief (1 CE)
Presenter: Lorraine Mangione, Ph.D.
The loss of someone important can initiate a journey with profound psychological ramifications, and clinicians can support clients through this journey. This is especially important right now, given the pandemic, and given the lack of attention to death, dying, loss, and grief in many graduate psychology training programs. This workshop examines current theories and research on grief and mourning, including attachment, psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, and humanistic/existential frameworks, and the presenter’s research and practice, as well as the area of “living losses”, to encourage participants developing their own approach. Given the universal and personal nature of loss, a social constructionist framework, and the interaction of culture, age, and gender with grieving for psychologists and clients, in conjunction with our current pandemic situation, attendees are invited to reflect on their experiences, assumptions, hopes, and beliefs as they chart a path to working with clients in this area.
Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to:
1. Explain an approach to loss that includes “continuing bonds and connections” and will be better able to analyze the role that culture may play in the experience of loss and grief.
2. Recognize special situations such as what is occurring in the current pandemic and the meaning of disenfranchised grief, and situations in which grief might be more prolonged or severe, and how they might address it clinically.
3. Identify some components of their explicit and implicit current and evolving approaches to loss and grief.