Full Course Description

Grief Needs a Witness

Grief is not just an individual experience. It is deeply relational. In this training, renowned grief expert David Kessler guides clinicians through the essential role of witnessing in healing. You will explore how an attuned presence creates a stabilizing community of two and learn strategies to help clients safely extend support beyond the therapy room to peers, family, and groups. Grounded in research and practical tools, this course will help you foster connections that promote meaning making, resilience, and ethical care.

You will learn to:

Differentiate social contact from therapeutic witnessing
Understand the clinician’s role as the first community for grief
Support clients in expanding witnessing to safe and meaningful networks

Program Information

Objectives

Differentiate between social contact and therapeutic witnessing.
Identify how clinicians function as the first and stabilizing community for grief.
Apply strategies to help clients extend witnessing beyond the clinical dyad.

Outline

Why Witnessing Matters in Grief

Grief involves disruption of meaning identity and belonging not only emotional distress
Therapeutic witnessing to support regulation coherence and meaning making
Using attuned relational presence for relief

The Clinician as Attuned Witness: Building the Community of Two

The clinician is often the first setting in which grief is fully expressed
Supporting coherence without forcing meaning or closure
Support emotional safety trust and coherence
Prepares clients for broader connection rather than replacing community

Extending Witnessing Beyond the Clinical Dyad

Assess readiness for broader relational engagement
Importance of emotional regulation trauma history and cultural context
Sources of extended witnessing may include
- Family and friends
- Peer or support groups
- Online communities
Effective extension for connection rather than increasing distress

Practical Clinical Strategies

Language that invites narrative without forcing disclosure
Safety considerations include exposure to invalidation or retraumatization
Case examples: Differences between social abundance and felt support
Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Marriage and Family Therapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 04/15/2026

Grief Therapy Demystified

Grief is a universal human experience, yet therapy with grieving clients may be too oversimplified. This training provides a roadmap for understanding what is needed for practical, empirically validated, and ethical grief therapy. It aims to help identify ways to support client’s healing narrative. Participants will learn barriers and red flags that may prolong the grieving process, learn when to take a more supportive versus directive approach, and assess client needs throughout the grieving process. The session also clarifies the differences between normative and prolonged grief trajectories. Identification of readiness for treatment termination will be explained. Finally, identification of ethical and self-awareness considerations will be addressed.

Program Information

Objectives

Describe differences between supportive and directive interventions in grief therapy.
List three clinical red flags and barriers that may interfere with the grieving process.
Identify how compassion fatigue may interfere with clinical work within the therapy room.

Outline

Foundational Concepts

Goal of grief therapy and the grief therapist
Changes in conceptualization of grieving process

The Therapist’s Role

Validate and witness the loss from a place of “not knowing”
Support and facilitate integration into client’s narrative
Strengthen coping and resilience without trying to “fix” it

Barriers and Red Flags

Risk factors
Disenfranchised grief
Cultural and spiritual misconceptions
Prolonged grief disorder

Assessing Client Needs

Early: Bracing and stabilization
Mid: Processing, narrative work
Later: Identity reconstruction, reinvestment
Dual process model of coping

Active vs. Passive Interventions

When to use different stances:
- Supportive/passive: Listening, silence, validation, ‘companioning’
- Active/directive: psychoeducation, integration of homework, trauma processing, rituals

Indicators Therapy May be Ready to Close

Intellectual and emotional acceptance of loss
Grief is no longer destabilizing
Re-engagement in life activities and development of aspirational goals
Ongoing bonds without overwhelming distress (if culturally appropriate)

Therapists’ Personal Takeaways

Recognition of burn out and compassion fatigue
Self-care and work/life balance

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Marriage and Family Therapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 04/15/2026

A Somatic Approach to Grief

Bereaved individuals find their grief overwhelmingly painful and difficult to modulate, risking either avoidance or preoccupation with the loss. The ability to befriend the emotional and physical impact of grief allows grieving to achieve its purpose of moving through the body until acceptance is achieved. Talking about a loss can be daunting. As clients talk about their loved one, it often results in increased emotional pain or re-living the loss over and over again. They can get stuck in bargaining or in depression rather than moving through the process of grieving.

A somatic approach combines mindfulness with attention to grief’s physical effects. Mindful attention to the waves of grief that suddenly come up helps to slow down the emotions so that clients can be in relationship to them. Following the somatic sensations connected to these waves allows clients to experience the grief coming up and then setting each time, bringing hope that there will be healing.

Program Information

Objectives

Identify client barriers to grieving (Gentsch & Kuehn, 2022).
Utilize 2 mindfulness-based interventions (Price & Wang, 2021; Neff, 2022).
Choose somatic interventions that bring relief or decrease emotional pain (Balban et al, 2023; Eisma & Stroebe, 2021).

Outline

Clinical barriers to grieving
Mindfulness-based interventions for grief
Somatic interventions for releasing emotional pain
Risks and limitations of the research

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Marriage and Family Therapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 04/15/2026

Grief Rituals and Practices for After the Loss of a Loved One

It can be overwhelming to support a grieving client who clings to the life they had before their loss. In this training, we’ll explore diverse reasons why a client may hold tightly to their life before the loss. Attendees learn about different good-bye rituals and continuing-bond activities to better support their client who’s transitioning into life after a loss. In learning how to say good-bye while maintaining a continuing-bond, many clients are able to create a new and meaningful life after a loss. After this training, clinicians will be able to better support grieving clients who are struggling with the reality of their loss.

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze 2-3 reasons why clients may desperately hold on to the life they had before their loss.
Summarize 3-4 ways grief rituals can be created and implemented to support clients in saying goodbye to their loved one.
Use 3-4 continuing-bond activities to better support grieving clients.

Outline

The process of clinging to loss
Practical Goodbye Rituals
Practical Continuing-bond Activities
Research limitations and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Addiction Counselors
Psychiatric Nurses
Clergy
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 04/15/2026

Survivor’s Guilt in Traumatic Grief

Survivor’s guilt is a common and painful part of traumatic grief. Its presence has been shown to impair grief integration and worsen prognosis. Research indicates that guilt after trauma is frequent and often tied to increased trauma symptoms and suicidal thoughts. Neuroscience helps us understand that these guilt responses are actually survival-based adaptations – the amygdala encodes emotionally charged memories while stress-induced structural plasticity reinforces guilt-based narratives that can feel inescapable.

The exciting news is that because the brain is neuroplastic, these encodings are not permanent. By using brain-based tools, clinicians can teach clients how to interrupt guilt loops, calm their nervous systems, and begin building new pathways that support healing and meaning-making.

This one-hour workshop provides practitioners with accessible strategies to help clients release guilt’s grip and move toward posttraumatic growth

Program Information

Objectives

Recall how amygdala activation and stress-induced structural plasticity contribute to guilt-based narratives and “grief brain.”
Summarize how neuroplasticity can both reinforce guilt encodings and create pathways toward resilience and posttraumatic growth.
Use at least one science-based regulation strategy that supports clients in softening guilt responses and fostering meaning-making.

Outline

Welcome & Framing Survivor’s Guilt

Define survivor’s guilt in the context of traumatic grief
Normalize guilt as the brain’s adaptive attempt to explain survival, not a character flaw.

The Neuroscience of Guilt in Grief

How guilt-related encodings activate the amygdala, impair prefrontal cortex function, and bias working memory (“grief brain”).
Discussion of how neuroplasticity can maintain these patterns, but also provides the foundation for resilience and posttraumatic growth

Applying Brain-Based Strategies

Mapping guilt through cognitions, autonomic responses, somatosensory experiences, and emotions
Introducing neuroplasticity-based approaches that calm the nervous system, interrupt guilt loops, and create new pathways for self-compassion and meaning-making

Closing Integration

Guided reflection and simple regulation practice to consolidate learning
Invitation for participants to consider one compassionate statement or perspective shift they might share with clients navigating survivor’s guilt

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Marriage and Family Therapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 04/15/2026

AI, Grief and the Ethics of Digital Afterlifes

Your clients are already using AI to talk to the dead. A widow uploads years of text messages and suddenly her husband is "texting" her again. A son uses voice synthesis to hear his late mother say things she never said.

Some find profound comfort. Others find themselves unable to move forward. But if you’re like most therapists you have no framework for what to do when a client says, "I've been talking to my mom. She died two years ago."

Join clinician, ethics expert and AI researcher Dr. Michael Jones as he equips you to navigate AI-mediated grief through the lens of professional ethics. PLUS Megan Devine will join Dr. Jones for a special conversation about the future of AI in grief.

Program Information

Objectives

Identify at least three categories of AI grief technologies and describe their psychological mechanisms related to continuing bonds.
Applying the ethical principal of prioritizing client welfare, evaluate the potential benefits (emotional scaffolding, symbolic continuity) and risks (emotional dependency, complicated grief) of AI grief bots.
Apply ethical decision-making frameworks when working with clients who engage with AI grief technologies, including considerations of informed consent, client autonomy, and counselor competence.

Outline

When clients disclose AI-mediated contact with the deceased
Grief bots, voice clones, and digital avatars
Current technologies and emerging developments
How clients access and use these tools outside of clinical settings
Continuing bonds theory: Theoretical grounding for digital connection
Ethical frameworks for AI and grief
Technology-assisted services and competence requirements
Accountability, client welfare, and competency
Informed consent, confidentiality, and clinical oversight
Benefits and risks of AI-mediated grief
Emotional scaffolding, symbolic continuity, and adaptive grief support
Emotional dependency, avoidance behaviors, and complicated grief risk
Autonomy, consent, privacy, and dignity of the deceased
Assessment, intervention, and professional boundaries
Red flags and indicators for clinical concern
Holding space without judgment while maintaining ethical oversight
Emerging research and the limits of current knowledge

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Marriage and Family Therapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 04/16/2026

Grief Counseling for Non-Death Losses

While grief is most often associated with death, people mourn a wide range of non-death losses and changes, including divorce, changes in relationships, illness, aging, infertility, relocation, and experiences of trauma, abuse, or neglect. Even life events or transitions that are typically celebrated, like graduation, marriage, retirement, the birth or adoption of a child, or becoming an empty-nester, can carry an unexpected undercurrent of grief.

Since grief is frequently minimized or overlooked, clients may find it difficult to recognize and process their emotions following non-death losses. And clinicians may feel ill-equipped to support their clients navigating these unique experiences of grief. This workshop moves beyond a traditional, linear model of grief counseling to offer clinicians a deeper understanding of the nuanced challenges associated with unexpected changes, losses, or life transitions. Participants will gain tools to engage in grief-informed practice and empower their clients to integrate non-death losses into their lives in meaningful and adaptive ways.

Program Information

Objectives

Integrate an understanding of non-death losses into clinical assessment and practice with grieving clients.
Appraise the emotional, social, physical, and spiritual responses commonly associated with non-death grief experiences.
Apply contemporary grief counseling models to support clients navigating non-death losses and life transitions.
Evaluate the impact of non-death losses on a client’s experience of disenfranchised grief.

Outline

Identify and describe various types of non-death losses and life changes that may contribute to a client’s grief experience
Learn how to incorporate a loss-line tool to evaluate a client’s unique history of loss, change, and grief
Examine the distinctions between commonly misunderstood grief concepts, including secondary loss, ambiguous loss, and disenfranchised grief
Evaluate the impact of non-death loss or change on a client’s experience of disenfranchised grief
Consider the emotional, social, physical, and spiritual reactions commonly experienced in response to non-death losses
Enhance your ability to support clients in integrating unexpected changes and losses into their lives in healthy, adaptive ways.

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Marriage and Family Therapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 04/16/2026

The Inner Work of Grief: IFS Therapy tools for Meeting Parts and Pain with Compassion

When the heart breaks, every part of us feels it. Loss reverberates through the inner system, stirring protectors, pain, and profound vulnerability. Join internationally recognized grief expert Lara Krawchuck in this session and discover how loss activates and destabilizes your clients’ inner parts – and how IFS therapy can restore self-connection so clients can meet their grieving parts with clarity and care. You’ll also learn the IFS U-Turn—a simple tool to help shift clients from external fixing to internally witnessing the parts holding sorrow—as a pathway to deeper healing. Research, risks, and limitations of IFS in grief work will be highlighted to support safe, informed application of these tools.

This product is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the IFS Institute and does not qualify for IFS Institute credits or certification.

Program Information

Objectives

Identify why Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy supports healthy grieving.
Determine strategies to safely welcome parts during times of grief.
Examine the role of self-leadership in promoting resilience throughout the grieving process.

Outline

How loss destabilizes the internal system
Role of protector parts in grief
Making space for each grieving part to be acknowledged
Preventing grief exiles
The IFS U-Turn: move from external fixing to internal witnessing of the parts holding sorrow
Case study: using IFS with a grieving parent
Research, risks and limitations

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Marriage and Family Therapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Estrangement and Grief

Estrangement – from parents, adult children, siblings, or extended family – is one of the most complex and misunderstood forms of grief clients experience. Often invisible and socially unacknowledged, estrangement can leave individuals grieving someone who is still alive, while simultaneously managing shame, self-doubt, loyalty conflicts, and chronic uncertainty.

Join therapist and best-selling author Claire Bidwell Smith as she draws on nearly two decades of grief-focused clinical work to explore estrangement as a form of ambiguous and disenfranchised loss. This training will help clinicians understand the emotional, relational, and identity-level impacts of estrangement, recognize why these losses often remain unresolved, and apply practical, compassionate interventions to support clients navigating estrangement with greater clarity, self-trust, and emotional integration.

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze estrangement as a form of ambiguous and disenfranchised grief and identify its clinical implications for long-term emotional processing.
Recognize common emotional patterns in estranged clients, including shame, self-doubt, chronic hope, and identity disruption.
Utilize narrative-based interventions to help clients integrate estrangement into their personal grief story without self-pathologizing.
Apply grounding and mindfulness strategies to support clients experiencing anxiety, hypervigilance, or emotional flooding related to estranged relationships.

Outline

Estrangement as grief: understanding ambiguous and disenfranchised loss
Common pathways to estrangement (neglect, abuse, boundary setting, loyalty conflicts)
Why estranged grief is often chronic, cyclical, and unresolved
What clinicians frequently miss when working with estranged clients
Shame, self-blame and identity disruption in estrangement
Navigating hope, fantasy, and repeated re-injury
Narrative interventions for meaning-making and self-trust
Grounding and mindfulness strategies for anxiety and emotional dysregulation
Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Marriage and Family Therapists
Other Mental Health Professionals

Certification Course: The Ultimate Grief Treatment Toolbox: Over 60 Interventions to Promote Healing & Hope Among Grieving Children, Adolescents & Adults

Grieving clients have some of the most heartbreaking stories that we see as clinicians. Your client’s world has been toppled following the loss of a loved one, and in addition to missing that person, your client is now questioning what they know about themselves and the world. Paralyzing grief has made even the simplest tasks difficult for them, and you’re overwhelmed because nothing that you do seems to help.

Watch Dr. Erica Sirrine, Ph.D., LCSW, FT, as she walks you through over 60 interventions that you can use to help your grieving clients find hope and heal. Drawing on her expertise as a bereavement counsellor and educator, Dr. Sirrine blends remarkable case studies with creative intervention strategies for an engaging and unforgettable workshop that will arm you with the skills you need to be an effective therapist for grieving clients.

Whether your client is experiencing feelings of premature grief due to the anticipated death of a loved one, pain and loss following a divorce, or feelings of disbelief and shock following a traumatic death, this workshop will prepare you to skillfully intervene.

Attend and discover:

Over 60 interventions to help clients mourn, reconcile their losses & discover hope
Assessment & treatment techniques for children, adolescents & adults
Session topics & treatment approaches for individuals, groups & families
Strategies to treat clients dealing with anticipatory grief
Techniques & ideas for facilitating bereavement groups & grief camps

Best of all, upon completion of this live training, you’ll be eligible to become a Certified Grief Informed Professional (CGP) through Evergreen Certifications. Certification lets colleagues, employers, and clients know that you’ve invested the extra time and effort necessary to understand the complexities of grief counselling. Professional standards apply. Visit ca.evgcert.com/cgp for details.

Purchase today to discover the ultimate grief treatment toolbox and revolutionize your treatment of grieving clients!

CERTIFICATION MADE SIMPLE!

No hidden fees – PESI pays for your application fee (a $99.99 USD value)!
Simply complete this live event and the post-event evaluation included in this training, and your application to be a Certified Grief Informed Professional through Evergreen Certifications is complete.*

Attendees will receive documentation of CGP designation from Evergreen Certifications 4 to 6 weeks following the program.

*Professional standards apply. Visit ca.evgcert.com/cgp for professional requirements.

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze the differences in the clinical presentation of depression as compared to bereavement.
Evaluate developmentally appropriate grief symptomology across the lifespan and assess for clinical concerns.
Design individualized therapeutic interventions for bereaved children, adolescents, adults and families using various modalities.
Assess continuing bonds after death and their relevance to clinical practice with bereaved clients.
Demonstrate how to create a support group for bereaved children, adolescents, and/or adults with corresponding therapeutic activities.
Employ therapeutic techniques to address client grief associated with other forms of loss including divorce, chronic illness, military deployment and termination of parental rights.

Outline

Types of Grief & Their Implications for Treatment

Grief vs. mourning
Depression & bereavement: A distinction
Secondary losses after death
Non-death losses
The problem with “getting over it”
Misconceptions about grief & mourning
Limitations of the research & potential risks

Assessment: Intake Considerations for Grieving Clients

Grief & coping models
Factors that influence the mourning process
Assessment of continuing bonds
Loss line: The ultimate assessment tool
Normal vs. complicated grief vs. prolonged grief
Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder

Assessment of Grief & Loss in Children & Adolescents

How children, adolescents & adults cope differently
Considerations for different age groups
”De-code” the meanings of behaviors
Six common questions following a death
”Things we want adults to know about our grief”
Signs of concern/red flags

Interventions & Strategies for Anticipatory Grief

Normalize the dying process & grief experience
Model healthy mourning behaviors
Spot opportunities for memorialization
Provide death education & practical support
Strategies to prepare children & adults for the funeral

OVER 60 INTERVENTIONS TO PROMOTE HEALING WHEN IT’S TOO HARD TO TALK

Therapeutic Games

Preschool/Early Elementary
- Doll house scene depiction
- Puppets & stuffed animals
- Sand tray therapy
Youth
- Therapy ball
- Shades of feelings
- Card games
Youth & adults
- Constructive use of punching bags/pillows
- Topic starters
- Questions games
- Group sharing: Cards, web of feelings
…and more

Art with Children, Adolescents & Adults

”I Am” board
Colors of grief
Support circles
Memory peacock
Photo flower pot
Clay/Play-Doh
Photography
Memory boxes & stones
…and more!

Poetry, Writing & Music Interventions for All Ages

Bibliotherapy
Journaling
Poetry: “I am” exercise
Letter writing
Remembrance music
Song/rap writing
Sticky note regrets
…and more!

Memorialization Rituals

Candle-lighting
”I remember” book
Online memorial page
Rice paper/balloon release
Memory patio stones
Tree planting
…and more!

Interactive Activities for Healing as a Family

Web of feelings
Labyrinth with reflection stations
Memorial service
”Broken to whole”
Bibliotherapy for families
Holiday activities: Memory ornaments & stockings
…and more!

Grief & Loss Support Groups for Children, Adolescents & Adults

Grief camps for kids
Support group considerations
Family involvement
Curriculum & session topics (for individual therapy too!)

Target Audience

Social Workers
Counsellors
Psychologists
Chaplains/Clergy
Marriage & Family Therapists
Nurses
Thanatologists
Case Managers
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals
Child Life Specialists