Many children’s bereavement centers and programs across the United States offer concurrent support groups for parents and caregivers that are typically held during the same time as children and teen grief support groups are being offered. This presentation will cover practical tips for facilitating grief support groups for parents, caregivers, and other adults. Best practices for running adult groups will be discussed, including group dynamics, group cohesion, and protecting the process. Additional topics include managing conflict and navigating challenging behaviors in groups, such as advice-giving, monopolizing, interrupting, or one-upping. Suggestions for effective ways to handle controversial topics when they arise in group will also be discussed. This presentation will include a discussion about providing grief support to parents and caregivers in a group setting while also providing helpful information to them about their children’s grief. Effective openings and closings will also be presented in this workshop. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion.

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CE Total: 1.5 hours
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals
Instructional Level: Basic
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

Objectives:

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

• List best practices for running parent and caregiver bereavement support groups.
• Identify challenging behaviors that arise in adult support groups and effective ways to handle them.
• Discuss effective ways to protect the process and manage conflict in a bereavement group for parents and caregivers.

Speaker Bios:

Pamela Gabbay, EdD, FT is a nationally recognized trainer and consultant who has served the bereavement field in many capacities during her 25-year career. Dr. Gabbay is currently the Director of Operations and Training for The Compassionate Friends and is on the TAPS Advisory Board. She is part of the training corps of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). Dr. Gabbay has served in a variety of roles including being the Director of The Mourning Star Center for Grieving Children and Camp Erin, Palm Springs. Dr. Gabbay is the co-author, along with Andy McNiel, of Understanding and Supporting Bereaved Children: A Practical Guide for Professionals. She is on the Executive Committee of ADEC’s Credentialing Council and served as the President of the Southern California Chapter of ADEC. Additionally, Dr. Gabbay previously served as Vice President on the Board of the NACG. She was also an adjunct faculty member in the psychology department at Brandman University. Dr. Gabbay holds a Fellow in Thanatology (FT) from the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and earned a Master of Arts degree in Cognitive Psychology from Claremont Graduate University. She earned her Doctor of Education degree in Organizational Leadership from Brandman University.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:

Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.

The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.

The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.

The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.

National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers.  State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course.  ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.

Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.

To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please make sure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event. 

Grievance policy:  To view the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy, you can find it HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.