From Breaking News to Breakthroughs: Creative, Play-based Support After a Death

From Breaking News to Breakthroughs: Creative, Play-based Support After a Death

One in eleven children in the U.S. will experience the death of a parent or sibling by the age of 18” (Judi’s House, 2025). Beyond death loss, over 60% of adolescents and 64% of children have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE) such as natural disasters, abuse, or community violence (McLaughlin et al., 2013; CDC, 2024). In today’s media-driven world, children are additionally exposed to traumatic content through constant news and social media coverage, heightening feelings of distress and insecurity.

This interactive session is designed to equip professionals with practical tools and strategies to support children and adolescents navigating a variety of trauma types across developmental stages. Traumas to be addressed include, but are not limited to, natural disasters, manmade violence, race-based trauma, adverse media exposure, refugee trauma, sex trafficking, abuse (physical, sexual, emotional), and terrorism. Participants will explore the unique impacts these experiences have on childhood development and working memory, while learning trauma- and grief-informed preparation, processing, and intervention techniques.

Delivering information repetitively can be both essential and emotionally taxing. This session will address the physiological and emotional toll of these tasks and provide thanatologists with self-care and self-regulation strategies, such as grounding and mindful breathing, to maintain presence and resilience.

This webinar session will allow participants to explore trauma-specific bibliotherapy resources, multisensory play-based interventions, and creative therapeutic activities tailored to developmental needs, reinforcing evidence-based strategies while offering opportunities for reflection.

Attendees will leave with at least three reputable resources—including professional toolkits, online libraries, and caregiver-friendly platforms—to extend support beyond the clinical setting. Collectively, this session empowers thanatologists with confidence, communication skills, and holistic strategies to effectively guide children and families through life’s most challenging circumstances.

 

members only iconThis playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

 

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals, school professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

 

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Identify three strategies for age-appropriate communication with children about difficult topics, including preparation and processing based on the situation and potential trauma.
  • Participants will be able to identify how stress impacts clinicians, caregivers, and professionals, while identifying two self-regulation techniques to overcome these barriers and remain emotionally present during challenging conversations.
  • Participants will learn about hands-on, multi-sensory play experiences that highlight developmental considerations and coping skill strategies, allowing child life specialists to rotate through interactive stations that reinforce the key talking points of the presentation.
  • Identify at least three reputable resources (e.g., toolkits, online libraries, or apps) that can be shared with families and professionals to facilitate ongoing support.

 

Speaker Bio:

Stephanie Heitkemper, PhD, LPC, RPT-S, FT, is the owner of Resilient Minds Counseling in Denver, Colorado, where she specializes in grief and trauma across the lifespan. An EMDRIA Approved Consultant and Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor, she integrates EMDR, play therapy, creative expression, and bibliotherapy to support children, families, and professionals navigating loss, trauma, and life transitions.

Her clinical and training work emphasizes age-appropriate communication with children about difficult topics, offering practical strategies for preparation, processing, and developmental support. She also guides clinicians, caregivers, and child life specialists in recognizing the effects of stress on their ability to remain present, equipping them with self-regulation techniques that strengthen their capacity to respond with empathy and confidence during challenging conversations.

As a national presenter and published author, Stephanie is known for her interactive and experiential teaching style. She designs multi-sensory play experiences that highlight coping skills, developmental considerations, and strategies that can be readily applied in professional practice. Her contributions to national grief publications underscore her commitment to evidence-informed resources, while her trainings consistently feature accessible tools—such as apps, libraries, and toolkits—that extend learning beyond the workshop.

Through her work, Stephanie bridges theory and practice to create trauma-informed, developmentally responsive spaces that support both grieving children and the professionals who care for them.

 

Jessica Correnti, MS, CCLS, is a Certified Child Life Specialist, author, bereaved mother, and grief specialist. She is the founder of Kids Grief Support, a private practice that provides therapeutic sessions and grief education to children and families in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as virtual services to families worldwide. Her work centers on developmentally appropriate communication strategies that prepare children for difficult conversations, support healthy processing of grief, and integrate trauma-informed care.

With nearly twenty years of professional experience, Jessica spent 14 years as a Child Life Specialist in pediatric hospital settings at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, and GBMC. She supported children and families in intensive care, emergency, surgical, and inpatient units, bringing a depth of knowledge in navigating complex medical and emotional experiences. She now applies this expertise in her private practice, offering individual therapy, grief groups, and collaborations with funeral homes and child loss organizations.

Jessica combines clinical expertise with expressive, multi-sensory interventions to help children build resilience and coping skills. She also equips professionals with practical self-regulation strategies and shares accessible resources—including toolkits, libraries, and grief-specific apps—that extend care beyond the therapy room.

As the author of four children’s grief books, including The ABCs of Grief and the forthcoming The ABCs of Grief: Coping (2026), Jessica is committed to creating compassionate, developmentally informed tools that foster connection and healing for grieving children and families.

 

 

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

Introduction to Grief Support Series | Beyond Risk Factors and Warning Signs: An Introduction to Suicide

Suicidology has been a distinct discipline for over half a century, yet suicide is still misunderstood as a symptom of psychiatric illness – treat the illness, suicidality will go away. This has never worked and suicide rates, particularly among Black youth in America, continue to climb (Jackson-Lowman et al., 2023). This is partly because of European-based assumptions that suicide is a singular, individual, autonomous experience without connection to socio-cultural contexts or structural-historical forces (Button & Marsh, 2020). Instead, suicide is a “wicked problem” (Bryan, 2021): highly complex and not easily addressed with solution-focused, linear thinking. Grief after suicide has been underestimated in terms of the reach and impact on the bereaved.

Research has led to the construction of the Continuum Model of the Effects of Suicide Exposure (National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, 2015), illustrating that 115 people are exposed each time a suicide occurs, and 63 of these will have high or very high closeness with the deceased. Those bereaved after suicide are often challenged by the “perceived intentionality” of the death and related “perceived responsibility” for the death (Jordan, 2020). Research shows that lifetime suicide exposure is related to increased suicidal ideation, PTS, and anxiety (Andriessen et al., 2020). This presentation will go beyond risk factors and warning signs that lead to inaccurate presumptions about suicide. We will review theories of and best practices for addressing suicidal behavior, framing suicidality as not just an individual act but something that has social determinants (Millner et al., 2020; Jackson-Lowman et al., 2023). We will address research about and best practices for suicide intervention, postvention, and supporting grievers after suicide. The presentation will offer special consideration of how children and teens are impacted, what they worry about after a suicide death, and ways to support them (Andriessen et al., 2020).

members only iconThis playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

 

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

 

Objectives:

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Identify and discuss theories of suicide.
  • Identify and discuss research on and best practices for suicide intervention and addressing suicidal behavior.
  • Identify and discuss research on and best practices for postvention and grief support after suicide.

 

Speaker Bios:

Janet McCord, PhD, FT, Professor of Thanatology and Thanatology Program Director at Edgewood College, has been a thanatologist and suicidologist for nearly 30 years. She is a death educator who teaches a broad array of topics in thanatology and suicidology and has educated hundreds of master’s level students around the globe in graduate thanatology programs. She is a member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement (IWG) since 2016 and embraces the IWG’s vision as her own: a world where dying, death, and bereavement are an open part of all cultures. Her research interests include the investigation of global and cultural perspectives of trauma, dying, death, grief, suicide, and loss, and the intersection of thanatology with literature and the arts. She is in the process of conducting research on death and funeral rituals among the Acholi and BaGanda peoples of Uganda, and plans to expand this research to other low-income countries. She currently serves as a Thanatology Section Editor for the Routledge Online Resources: Death, Dying, and Bereavement, and has published peer-reviewed articles, book reviews, book chapters, and contributed to a range of projects as an author or reviewer.

Rebecca S. Morse, PhD, is a behavioral and developmental psychologist and thanatologist. She has taught at several Universities and Colleges on a broad range of topics in psychology, criminology, traumatology, grief after suicide, and thanatology. She is a Past President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and is the co-chair for the American Psychological Association End of Life Special Interest Group. She is also a collaborator on a project with the Hospice Foundation of America to provide grief education for individuals with Autism, funded by the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation. She is a Thanatology Subject Editor for Taylor & Francis, and has published peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and contributed to numerous textbooks as both an author, and a reviewer.

After a Suicide: Helping Children, Adolescents, and Teens

*This playback is available to active NACG Members Only.

To Open or Not to Open? Navigating the Camp Opening Decision in the Time of COVID