Introduction to Grief Support Series | Grief Comes in All Shapes and Sizes

Introduction to Grief Support Series | Grief Comes in All Shapes and Sizes

Professionals working in the field of loss and bereavement are accustomed to supporting families in need after a death has occurred. Yet many families experience grief at the time of diagnosis leading up to the actual death. This reaction, otherwise known as anticipatory grief, is what families are immediately coping with as their world changes drastically.

This workshop will address anticipatory grief; why and how it is a unique type of grief and how it impacts children’s developmental stages. It will also cover therapeutic interventions such as bibliotherapy, creative arts, and play techniques. Emphasis on legacy building and holding space for families and their grief journey will also be presented. The presenters will also leave time for discussion.

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 →

 

Target Audience: Students, interns, individuals entering the field of childhood bereavement, new staff members, new counselors, group facilitators, volunteers, anyone who wants to invest in their practice.
Instructional Level: Novice – 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

 

Speaker Bio:

Shani Thornton, MS, CCLS, has been a Certified Child Life Specialist for 17 years. She started her career in a pediatric inpatient rehabilitation setting, transitioned to the community, and launched a private practice in the Sacramento region of Northern California. Shani supports families coping with life’s challenges of illness, trauma, loss, and transitions. Using therapeutic play, creative arts, education, and empathy, she helps children process these challenges and create a coping plan to support their needs. She offers in-home visits, phone/virtual consultations, caregiver workshops, and support to community programs, hospice agencies, and schools. Shani’s expertise has been working with families coping with a terminal diagnosis, end-of-life support, and grief. She recently co-authored a chapter on private practice in The Role of Child Life Specialists in Community Settings. She has been a chair member of the Association of Child Life Professionals and the California Association of Play Therapy and volunteers as a burn camp leader for the Firefighters Burn Institute. Shani is a sought-after presenter for many local, regional, and national conferences and reaches many followers through her insightful blogs and publications.

Corrie Sirota, MSW, holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from McGill University, (Montreal, Canada) as well as a Graduate Certificate in Loss and Bereavement where she continues to teach. As a licensed psychotherapist, Corrie maintains a private practice specializing in Loss and Bereavement, Parenting, Stress management, and Relationship issues. She is the author of “Someone Died…Now What – A personal and professional perspective on coping with grief and loss” and “Loss & Found – A grief activity journal. Corrie is also the Clinical Director of Myra’s Kids Foundation which holds a weekend bereavement camp for children ages 6-17.

Corrie is the co-host of Life Unrehearsed – a weekly radio show on CJAD 800 about the ins and outs of everyday life. She is also a well-known guest speaker, having presented at numerous conferences and workshops, both locally and nationally and continues to develop and facilitate psycho-social prevention and intervention workshops for school professionals, students, camping staff, various community agencies, organizations, and businesses. Corrie delivered a TEDx presentation in Oct 2019 entitled, Creating New Normals after Someone You Loved Died. She is frequently interviewed on many local radio, news, and TV programs on various issues relating to loss and bereavement, how to cope with crisis, child development, and parenting. She is married and has two children and loves to laugh.

 

Compassionate Leadership: Moving in and Through Difficult Conversations in the Workplace

Compassionate leadership shines a light on strengths-oriented, wellness-centered, trauma-informed practices as the foundation for our communications and organizational culture. This workshop will explore interpersonal and organizational strategies to enhance workplace wellness and collaboration, including leadership styles and how they impact our work, ideas for constructively giving and receiving feedback, and how to build a culture of team and gratitude. Participants will walk away shored up with ideas for moving in and through potentially difficult conversations with increased clarity and effectiveness.

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:

  • Name four leadership styles and how they impact workplaces.
  • Identify one strategy for effectively giving and/or receiving feedback.
  • Identify one strategy for creating or promoting organizational wellness.

 

Speaker Bios:

Dr. Tina Barrett, LCPC specializes in strength-oriented care and fostering resilience following traumatic experiences and attachment breaks. A licensed clinical professional counselor, Barrett integrates stories and experiences from over 25 years of work in hospitals, schools, group homes, private practice, wilderness therapy, and nonprofit grief centers. As the Executive Director of Tamarack Grief Resource Center, her commitment to excellence in grief and trauma care is matched by her profound commitment to healthy organizations and setting teams up for success. Barrett is the author of numerous chapters and articles and serves on the Board of Directors for the National Alliance for Children’s Grief; the Leadership Team for Project Tomorrow Montana; and on the Advisory Board for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. She was recognized as the 2019 Community Educator by the Association of Death Educators and Counselors.

Meg Smith, MA is the Assistant Director for Tamarack Grief Resource Center. She’s been with TGRC for 5 years, managing the administrative functioning of the nonprofit, including clinic management, technology, operations, HR, and development. She has an MA in Environmental Humanities and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Public Administration. Her background is in nonprofit efficiency, creating systems and policies to bolster efficiency and efficacy. She has grant writing and development training from the University of Montana and experience building systems from the ground up from her work developing a quarterly magazine with Families for a Livable Climate. She trained as an educator and worked in Missoula County Public Schools.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

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.

Creating the Container for Us: How to Hold Space for Ourselves & Each Other After Student Death

How might we build our skills and visions for how we will come together as staff after student loss? How might we make sense of school-based loss, and how that informs who we are as administrators, educators, clinicians, and youth advocates?

When students die, we understandably and necessarily mobilize to support our surviving students, their peers, and the connected community. We tend to assume, however, that the staff doing that mobilization are ok, and/or we forget to create space to make sense of what just happened  (let alone for what happened months ago, or even years ago).

The task of creating and holding space for the adult staff in a school, system, division, or organization after a student death is one that we, as administrators, staff, and school leadership, rarely get support with. Join SCRR for a dynamic session on how to facilitate space-holding for educators after a student dies, & the role of collective rituals in processing.

Participants will learn how to organize a gathering and the ins and outs of holding space: from how to structure a gathering to how to care for yourself and others to what to do when things go awry. You’ll also have a chance to experience a space for educator communal care firsthand and to share and reflect on your own experiences of loss and life after.

Download the Slides →

Download the Handout →

 

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:

  • Hold space for educators to connect and share about what it means to teach, lead school sites or systems, and provide school services after the death of a student or alum.
  • Identify approaches that create intentional, peer-led spaces for educators to engage in conversation around their experience with death-related, school-based losses as a means towards healing.
  • Explore evidence-based research on the specific impact of engaging in rituals collectively as opposed to individually.
  • Engage in reflective practice that in itself allows you to better lead your community and team.

 

Speaker Bios:

Leora Wolf-Prusan, EdD, serves as the Project Director for the School Crisis Recovery & Renewal project and as the School Mental Health field director for the Pacific Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC), in addition to many other facilitation projects. Previous roles include a national field director of a SAMHSA initiative (ReCAST) and technical assistance for the Student Mental Health Program for California’s Community Colleges, CalWORKs, and more.  With years of training and facilitating learning and community building in schools p-16, Wolf-Prusan is skilled in facilitation, human learning design, training, and coaching. Wolf-Prusan is dedicated to work focused on educator mental health, wellness, and trauma-informed approaches to education and operates through a framework in which public health, social work, and education intersect. Her research examined the impact of student death on teachers, what factors contribute to teachers building resiliency, and what supports teachers need from the school system in the event of a student homicide or other traumas. She received a BA in international relations and a BA in Spanish with a minor in Social & Ethnic Relations from the University of California, Davis; a teaching credential from Mills College; and an EdD in educational leadership from UCLA.

Oriana Idea, MA, LPCCI, PPS, is the School Mental Health Training Specialist at CARS, who approaches healing the wounds of trauma and oppression as core elements of social justice.  She has worked with young people across life course from elementary school to college, and has served as teacher-leader, school counselor, classroom educator and program director.  She is committed to generating equity within school structures and policies by focusing on evidence-based mental health techniques and institutional design.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

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

In Today’s World: Cultivating Collective Intercultural Wellbeing and a Sense of Belonging in the Community

In today’s multiple pandemics of oppression, mass trauma, forced migration, COVID-19, and climate change, there is sustained traumatic stress with corresponding opportunities to heal. Historic, collective, and intergenerational trauma have spread dis-ease throughout human nature. Humanity has experienced more and more fragmentation, collective violence, and isolation.

In this workshop attendees will begin to understand the effects of collective loss due to war, persecution, and terrorism, its impact on children and families, as well as healing through the re-establishment of belonging. “Humans sitting within trauma from war, persecution, and terrorism tell us over and over again how much the systems of oppression need to change for healing to occur. In fact, they state that the first step in healing is not so much about revealing the darkest traumatic memories. The greatest healing, they report, is having a sense of belonging in the community.” (St. Thomas, Sheffield and Johnson. (2024) Collective Trauma and Human Suffering.)

Participants will learn the growing pains and evolution of a 25 year old bereavement and intercultural program. We will share a documentary film on collective loss produced by the Intercultural Advisory Council at the Center for Grieving Children in Maine. This documentary shares the added complexities of cross cultural definitions of collective loss, grief, as well as acculturative stress. We will explore inhibitors of cross-cultural communication and the five essentials of collective healing towards belonging.

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 at least three strategies in bringing belonging to intercultural settings.
  • Identify the top three inhibitors to cross-cultural communication.
  • Learn the five essentials to collective healing.
  • Explore and identify at least one initiative in implementing collective healing into their organization.
  • Identify at least two added barriers to healing when resettling from war and persecution.

 

Speaker Bios:

Marie Sheffield, MA, LCPC, is a clinical counselor, art therapist, co-author and interculturalist, working in the field of mass trauma, intercultural communication and collective healing. In addition to being an adjunct professor at University of Southern Maine, she has spent two decades enhancing and implementing a collective healing and intercultural model with those resettling from war and persecution. Additionally, over the course of ten years, Marie was one of two mental health consultants for America’s Camp, a six day overnight camp supporting children who lost a parent(s) on 9.11, or in the course of duty. At the Center for Grieving Children, while developing intercultural and diversity training curriculum, she established an Intercultural Advisory Council producing documentary films and community conversations across differences. Marie also completed a fellowship with the Intercultural Communication Institute. Since then, Marie has become a senior facilitator of Personal Leadership (plseminars.com) and incorporates this model in all of her work. As co-founder of Bridge to Belong Consulting (bridge2belong.com), her training and consultations are focused on bringing skills of collective healing support into the healthcare, education and community systems.

 

Justine Mugabo, BS, is the Intercultural Program Coordinator at the Center for Grieving Children. She works with facilitators in social and educational institutions to provide collective healing support and growth for children resettling from war and persecution. She states that her passion is to “help people in achieving their dreams and goals.” According to Justine, “Our goal at the Center is to help children and families to find hope and love and increase belonging in order to express feelings safely relative to the grief and loss. Such building of community resilience is a resource to persevere in the World.”

Justine is a Board Member for In Her Presence, an immigrant owned non-profit supporting asylum seeking women in navigating pathways forward. She collaborates in developing policy, programming, and resources and provides direct support. She also spends her time on the board of Double Hope Children, an immigrant owned non-profit working to support the needs of children resettling from war and persecution.

Before resettling into the United States herself, Justine worked in customer service management with the Mobile Telephone Network of Rwanda. With her lived experience, training and leadership position Justine has developed effective skills in intercultural communication, collective healing support and knowledge.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

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

The Future of Grief Camps: Themes and Standards in a Changing World

There are so many ways we are seeing shifts in how we support youth and families experiencing grief, from shifting camp models to creating more accessibility throughout a program. While there is so much power in how diverse bereavement camps have become, it can also feel important to come back together as a field to collectively share our foundation for these camps and how we plan to move forward as a field.

Join us for a panel discussion where professionals from the bereavement and camp fields come together to highlight important themes and standards for bereavement camps today and looking forward. Topics such as expanding the definition of wellbeing to actively working on creating equitable and inclusive camp spaces. The panel will share their thoughts around these important themes and more. We will also address the updated Bereavement Camp Standards of Practice as a practical tool for the bereavement and camp fields.

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:

  • Investigate key themes in the bereavement camp field where shifts are being seen.
  • Inform bereavement professionals of the free Bereavement Camp Standards of Practice resource to help inform bereavement camp standards across the field.
  • Appraise minimum practices and standards to ensure a safer bereavement camp experience for participants.

 

Speaker Bios:

Kiri Meyer (Moderator and Panelist) is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Wisconsin, a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC), and a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200). Kiri has spent over a decade helping to support individuals and families of all ages through individual/family counseling and camp-based programs. Kiri supports camp and other non-profit programs by acting as a Mental Health Professional throughout the camp program or as needed for other programs. She has conducted trainings in the areas of trauma and bereavement throughout her professional career and is now part of the Eluna Camp Erin team helping to support professionals in the Camp Erin network.

Dr. Tina Barrett (Panelist) is the Executive Director/Co-founder of Tamarack Grief Resource Center in Montana.  Since 1994, Barrett has specialized in family systems, strength-oriented and outdoor-based support following grief and trauma. Her doctoral research illuminated benefits of youth bereavement camps. Over the past 30 years, Barrett has focused on best practices of nature-based support with trauma survivors and family-systems. She has designed and directed various models of grief camps for youth, teens, women, families, and professionals in Montana and six other states including A Camp to Remember which she launched in 1997. She served on the Board of Directors for the National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG), and currently serves on the Leadership Team of Project Tomorrow Montana and the Advisory Board for Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. Barrett received the Community Educator Award from Association for Death Educators and Counselors (ADEC) in 2019.

John Hamilton, MA, (Panelist) is a strategic leader in the camp and out-of-school time (OST) space. He currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer for the Alliance for Camp Health. John has a deep understanding of mental, emotional, and social health (MESH +) of youth and national program expansion. Prior to ACH he served as the national director for Camp HOPE America. John has an MA in Leadership and Cultural Justice, is the cofounder of the Outdoor Wellbeing Lab, and is a former executive director of a camp near Lake Tahoe.

Katie Hartley, LPC, has been a Licensed Professional Counselor since 1989 and has worked with children and youth her entire career. Her practice has included work with many populations, emphasizing developmental theory and non-verbal interactions utilizing the creative arts. Katie served as an adjunct professor at Drexel as well as internship supervisor for many years. She has worked in private practice, with school districts, developmental centers and created an arts center for therapeutic work. Katie’s current role at Penn Medicine is as a children’s bereavement coordinator and clinical director for Camp Erin (a weekend camp for grieving youth). She continues to use the creative arts and has completed MBSR training and uses mindfulness and meditation within her work often.

Brianne “Brie” Overton, FT, LPC, NCC, (Panelist) is the Chief Clinical Officer of Experience Camps, a national nonprofit that provides no-fee, clinically informed programs for kids who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver – as well as resources and advocacy so all grieving children can live a life rich with possibility. Brie received her MA in Thanatology from Hood College, her M.Ed in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from University of Missouri – St. Louis, and is a doctoral candidate in counseling at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. She has spent 16 years in the field of thanatology providing grief education, support, counseling, death education, suicide prevention and intervention, and consultation.

Jason Stout, for more than two decades, has been helping youth and adults find their inner strength, form meaningful connections, and experience personal transformation through adventure challenge and time in nature. His passion for this work is rooted in the losses of his sister, grandmother, and father — all before Jason was 15 years old. He struggled to deal with these losses as a teen and adult, but he found purpose and healing after completing a 78-day Winter Wilderness Leadership Expedition.   In honor of his dad and sister, Jason created a national wilderness program for at-risk and grieving teens, which was featured in Backpacker Magazine, The Denver Post, and the Associated Press. Jason is founder of Stoutreach LLC where he provides training, consultation, and facilitation to outdoor education, wilderness therapy, and gap year programs.  In addition, he serves as an advisor to TAPS where he manages, develops, and facilitates a variety of programming including mindfulness and healing in nature for youth and adult military survivors.  Previously he served Judi’s House as Outreach and Education Manager and Outward Bound as the National Outreach Director.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

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

Compassion Fatigue in the Death Industry

While the value of compassion in deathcare has gained increased attention, it remains a neglected focus of training. Vicarious trauma leading to compassion fatigue is changing the way professionals think about self-care. Participants will explore how repeat exposure to traumatic deaths coupled with the constant output of empathy can affect their cognition and emotional balance, and learn 20 evidence-based techniques designed to mitigate the effects before it leads to career burnout.

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 ways the concept of compassion fatigue applies to deathcare professionals.
  • Self-assess cognitive, emotional and physical signs of compassion fatigue.
  • Understand the complementary roles of stress management, resilience, and career longevity.
  • Learn evidence-based techniques that mitigate negative work-related effects.

 

Speaker Bios:

Lynda Cheldelin Fell is founding partner of the International Grief Institute, and international bestselling author of over 35 books including the award-winning Grief Diaries series. With her background as a firefighter/EMT, Lynda specializes in trauma, grief, compassion fatigue, and holds a national certification in critical incident stress management. A popular keynote speaker and educator, she is a member of the continuing education faculty at Whatcom Community College. To research grief’s impact on society, she has interviewed people around the world including societal figures such as Martin Luther King’s daughter, and Heaven is For Real’s Pastor Todd Burpo. She has earned six national literary awards and five national advocacy award nominations for her work.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

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

Silent Suffering: Supporting Youth Grieving Stigmatized Loss

This session will focus on supporting individuals who have experienced a stigmatized loss, including loss by suicide, homicide, and addiction. Presenters will review grief occurrence data for children and youth, along with practical understandings of relevant grief theories to guide practice with this bereaved population. As stigmatized loss is often accompanied by feelings of shame, guilt, and anger, it is vital for those working in the field to better understand the impact of stigmatized grief and loss on children and families. Several of the challenging components of working with those bereaved by stigmatized loss will be explored. Presenters will discuss important therapeutic techniques, interventions, and conversations for youth and caregivers, including best practices for helping children understand death by suicide, homicide, and/or addiction. Stigmatized losses often occur after traumatic lives. Therefore, aspects of understanding the impact of trauma on youth will also be explored. Presenters will provide several opportunities for experiential learning as we discuss and practice activity and body-based interventions for children and families. Finally, attendees will be provided with a multitude of resources to better understand and work with stigmatized loss and continue to inform practice.

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: Intermediate – This best describes a topic or issue the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or working knowledge.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

 

Objectives:

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Define stigmatized loss.
  • Identify at least two theories of grief that can be adapted to work with a population bereaved by stigmatized loss.
  • Utilize two body-based interventions for traumatic loss in children and youth.
  • Identify best practices to discuss stigmatized loss with youth.
  • Identify two online resources for further information on stigmatized loss faced by children and families.

 

Speaker Bios:

Jodi Flesner, Ph.D., LPC, is a clinical supervisor, licensed therapist, and program coordinator at Heartlinks Grief Center. Jodi completed her master’s degree in Community Counseling at Loyola University Chicago in 2007 and her doctoral degree in Counselor Education and Supervision from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2015. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in both Illinois and Missouri. Jodi has worked at Heartlinks for seven years where she conducts individual and family counseling, group counseling, community outreach to support those grieving in the community, and various grief support groups at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Prior to that she worked as a doctoral intern at hospice for two years where she conducted individual and family bereavement support services, group counseling, and counseling at multiple grief/bereavement retreats and camps. She has taught multiple master’s level counseling courses, published a peer-reviewed article titled, “A Shift in the Conceptual Understanding of Grief: Using Meaning-Oriented Therapies with Bereaved Clients,” and completed multiple presentations in the area of bereavement including grief and coping in caregivers, theories of grief over time, exploring stigmatized loss, the importance of meaning making after a death loss, and the importance of infusing death education into counseling programs.

Diana Cuddeback, LCSW, is the Founding Director of Heartlinks Grief Center in Belleville, Illinois. Since her first Children’s Grief Group in 1991, Diana has provided children, families, and individuals innovative grief programming. Heartlinks serves individuals of all ages before and after a loss due to death. Diana and the Heartlinks team, provide individual and family counseling, grief support groups, as well as portable grief outreach programs and grief education. Diana’s mission is to create a meaningful community of support for grieving people filled with learning, activity, fun and connection. Diana is an experienced presenter who has presented on a variety of topics including children’s grief, traumatic loss and coping, stigmatized loss and the impact on children and families, and the various impacts of addiction-related loss, among others.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

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

Introduction to Grief Support Series | Homicide Loss 101

Homicide loss brings up complex emotions, challenges, and experiences that often complicate the grief process for individuals, children, and families. Persons experiencing homicide loss must navigate the legal system, potentially stigmatizing situations, and cultural factors in addition to the factors that come with a grief event. Through this presentation, we will discuss unique challenges, the impacts of the trial process, the impacts of witnessing homicide, and language to discuss homicide loss with children.

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 →

 

Target Audience: Students, interns, individuals entering the field of childhood bereavement, new staff members, new counselors, group facilitators, volunteers, anyone who wants to invest in their practice.
Instructional Level: Novice – 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 3 unique challenges individuals, families, and children experience related to homicide loss.
  • Recognize best practice language to use when discussing homicide loss with children at different developmental levels.
  • Recognize the impacts of the trial process on children and families grieving homicide loss.
  • Identify the impacts of witnessing a homicide.

 

Speaker Bio:

Becca Olsson, MSW, received her Master’s Degree at the University of Oklahoma in Social Work in 2023. She has worked in the social services field since 2019 with experience in mental health services, youth homelessness services, sexual abuse and trauma therapy services, and grief. As the Center-Based Program Coordinator at Calm Waters, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Becca manages the grief and divorce support group programs onsite at Calm Waters. In providing services, she aims to help individuals and families feel less alone in their grief, pain, and loss. She is passionate about social justice and acknowledging and incorporating individuals’ and families’ unique identities and experiences into services.

Kaitlyn Roedl, LPC Candidate, received her Master’s degree at Southern Nazarene University in Counseling Psychology in 2021. She is currently a Licensed Professional Counselor Candidate (LPC-C). Kaitlyn is a therapist at Calm Waters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and has over 2 years clinical experience and has worked in clinical and non-profit settings. Kaitlyn has experience working with children, teens, adults, and families. Kaitlyn is passionate about creating a safe environment for children and families so individuals don’t have to feel so alone in their grief. Through creating a safe environment, she hopes to increase access to grief support services and empower her community through education.

 

Cultivating inclusivity for children and all abilities in funeral planning and participation

The process of planning a funeral is a multifaceted endeavor involving significant considerations such as cultural traditions, accessibility, religious/ spiritual beliefs, communities, and the ability to derive meaning from the experience (Causadias et al., 2022). It is imperative to create an age-appropriate, death-positive conversation which can then expand participation to include often marginalized communities such as: BIPOCC, LGBTQIA, individuals, and children who are neurodiverse. Understanding contemporary funeral care practices can help make it easier to advocate for the inclusion of children in funeral planning, which can reduce psychopathology among children and adolescents (Becker et al, 2021; Causadias et al, 2022; McCaughan et al, 2021). Walsh’s Family Resilience Theory supports including children in funeral rituals as it can help instill stronger familial and community relationships. Recognizing and addressing children’s emotional needs in the context of death and loss is a pivotal step toward promoting a healthier grieving process. Embracing a more inclusive and compassionate approach to funeral planning can help ensure that all individuals and communities can participate and find solace in the process.

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:

  • Name best practices of contemporary funeral care.
  • List five key elements in developing an inclusive funeral ceremony for all ages and abilities.
  • Explain funeral procedures in age-appropriate explanations of funeral procedures for various age groups (ie: young children, adolescents) and consider the unique needs and abilities of attendees, including those with physical and cognitive challenges.

 

Speaker Bios:

Stephanie Heitkemper, PhD, is a Licensed Professional Counselor and owner of Resilient Minds Counseling PLLC in Denver, Colorado and Camp Erin NYC Clinical Director. Stephanie completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology and Human Services at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, and holds a Masters in Marriage Family Therapy from Regis University in Denver, CO. She completed her PhD in Counseling and Psychological Studies from Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA. Stephanie is a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor (RPT-S), an Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Approved Consultant and Certified Therapist, a Fellow in Thanatology (FT), and is also a Trauma and Loss Specialist (CTS) and Trauma Informed Assessment Specialist (CTA). Her main passion is working with children and families recovering from grief and trauma. Professionally, she finds the most joy in collaboration, problem solving, hands-on creativity, and interactive play. In her free time, Stephanie enjoys 5 am CrossFit, coffee, and exploring Colorado with her boxer, Frank, and her husband.

Jack E. Lechner, Jr. CFSP, MS, CT is a distinguished individual with extensive experience in both the funeral industry and United States Army. He currently holds the position of President & Chief Executive Officer of the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science (CCMS). Jack’s knowledge and expertise in the funeral industry span nearly five decades. Before entering the academic field, Jack practiced as a licensed funeral director in the state of New Jersey for a decade. In 1983, he transitioned to a military career enlisting as an Infantryman in the United States Army. He went on to be commissioned as an officer in 1985. Jack’s final military assignment was at the honorable and prestigious Arlington National Cemetery. There he held several positions including Executive Officer, Cemetery Administrator, Deputy Superintendent. Jack’s dedication and contributions culminated in his appointment as Superintendent, a position he held until August 2015. Throughout his military career, Jack earned multiple military awards highlighting his exceptional service and dedication. These honors include the Defense Superior Service Medal, two Bronze Star Medals, three Defense Meritorious Service Medals, five Meritorious Service Medals and various other commendations.

 

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