Courageous Well-being: Strategies for Personal and Professional Renewal

Courageous Well-being: Strategies for Personal and Professional Renewal

Coping and self-confidence in your work require taking the time to understand the evidence-based literature and use effective strategies to enhance your well-being, find meaning in your work and discover joy and support in relationships. This session will explore the essence of courageous well-being. Based on evidence-based strategies, attendees will explore nontraditional approaches to minimize the consequences of stress and trauma—through nature, the arts, and creativity as indispensable wellsprings of respite and joy. The profound healing effects of advocacy for health and well-being are also introduced. Attendees will receive several handouts with practices and guides for use in their work and home lives.

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.

 

Objectives:

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Discuss how working with bereaved children and their families can put professionals and volunteers at risk for empathic distress fatigue, vicarious grief, ongoing stress, or burnout.
  • Describe the six elements of psychological well-being.
  • Explore how trauma and vicarious grief are carried in our bodies, hearts, and minds and the strategies used to manage the consequences of their work.

 

Speaker Bio:

Donna Gaffney, DNSc, PMHCNS-BC, FAAN, an advanced practice nurse-psychotherapist, author and educator, works with individuals, communities, and professional nurses in the aftermath of personal and national crises — 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Coronavirus pandemic. Donna provides pro-bono psychotherapy through the Emotional PPE Project and facilitates Virtual Schwartz Rounds for the New Jersey Nursing Emotional Well-Being Institute. With extensive experience in classroom, experiential and online education, she offers workshops, presentations and webinars nationally and internationally. Donna has taught and directed graduate programs at the International Trauma Studies Program, Columbia and Seton Hall Universities. Her webinar series at the beginning of the pandemic, Healing Ourselves, While Healing Others, was offered through Rutgers University School of Nursing and the Northeastern University School Health Academy. In addition to academic papers, book chapters, and articles for the lay press, Donna is the author of The Seasons of Grief, Helping Children Grow Through Loss. Donna holds graduate degrees from Columbia and Rutgers Universities, and the University of Pennsylvania. She received the 2021 APNA Award for Excellence in Practice – APRN. In 2023 her book Courageous Well-Being for Nurses will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

 

Nicole C. Foster, MA, NBC-HWC is a national board-certified health and wellness coach, consultant, and writer. She is Head of Coaching at Lief Therapeutics, a start-up that offers the only mental health wearable device using HRV-Biofeedback. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, she self-published an eBook, Well-Being in the Waiting: Finding Presence During Unprecedented Times, and provided complimentary copies to healthcare workers. Nicole collaborates with the With Grace Initiative, a non-profit organization supporting children with cancer, providing pro-bono workshops that promote connection, support, and psychosocial education in their Warriors of Wellness series.

She is a graduate of Columbia University’s Spirituality, Mind-Body Institute and holds a Master of Arts in Psychology. Her personal essays surrounding the loss of her father in the terrorist attacks of 9/11 have been published in New York Magazine and Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper. She is the co-author of Courageous Well-Being for Nurses, to be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in September 2023. Learn more about her work at www.NicoleCFoster.com and @NicoleCFoster on Instagram.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

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

 

Using Fictional Characters to Help Children and Adolescents Who Are Grieving Live Interactive Webinar

Reading about fictional characters’ grief and loss experiences can help children and adolescents deal with their own grief and loss. Many stories written for children and adolescents, like the Harry Potter books, are filled with loss and death. But literature, like magic, can open new worlds for people, and show many possible ways to survive losses and challenges and even flourish beyond them. Using reading and storytelling to help improve a person’s mental health is often referred to as bibliotherapy. This session will present activities based on J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series to help children and adolescents deal with grief and loss, as well as activities based on other books to help children who are grieving (including Everett Anderson’s Long Goodbye, Charlotte’s Web, Where the Red Fern Grows, and The Hunger Games). The session’s goal is to give participants many practical individual and group activities, including discussion questions, worksheets, and crafts, that can help children who are grieving.

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:

  • Summarize how bibliotherapy can help children and adolescents who are grieving.
  • Describe how reading the fictional works presented may help children who are grieving.
  • Discuss specific activities using fictional characters that may be helpful for specific age levels and situations of children who are grieving.

 

Speaker Bios:

Kathryn Markell, PhD teaches Child and Adolescent Development and Death and Dying classes at Anoka-Ramsey Community College. She has published and presented scholarly work on how to help grieving children and adolescents, including co-authoring the book “The Children Who Lived: Using Harry Potter and Other Fictional Characters to Help Grieving Children and Adolescents”.

Marc Markell, PhD teaches at Worsham College of Mortuary Science; he is also a professor emeritus at St. Cloud State University. He teaches Death Education for non-grieving children. Marc is a certified Thanatologist and Death and Grief Studies. He presents locally, nationally, and internationally. Marc has published three books on grief, as well as book chapters and numerous articles.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

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

The Intersection of Domestic Violence and the Grieving Process of Children

Children who experience domestic violence are impacted at every level of their wellness. They can lose a caregiver or sibling(s) through separation, housing stability, and even the feeling of safety, security, and belonging, all contributing to a child’s grief. This grief may be initially overlooked or dismissed as adults focus on establishing safety and meeting the basic needs of all involved. This webinar will teach professionals how domestic violence and grief are intertwined. The webinar will highlight how domestic violence impacts the grieving process, particularly through secondary trauma and disenfranchised grief.

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:

  • Describe how secondary trauma from domestic violence impacts a child’s grieving process.
  • Discuss the intersection of disenfranchised grief with children who have experienced domestic violence.
  • Implement 2-3 therapeutic interventions to assist children who have lost a parent/caregiver to domestic violence.

 

Speaker Bios:

Sheree Burnett, MA, LPC-S is a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor. She has over 10 years of experience working with various populations in community mental health, private practice, hospital, and university settings. She has particular training in working with trauma individuals and families who have experienced domestic violence. She has conducted didactic training, participated in panel conferences, assisted with developing a curriculum about domestic violence for the educational system, and co-developed department initiatives to bring awareness about domestic violence and ways to celebrate survivors of domestic abuse. In addition, Sheree has worked with and participated in training to assist children and their families about grief. She also obtained certification in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy which further allows her to assist survivors and grieving individuals with their healing journey in therapy.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

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

Occupational Therapy’s Role in Supporting Children’s Grief: Tools, Sensory Strategies, and When to Refer

When children experience a stressful life event, their nervous systems can have difficulty regulating. Children exhibit grief reactions in various ways that may present similarly to sensory and emotional dysregulation. Occupational therapists can partner with families to provide a holistic mental health approach. This presentation will address the role and benefit of occupational therapy, mental health strategies that may help, and when to seek out occupational therapy services.

 

Handouts:

 

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:

  • Participants will be able to describe occupational therapy and how it can benefit children experiencing grief
  • Participants will be able to identify two occupational therapy mental health strategies/tools that can be utilized in a clinic or at home.
  • Participants will be able to recognize when to refer a child experiencing grief to occupational therapy services.

 

Speaker Bios:

Michelle Michaels is an occupational therapy doctoral student at Huntington University, who is completing her capstone experience project while collaborating with the National Alliance of Children’s Grief (NACG). She is extremely passionate about her project working with the NACG due to her personal experiences with childhood grief following the death of her mother. She also has ten years of experience working with children with and without disabilities as a care provider, direct support professional, and a personal paraprofessional aid. She gained occupational therapy clinical experience through her Level II Fieldwork placement at an outpatient pediatric clinic that utilized a sensory-based approach. Once she has passed the NBCOT exam following graduation in April, she plans to go into travel occupational therapy.

Teen Do and Don’t poster from teens

Adolescente haz esto y no hagas esto

Teen Grief Journal Sample

Mi cuaderno de duelo adolescente muestra

Centering Intersectionality Within the Field of Childhood Bereavement

It is commonly believed that grief is different for everyone and that we should not compare one child’s grief to another’s. Why can grief differ so much from one child to another, even within the same family system? When a child experiences a death loss, adults in their system may attribute a child’s thoughts and behaviors to being a “grief response” and center the child’s grief as their primary motivating factor. This unintentional oversimplification of what the child may be experiencing can make grief the only lens by which adults see children who are grieving. It can potentially harm a child’s health and well-being if supportive adults only see a child as a “single story.” This presentation will use the concept of intersectionality introduced by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw to help adults who support children see them as the complex, socially constructed people they are.

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:

  • Explain Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality.
  • Identify areas of their practice where intersectionality can be incorporated into their work with children who are grieving.
  • Create an intake process that uses principles of intersectionality to help portray a more complete picture of a grieving child.

 

Speaker Bios:

Adam W. Carter, Ph.D., is a professional counselor and counselor educator who received his doctoral degree in Counselor Education and Supervision, with an emphasis in multicultural counseling, from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Adam has taught courses in CACREP-accredited master’s level clinical mental health programs and doctoral-level courses in counselor education and supervision and served as the Trauma-Informed Counseling Graduate Certificate coordinator at Northern Illinois University. During his time at Northern Illinois University, he founded the Center for Grief and Loss at the University’s Community Counseling and Training Center, where he provided clinical supervision and education to counselors in training. Adam’s ongoing research and scholarship program focuses on early childhood grief responses and preparing counselors-in-training to work with grieving children. Adam’s scholarly work also includes numerous peer-reviewed presentations focusing on topics such as trauma-informed counseling, play therapy, and developing research skills in counseling practitioners. His clinical experience is broad, having worked as a counselor and supervisor in community mental health clinics, in-home intensive settings, community advocacy agencies, and private practice.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

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

The Rhythm of Emotion: The Use of Music Therapy to Give Voice to Grieving Children & Adolescents

This presentation will explore the use of music therapy as a powerful tool for grieving children and adolescents. Participants will have the opportunity to gain information and knowledge about the interconnection between child and adolescent grief and music therapy, discover ways of incorporating music therapy techniques with this population through clinical examples and guided practice, and engage in music therapy experiences that may be used in self-exploration of their own grief journey.

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 that the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or a working knowledge.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

 

Objectives:

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Define music therapy.
  • Discuss the role of music therapy in grief and bereavement.
  • Describe 3 music therapy experiences that can be used in child and adolescent grief.

 

Speaker Bios:

Amy Entwistle, MMT, MT-BC, a board-certified music therapist, is a Child and Adolescent Grief Coordinator at Four Seasons. Amy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music performance with a minor in psychology from High Point University. She earned her Master of Music Therapy degree from Appalachian State University. She has worked as a hospice music therapist and bereavement counselor. Amy uses a body-mind-centered approach and various creative art modalities to meet the needs of grieving children, adolescents, and their families.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

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