About the Course
When we experience the death of someone who is central to our lives, the once familiar grounding of our existence can be shaken and sometimes shattered, calling into question our world assumptions, our bond with our loved one, and even our sense of who we are and where we are going. Viewed through the lens of meaning, grieving therefore presents us with not only painful and often preoccupying symptoms of distress, but also profound challenges to the significance of our everyday lives and the security of our core beliefs and spiritual commitments.
In this workshop, we distinguish between adaptive grieving and its more anguishing and prolonged forms, and review evidence-based risk factors for prolonged grief disorder. We further consider tragic loss as a crisis of meaning, opening the door to the application of a great range of creative techniques to process the story of the loss, the back story of our relation to the deceased, and our self-narratives of who we are and are becoming. Case studies, clinical videos and hands-on practice with tools for assessment and intervention will help learners engage the biopsychosocial challenges of grief, as well as their broader and deeper spiritual implications.
Course Content/Topics:
What colour is my grief? Common grief reactions and their determinants
Making sense of loss: A meaning-focused approach
The toll of bereavement: Evaluating grief-related functional impairment
Prolonged grief disorder: Conceptualization and diagnosis
Complicated spiritual grief: Assessment and intervention
Course Objectives
Describe the multifaceted manifestation of grief reactions, both adaptive and complicated
Conceptualize the impacts of loss using the Tripartite model of Meaning Reconstruction
Identify high-risk griever profiles through an integrative assessment framework
Bridge from research on spiritual distress in bereavement to practical interventions to promote mourner resilience and even psycho-spiritual growth
Who Should Attend
All counsellors, healthcare workers, social workers, psychologists, art / music / expressive arts therapists, school personnel, pastoral staff, and people involved in the helping profession.
Award
Participants who meet 75% class attendance will be awarded a Certificate of Completion by Portland Institute for Loss and Transition & Academy of Human Development.
For certification enquiries, please email carolyn@portlandinstitute.org
Your Trainer
Dr Carolyn Ng
Dr Carolyn Ng, PsyD, FT, MMSAC, RegCLR maintains a private practice, Anchorage for Loss and Transition (for more information, please visit: www.anchorage-for-loss.org). She also serves as Associate Director and Faculty with the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition in Portland, OR, United States. Previously, she was a Principal Counsellor with the Children’s Cancer Foundation in Singapore, specialising in cancer-related palliative care and bereavement counselling support. She is a registered counsellor, master clinical member and approved clinical supervisor with the Singapore Association for Counselling (SAC). She is also a Fellow in Thanatology (FT) registered with the Association of Death Education and Counselling (ADEC), USA; as well as a consultant to a cancer support and bereavement ministry in Sydney, NSW, Australia.
She is certified in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Narrative Therapy as well.
Carolyn first graduated with Bachelor of Arts from the University of New South Wales, Australia, majoring in psychology, followed by Master of Social Science (Counselling) from the Edith Cowan University, Australia and a Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry (Conflict Management) from the Trinity Theological Seminary, USA. She subsequently completed her doctoral training in psychology with the California Southern University, USA. She is also trained in the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, USA, community crisis response by the National Organisation for Victim Assistance (NOVA), USA, as well as Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) by LivingWorks, Canada. She is a trained end-of-life doula and a certified Advanced Care Planning facilitator as well.
Her wide counselling experiences cover youth delinquency issues, marital issues, family violence issues, mental health issues, incarceration issues, grief and loss issues, and crisis interventions. She has varied supervisory experiences with such helping professionals as counsellors, social workers and therapists in diverse settings as well. She also conducts training workshops and presents on various topics in English, Mandarin and Cantonese, as invited by different organizations both in Singapore and other countries like Malaysia, Taiwan, Bhutan, Australia and United States over the years.
Testimonials
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