A Lifetime of Loss: Integrating Heartache and Grief in Adult & Pediatric Clients

Presented by: Kristie Baber, MSW, LICSW, CCTP

When: Wednesday, March 26th, 2025, | 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Pacific Time

Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the workshop.

Continuing Education Credit Hours: 6 CEs | $190.00

From floating goldfish to the truncated relationships of divorce and foster care, losses start early for us. This class will explore the universal experience of grief – the process that attempts to recover meaning following a loss (Brown, 2021) – and the myriad ways in which it can go awry. The wounds of childhood compound as we age and inevitably experience further losses, each echoing the initial pain. In a realistic and lighthearted way, we will address the reality of impermanence and our lifelong effort to adjust. From treating acute grief in childhood to the manifestation of unresolved loss in our adult clients, this class will explore the ways therapists can help integrate the hurts of a lifetime.

This class is designed for practicing therapists with clients of all ages. The workshop will be conducted in a Zoom format and teaching modalities will include a mix of clinical discussion, lecture with clinical examples & video illustrations, as well as individual/group case exercises.

OBJECTIVES:

•  Honoring the complexity of human relationships and experiences, recognize that death is only one manifestation of the loss people endure.

• Understand the neuropsychological basis for traumatic loss experiences in childhood persisting throughout the lifespan into adulthood and affecting our clients long after the event occurred.
• Identify prolonged grief disorder (a.k.a. complicated grief or traumatic grief) as well as symbolic loss, disenfranchised grief, and ambiguous loss.
• Recognize how children’s, tweens’ & teens’ understanding of death and reaction to loss differs from the presentation of adults; as well as interpret behavioral patterns at different developmental stages.
• Implement therapeutic interventions for adults including Worden’s TEAR model and Shear’s HEALING milestones.
• Establish a treatment plan for children experiencing grief & loss and explore developmentally appropriate therapeutic tools and activities.
• Access provided references and resources for further study.