https://www.portlandinstitute.org/spore-grief-counsel-trg-neimeyer-270723
When the death is tragic and untimely, as when a significant person dies by suicide, overdose or fatal accident, grief can be particularly complicated by a gamut of challenging emotions, ranging from horror and helplessness to anger and incomprehension. In such cases, grief therapy needs to adopt a carefully tailored approach that recognizes the role of trauma in impeding the mourner’s integration of the loss. In this 2-day workshop, we will begin by considering how we can quickly assess our clients’ needs in terms of the Tripartite Model of Meaning Reconstruction in bereavement, featuring obstacles to processing the event story of the death, accessing the back story of the relationship with the deceased, and revising the personal story of the mourner’s own sense of identity in the shadow of loss. We will then consider flexible techniques that 1) help mourners not only make sense of the loss in the context of the changed story of their lives but also make sense of themselves as survivors in light of it, and 2) access and reconstruct the terms of attachment to the deceased so as to reaffirm constructive bonds in a sustainable, non-physical form, and to resolve unfinished business in bonds that are more problematic or ambivalent.