Compassion Focused Therapy for Loss and Grief

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About this course

Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) is of specific interest in situations of loss, grief, and bereavement due to the intensity of the work and the need to provide clients with a secure base from which they can begin the process of rebuilding their lives after a significant loss. Compassion-based approaches are especially useful for loss experiences that have a protracted course, where individuals must live with ongoing loss and grief over a long time, and where there is no foreseeable end. These approaches are also beneficial to address grief that is accompanied by shame, disenfranchisement, and exhaustion.

The sessions will weave together current research and practice related to loss and grief with the principles and practice of CFT, including material that will explore personal as well as collective experiences and responses to loss. An emphasis will be on differentiating a model of companioning grief versus an interventionist model of treating pathology, and the role of therapist self-practice as a way to cultivate the compassionate base that forms the heart of grief therapy.

The sessions will utilize power point slides, case studies, interactive work with participants, and reflective practice to create a combined didactic and experientially-based training for participants. Handouts with information from slides, examples, and further resources will also be provided to attendees.

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Week One: Overview of Grief

· What is grief? How is it different from depression, anxiety, and PTSD?

· Explore current thinking and research on grief

· The assumptive world and grief

· Assessing grief

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Week Two: Application of CFT to Grief

· The therapist’s compassionate stance

· Compassionate Mind Training and sustainability

· Practice of presence

· Challenges in grief therapy practice that can be readily addressed with CFT

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Week Three: Challenges in Grief Therapy Practice

· The social context of compassion and grief

· Approaching unique scenarios of grief

· Compassion and disenfranchised grief

· When grief goes awry—identifying Prolonged Grief Disorder and its implications

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Week Four: Integrating Compassion-Based Practices in Grief Therapy

· Addressing shame and guilt with compassion

· Applying the flows of compassion to situations of loss and grief

· Compassion-based practices with grieving clients

· Use of energy and imagery

· Summary and discussion

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Key Learning objectives

1. Define different types of loss experiences and the unique grief that accompanies them.

2. Identify current research, theory, and practice related to grief support, grief therapy, and assessment of grief.

3. Describe the impact of the social context on loss and grief, identifying aspects of loss that are felt personally as well as collectively.

4. Integrate self-practice through compassion training into working with clients who experience significant losses in their lives.

5. Differentiate between grief, depression, anxiety, PTSD, and chronic sorrow.

6. Demonstrate an understanding of the role of compassion training to cultivate a sustainable way of companioning grief.

7. Explore specific compassion-based practices that can be helpful to clients experiencing grief after non-death losses.

8. Describe how a compassionate stance can enhance sustainability in situations where grief is chronic, intense, and/or exceptionally difficult.

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