Managing Grief and Loss | Online Course | Bereavement, Loss & Support

• Study grief counselling online | 8 lessons | Start to suit you and work at your own pace.
• Learn about practice and procedures in grief counselling, stages of grief, grieving in children, adolescents and adults, adjustment to loss, abnormal grieving, complications in the grieving process, preparation for bereavement, long term grief, mourning, depression.
• Tutor support and feedback throughout the course | Tutors are highly experienced with decades of relevant experience and knowledge | Course includes written assignments and practical exercises.
• Useful training for anyone supporting people who are grieving and mourning.

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Nature and Scope of Grief and Bereavement
   • Understanding loss
   • Society's views on loss
   • Coping with loss
   • Knowing what to expect
   • Mourning
   • Living with grief
   • Terminology
   • Types of grief
2. Stages of Grief
   • Common stages
   • Duration of grief
   • Denial
   • Anger
   • Bargaining
   • Depression
   • Acceptance
   • Tasks of mourning
   • Criticism
   • Mourning process in Judaism (case study)
   • Response to loss and grieving
   • Not coping
3. Grief and Children
   • Grief for children up to three years old
   • Greif for 3 to 6 year old
   • Grief for 7 - 8 year old
   • Greif for children 9 years and older
   • Preparing a child for death
   • Sudden death
   • After a death
   • Funerals
   • Typical child responses to grief
   • Case studies
   • Feelings about suicide
   • Supporting a grieving child
   • Help from family and friends
   • Guidelines for letting children know what is and is not acceptable
   • Children with serious problems with loss and grief
4. Grief and Adolescents
   • Grief as a unique adolescent experience
   • Adolescent responses: remoteness, anger, abuse, tears, egocentrism, sense of universality, etc
   • Helping the grieving adolescent
   • Difference between adolescent and adult grief experience
5. Adjustment to Bereavement
   • What is grief
   • Accept the loss
   • Feel the pain
   • Adjust, Adapt, etc
   • Grief counselling
   • Counsellor's response and intervention
6. Abnormal Grief
   • Complicated grief reactions
   • Worden's categories of complicated grief reactions
   • Causes of abnormal grief
   • Post traumatic stress disorder
   • Symptoms and treatment of PTSD
   • Loss of children in pregnancy: ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage
   • Supporting people with complicated grief
   • Managing grief after a disaster
   • The course of bereavement
   • Complications of bereavement
   • Traumatic grief
   • Risk factors for complications of bereavement
   • Treating bereaved individuals
   • Role of the professional in early stages of disaster bereavement
7. Preparing for Grief and Bereavement
   • Socio cultural influences on the grief process
   • Grief and terminal illness
   • Preparing for an approaching death
   • Practical preparations
   • Emotional responses of the dying
   • Responses of family and friends
8. Future Outlook and Long-Term Grief
   • Psychological aspects of long term grief
   • Chronic illness and grief case study
   • Disabled child case study
   • Strategies for handling long term grief: guided mourning, support groups, medication, etc

Aims

• Describe the nature and scope of grief and bereavement counselling and individuals’ attitudes to grief.
• To identify through continuing exploration, the meaning and responses of a wide range of loss situations, taking cultural variations into account.
• To describe the different ways that children may respond to grief and to develop appropriate strategies for helping them to cope.
• Determine the different ways that adolescents may respond to grief and to examine how these perspectives have translated into counselling practice
• Describe the different means through which individuals are able to adjust to loss and to consider other options available to them.
• Describe when an individual’s response to grief may be considered abnormal and to discuss methods of assisting such individuals.
• Define the different ways of preparing for grief and bereavement and to consider social, cultural and psychological perspectives.
• Describe separation, loneliness, the effects of long-term grief and long-term counselling support strategies.

What You Will Do

• List euphemisms for dying.
• Consider factors that can help set the conditions for the good death
• Discuss the ways that a wake or funeral service can be of help to mourners.
• Discuss contemporary attitudes toward death in society and how they affect the treatment of dying.
• Describe the stages of grief.
• Explain why people pass through different stages at different times and not in a particular order.
• List mechanisms available to help a counsellor support someone who is grieving.
• Describe ways in which children might respond to grief.
• Explain why different children respond to grief in different ways.
• Describe counselling strategies for supporting the grieving child.
• Research how adolescents respond to grief.
• Outline counselling strategies for supporting the grieving adolescent.
• List suicide prevention strategies.
• Explain in general how we adjust to loss.
• List some dangers of loss.
• Describe some alternatives for loss recovery.
• Research how bereavement affects survivors.
• Describe some abnormal responses to grief, and how they are determined to be abnormal.
• Describe some treatment methods for assisting a person suffering from abnormal grief.
• Briefly describe symptoms of PTSD
• Discuss socio-cultural perspectives in preparing for grief and bereavement.
• Research physiological and psychological effects of separation and loneliness in the aged.
• Describe some effects of long term grief.
• Outline some long term counselling support strategies.
• Compare effective and ineffective support for people going through grief and loss.

What impact does grief have on people?

Sooner or later; everyone has to face grief in their lives. If you deal with grief in a healthy and appropriate way, the physical and mental repercussions are minimised.

People who say they are unaffected by grief are the ones who are likely to be affected most. Avoidance is no coping mechanism.

Grief may be hidden from others, but when it is internalised it will manifest in physical and/or psychological changes.

Physical Impacts can include:

• Gastric ulcers
• A weakened Immune System
• Heart problems
• Strokes
• Cancer
• Digestive Ulcers
• Diabetes
• Infertility
• Obesity - due to comfort eating

As well as possible problems related to physical health, there are many different ways that negative events and chronic stress can impact upon an individual's psychological well-being. Those under stress have been observed to show heightened irritability and more negative thinking patterns which can also maintain stress. Some of the long term psychological implications of ongoing stress, grief or trauma may include:

• Learned helplessness
• Memory problems
• Concentration problems
• Poor judgment
• Negative attitudes
• Constant worrying
• Moodiness
• Irritability
• Feeling Agitated
• Feelings of being overwhelmed
• Feelings loneliness
• Eating more or less
• Sleep disturbance – sleeping too much or disturbed sleep patterns
• Alcohol, cigarette, or drug use
• Nervous habits such as nail biting
• Reduced sex drive

Long-term stress may also act as a trigger to mental health disorders such as:

• Mood disorders e.g. chronic depression, bipolar disorders  
• Anxiety disorders e.g. post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), acute stress disorder, panic disorders, phobias
• Substance abuse disorders

What do our students think about the course?

"Being able to apply myself to distance education for the topic that interests me has been invaluable. Living in a remote area has a number of disadvantages. The lack of access to continuing education is one of great importance. Successfully completing the Grief Counselling course has enabled me to think ahead and possibly attempt future studies on this much needed issue". Mary Ann Cohen, Grief Counselling

Any Questions?

Please click here to contact a tutor or Request a course handbook here.