About this course

Learning Objectives

• Describe two common types of countertransference in end of life and grief support and techniques to appropriately respond and manage these reaction to clients
• Identify at least one ethical principle related to the use of self-disclosure in end of life and grief support.
• Identify at least two potential positive clinical impacts of self-disclosure and two potential negative clinical impacts of self-disclosure.
• Describe at least three recent research findings regarding self-disclosure and countertransference in grief support.

Learning Levels

• Intermediate

Target Audience

Course Instructor(s)

• 

  Litsa Williams MA, LCSW-C

  Litsa Williams, MA, LCSW-C is the co-founder of the online grief organization What’s Your Grief. She’s a grief therapist with 15 years of experience, with expertise in sudden and traumatic loss as well as ambiguous grief. Drawing on personal and professional experience with grief, WYG was built as a resource offering concrete, practical, creative, down-to-earth, and relatable support, founded on the values of psychoeducation and creative coping. It has grown to serve more than 3 million visitors each year. Litsa received her master's degree in Clinical Social Work from the University of Maryland School of Social Work, as well as a master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Warwick (UK). She has been interviewed as a grief expert for the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and New York Times. She co-authored the 2022 book What's Your Grief: Lists to Help You Through Any Loss.

• 

  Eleanor Haley, MS

  Eleanor Haley, MS is co-founder of What’s Your Grief, one of the country’s largest online grief and bereavement support communities which is accessed by over 3 million grievers every year. With a background in counseling psychology, Eleanor has over 15 years of expertise in grief, with expertise in working with families who have experienced traumatic and unexpected losses. She is co-author of the book What's Your Grief: Lists to Help You Through Any Loss and has co-authored 15 grief publications used in hospitals, hospices, funeral homes, and OPOs across the US and Canada. She has experience teaching psychology courses at the college level and is passionate about innovative teaching methods, technologies, and pedagogical approaches to enhance grief education and support. She has been interviewed as a grief expert for media outlets including NPR, Washington Post, The New York Times, USNews, and Huffington Post.

Disclosure

References

• Barnett, J. E. (2011). Psychotherapist self-disclosure: Ethical and clinical considerations. Psychotherapy, 48(4), 315.
• Davidson, S. (2019). Self-disclosure as a therapeutic tool: Ethical and practical considerations. In Professional Issues in Clinical Psychology (pp. 103-110). Routledge.
• Hayes, J. A., Gelso, C. J., Goldberg, S., & Kivlighan, D. M. (2018). Countertransference management and effective psychotherapy: Meta-analytic findings. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 496.
• Kenosi, L., & Cartwright, D. (2018). Clients’ experience of therapist-disclosure: helpful and hindering factors and conditions. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 18(2).
• Lawson, K., Werner-Lin, A., Fitzgerald, F., & Zabora, J. R. (2021). Defining self-disclosure of personal cancer coping experiences in oncology social workers’ helping relationships: When cancer “hits home”. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 1-15.
• Marais, G., & McBeath, A. (2021). Therapists’ lived experience of self-disclosure. European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy, 11, 72-86.
• Pinto-Coelho, K. G., Hill, C. E., Kearney, M. S., Sarno, E. L., Sauber, E. S., Baker, S. M., ... & Thompson, B. J. (2018). When in doubt, sit quietly: A qualitative investigation of experienced therapists’ perceptions of self-disclosure. Journal of counseling psychology, 65(4), 440.
• Turner, R. (2019). Managing and using countertransference emotions within therapy. In Professional Issues in Clinical Psychology (pp. 3-10). Routledge.
• Courtnage, T., Bates, N. E., Armstrong, A. A., Seitz, M. K., Weitzman, T. S., & Fann, J. R. (2020). Enhancing integrated psychosocial oncology through leveraging the oncology social worker's role in collaborative care. Psycho‐Oncology, 29(12), 2084-2090.