About this course

Learning Objectives

• Describe common and unique patterns of stress and trauma response in both anticipated and unanticipated deaths.
• Identify intersections of and disjunctions between grief responses and trauma responses, including the impact of trauma responses on the on the bereavement process.
• Describe five dimensions of posttraumatic growth and present a model for understanding how traumatic loss can eventually lead PTG.
• Provide evidence-informed practice approaches to supporting the positive personal change following traumatic loss, including changes in role and identity, new ways of relating, existential or spiritual beliefs, and the purpose and meaning making.

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

• Rubin, S. S., Malkinson, R., & Witztum, E. (2020). Traumatic bereavements: rebalancing the relationship to the deceased and the death story using the Two-Track Model of Bereavement. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 905.
• Özcan, N. A., & Kaya, M. (2019). The Effectiveness of Family Resiliency Program with Traumatic Grief on Women’s Post-Traumatic Stress, Grief and Family Resiliency Level. Egitim ve Bilim, 44(197).
• Michael, C., & Cooper, M. (2013). Post-traumatic growth following bereavement: A systematic review of the literature. Counselling Psychology Review, 28(4), 18-33.
• Tanacıoğlu-Aydın, B., Akmehmet-Şekerler, S., Albayrak-Kaymak, D., & Zara, A. (2023). The role of extended family relations and rituals in family resilience following loss of mother to cancer: A case study in Turkey. Illness, Crisis & Loss, 31(1), 40-58.
• Kia, M. G., Karami, J., & Goudarzi, M. (2022). The Family Resilience Model based on the Level of Self-Differentiation and the Health of the Main Family with the Role of Emotion Regulation Mediator. Health, 6(1), 462-470.