Certificate of Grief Counselling

Unit 1 – Grief and Bereavement

• Bereavement and loss
• Understanding loss
• Examples of losses
• Society’s views on loss
• Coping with loss
• Knowing what to expect
• Mourning
• Living with grief
• Definitions and Terms

Unit 2 – Types of Grief

• Stages of grief
• How long does the grieving process take?
• Duration of grief
• Common stages of grief
  • Denial
  • Anger
  • Bargaining
  • Depression
  • Acceptance
• Tasks of mourning
• Criticism
• Mourning process in Judaism (case study)
• Response to loss and grieving
• Not coping

Unit 3 – Grief and Children

• Developmental stages and grief
  • Grief for children up to three years old
  • Grief for 3 to 6 year old
  • Grief for 7 – 8 year old
  • Grief 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 (activities)
• Help from family and friends
• Guidelines for letting children know what is and is not acceptable
• Children with serious problems with loss and grief

Unit 4 – Grief and Adolescents

• Grief as a unique adolescent experience
• Adolescent responses to death
  • Sense of universality
  • Feeling remoteness of death
  • Tears
  • Seeking immortality
  • Anger
  • Substance abuse
  • Egocentrism
  • Sexual activity
• Helping the grieving adolescent
  • Be clear about the type of help you are offering and set your limits
  • Listening skills
  • Facilitate communication
  • Encouraging rituals

• Adolescent and adult grief experience

Unit 5 – Adjustment to Bereavement

• What is grief
• Accepting the loss
• Feel the pain
• Seek Professional Help
• Grief counselling
• Counsellors response and intervention

Unit 6 – Abnormal Grief

• Complicated grief reactions
• The likelihood of a difficult bereavement
• Difficult circumstances around a death
• Worden’s categories of complicated grief reactions
• Causes of abnormal grief
• Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Symptoms and treatment of PTSD
• Re-experiencing trauma
• Avoidance
• Loss of children in pregnancy: ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage
• Supporting people with complicated grief
• Managing grief after a disaster
• The course of bereavement
• The experience of grief
• Complications of bereavement
• Symptoms of traumatic grief
• Risk factors for complications of bereavement
• Treating bereaved individuals
• Role of the professional in early stages of disaster bereavement
• Direct expression of sympathy
• Treatment strategies for complications of bereavement

Unit 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
  • Withdrawal
  • Visions
  • Unusual Communication
  • Give Permission
  • Saying Goodbye
• Responses of family and friends

Unit 8 – Future Outlook and Long-Term Grief

• Psychological aspects of long term grief
• Family
• Work
• Financial
• Loneliness
• Mortality after bereavement
• Chronic illness and grief case study
• Disabled child case study
• Strategies for handling long term grief
  • Guided mourning
  • Support groups
  • Medication
  • Counselling