Description: The experience of loss is a universal phenomenon that, while frequently challenging and distressing, is often transformational. Most people develop skills and attitudes over a lifetime that allow them to manage the distress and assimilate the losses, even difficult losses, into their lives in a satisfactory manner. Nevertheless, loss and grief appear as familiar themes in the lives of psychotherapy clients in a variety of settings. They may be the primary source of client difficulties or just as often serve as contributing or complicating factors in other areas.
Source: Counseling Strategies for Loss and Grief by Keren M. Humphrey
Description: Current estimates suggest that approximately 18 million Americans struggle with alcohol abuse and dependence and 4 million suffer from a substance use disorder. One in four deaths in America can be attributed to the effects of alcohol, tobacco, or illicit substances, and as many as 75% of domestic violence victims report that their abuser was drinking alcohol or using illicit substances at the time of the assault. Given the commonly accepted formula for measuring the effect of a person with a substance use disorder on another person, it is estimated that up to six people are affected by one person with a substance use disorder. In other words, approximately 92.7 to 139.1 million Americans are frequently affected by someone's substance use disorder.
Source: Developing Clinical Skills for Substance Abuse Counseling, by Daniel Yalisove
*Counselors requiring New York State approval must contact ACA upon completion to obtain customized CE certificate
Description: The presenter discusses Grief, Complicated Grief, Anticipatory Grief, Traumatic Grief, Disenfranchised Grief, and Ambiguous Grief. She discusses the assessment and treatment of various types of grief. She discusses individual counseling as opposed to group counseling for grief reactions. One question the presenter finds important is: How does a client stay connected with the one who has died, and move on with their life? She describes Grief Bursts, when some small thing triggers the memory of the loved one and the client is suddenly filled with sadness.
Objectives:
Summarize the basic tenets of Antonietta Corvasce, LPC, NCC podcast on When Grief Becomes Complicated.
Discuss the assessment and treatment of various types of grief
Describe normal grief reactions as well as complicated grief reactions
Description: This single-case study is designed to help counselors conceptualize grief and loss issues experienced by a person with aphasia and improve the effectiveness in counseling individuals with this disability. Given the unique communication needs of this population, creative approaches to counseling are presented. Five themes were identified through the coding of interview transcripts: questioning identity, questioning existence, questioning normality, questioning feelings, and adapting to a new reality. In addition, the overarching theme of disenfranchised grief emerged from the data.
Objectives:
Understand grief and loss issues experienced by individuals with aphasia
Examine creative approaches to counseling persons with aphasia
Description: The bereavement literature has proliferated in recent decades, generating a shift from conceptualizing grief as a stepwise, uniform process to an idiosyncratic experience that varies between individuals. Among the most notable developments is the empirical exploration of complicated grief – a protracted, debilitating, sometimes life-threatening response to the death of a loved one – and the testing of novel interventions to treat it. This article provides counselors with recommendations for identifying and treating complicated grief.
Objectives:
Understand how to differentiate common grief and complicated grief
Examine recommendations for identifying and treating complicated grief
