Somatic Approaches to Grief and Loss
Clinical Skills for Body-Based Grief Support
- Speakers:
- Wendy Stern, C-IAYT, RYT | Heather Taylor, PsyD, Psychologist, MHP
- Duration:
- Approx 6 hours
- Copyright:
-
Jan 19, 2027
- Product Code:
- POS151106
- Media Type:
- Digital Seminar - Also available: Live Webinar
Description
- Why cognitive grief models fall short and what to do instead
- How to track and respond to grief as it presents in the nervous system
- Somatic interventions for individual and group grief work you can apply right away
- Key distinctions between healthy grief, prolonged grief, and traumatic loss
- How to use your own embodied awareness as a clinical tool without crossing boundaries
Grief doesn’t live in the mind. It lives in the body – in the tension that won’t release, the exhaustion that sleep doesn’t fix, the numbness that shows up where feelings used to be.
Most clinicians are trained to treat it cognitively, which is why so many grieving clients end up flooded, shut down, or stuck. They aren’t failing therapy. They’re showing you that talk-based approaches alone can’t reach where grief is actually held.
But here is the problem: No one has ever shown you how to apply the somatic tools that allow the body to hold grief – without overwhelm.
This foundational workshop gives you a practical, somatic framework for working with grief as the whole-body experience it is. Led by nationally recognized grief experts Wendy Stern, C-IAYT, RYT, and Heather Taylor, PsyD, MHP, you’ll leave with:
- Body-based interventions you can use right away
- Clearer clinical discernment between grief presentations
- A more grounded, confident presence in the room with clients navigating loss
- Plus, practical tools your clients can use outside of the therapy room
You know you can’t take the grief away. But with the right somatic tools, you can help them stop drowning in it.
Purchase today!
Credit
Speaker
Wendy Stern, C-IAYT, RYT Related seminars and products
Center for Somatic Grieving
Wendy Stern, C-IAYT, RYT, is a yoga therapist, somatic practitioner, grief educator, and group facilitator with over 20 years of experience integrating embodied practices, grief support, and community connection into education and training. She is the founder of the Center for Somatic Grieving and the Grief Support Network, organizations dedicated to transforming how individuals and communities understand and navigate loss through body-based, relational, and mindfulness-informed approaches. A certified Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapist with training in group facilitation, somatic parts work, integrative trauma therapy, and reiki, Wendy draws on both professional expertise and profound personal experience – including the loss of her son, Noah – in her specialization in somatic grief support, cumulative and non-death loss, identity disruption, and community-based grief care. She has trained and certified over 100 Mindful Grieving Facilitators now practicing in nine countries and is co-author of Stories About Friends and Family Lost. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Wendy facilitates trainings, retreats, and individual sessions that honor grief as a natural, embodied human experience.
Heather Taylor, PsyD, Psychologist, MHP Related seminars and products
Center for Somatic Grieving
Heather Taylor, PsyD, Psychologist, MHP, is a licensed psychologist and nationally recognized grief educator with over a decade of clinical experience specializing in grief, trauma, and loss across the lifespan. Authorized to practice interjurisdictionally through PsyPact, her clinical work focuses on death-related grief, anticipatory and cumulative loss, identity disruption, and trauma-informed grief care, integrating somatic and relational approaches into traditional psychotherapy models. Dr. Taylor maintains a private practice providing grief-focused psychotherapy and consultation and has extensive experience training mental health professionals in modern grief frameworks that move beyond stage-based and pathologizing models, presenting seminars, workshops, and continuing education trainings for clinicians, healthcare providers, hospitals, and academic institutions at the regional, national, and international levels. She is the host of the Grief is the New Normal podcast, featuring over 80 episodes on grief literacy and clinical application, and has received professional recognition for her scholarship and teaching while advancing grief-informed care through writing, research collaboration, and clinical education.
Additional Info
Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)Access never expires for this product.
For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.
Questions?
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Objectives
- Define grief as an embodied, neurobiological process and how somatic awareness expands traditional cognitive models of grief treatment.
- Differentiate healthy grieving responses from complicated grief and traumatic loss.
- Examine how neurobiological stress responses and disenfranchised grief contribute to somatic dysregulation in grieving individuals.
- Examine how community-based and relational somatic practices support grief regulation through co-regulation, witnessing, and normalization.
- Choose three trauma-sensitive, somatic interventions (e.g., breath-based regulation, pacing, tracking) to support grief integration in individual or group settings.
- Apply strategies for maintaining presence, boundaries, and ethical self-regulation in grief work.
Outline
Somatic Foundations of Grief Work
- Understand grief as an embodied, whole-person process
- Core somatic principles and how they apply to clinical grief work
- Body-based awareness and tracking as clinical tools
- Working with present-moment sensation, emotion, and meaning
Grief and Trauma in the Body
- How grief is stored, expressed, and held somatically
- Neurobiological and trauma-informed frameworks for understanding grief
- Distinguish healthy grief, complicated grief, and traumatic loss
- Recognize common somatic grief expressions
- Identify and work with disenfranchised and unacknowledged grief
Experiential and Community-Based Somatic Practices
- Guided somatic inquiry and embodied journaling techniques
- Tracking sensations, emotions, and impulses in real time
- How community-based grieving supports co-regulation and nervous system repair
- Use witnessing, reflection, and normalization as therapeutic tools
Clinical Applications and Practitioner Self-Awareness
- Breath-based and somatic interventions for individual and group grief work
- Trauma-sensitive language and pacing for grief sessions
- Recognize personal grief triggers and manage somatic countertransference
- Maintain presence, attunement, and ethical boundaries in grief work
- Build a sustainable personal grief support practice as a clinician
Target Audience
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Marriage & Family Therapists
- Psychologists
- Physicians
- Case Managers
- Addiction Counselors
- Nurses
- Other Mental Health and Wellness Professionals
Reviews
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