Grief is not just an individual experience. It is deeply relational. In this training, renowned grief expert David Kessler guides clinicians through the essential role of witnessing in healing. You will explore how an attuned presence creates a stabilizing community of two and learn strategies to help clients safely extend support beyond the therapy room to peers, family, and groups. Grounded in research and practical tools, this course will help you foster connections that promote meaning-making, resilience, and ethical care.

You will learn to:

• Differentiate social contact from therapeutic witnessing
• Understand the clinician's role as the first community for grief
• Support clients in expanding witnessing to safe and meaningful networks

Grief is universal, but therapy for grieving clients is often oversimplified. Christina Zampitella, PsyD, FT, nationally recognized grief expert and thanatologist, shares evidence-based strategies for navigating the complexities of loss. With her unique blend of clinical expertise and deep compassion, she'll help you move beyond outdated models and embrace an approach that fosters resilience, meaning-making, and ethical care.

You'll learn to:

• Differentiate supportive and directive interventions—and know when each approach accelerates healing
• Spot the clinical red flags and cultural misconceptions that can prolong grief or derail treatment
• Assess client needs across the grief trajectory and recognize when it's time for therapy closure

When grief feels unbearable, clients often oscillate between avoidance and overwhelming preoccupation, getting stuck in bargaining or depression. Drawing on decades of pioneering work in somatic and mindfulness-based interventions, internationally renowned trauma expert Janina Fisher, PhD, will guide you through strategies that transform pain into a process of hope and resilience. You'll discover how to help clients befriend the emotional and physical impact of grief, creating space for healing and relief.

You'll learn to:

• Identify the clinical barriers that keep clients stuck in prolonged grief and emotional pain
• Apply mindfulness-based techniques that slow down grief's intensity and foster emotional regulation
• Integrate somatic interventions that release pain and help clients experience grief as waves that rise and settle, bringing relief and healing

When clients cling desperately to the life they had before their loss, moving forward can feel impossible. Grief therapist and author Tiffani Dilworth, LPC, brings creative strategies that help clients say goodbye while maintaining meaningful continuing bonds. Through goodbye rituals and bond-building activities, you'll learn how to empower clients to honor their loved one and create a purposeful life after loss.

You'll learn to:

• Understand why clients hold tightly to their pre-loss life—and how to gently support their transition
• Design and implement grief rituals that help clients say goodbye without severing connection
• Use continuing-bond activities to foster healing and meaning-making in life after loss

Survivor's guilt is one of the most painful and persistent aspects of traumatic grief—often fueling shame, worsening trauma symptoms, and even increasing suicidal thoughts. Trauma expert Kate Truitt, PhD, reveals how guilt is not a character flaw but a survival-based adaptation encoded by the brain. Through cutting-edge neuroscience, you'll learn how to interrupt guilt loops, calm the nervous system, and build new pathways toward resilience and posttraumatic growth.

You'll learn to:

• Understand how the brain encodes guilt through amygdala activation and stress-induced plasticity—and why these patterns feel inescapable
• Harness neuroplasticity to transform guilt-based narratives into healing and meaning-making
• Apply practical, science-based strategies that regulate the nervous system and release guilt's grip

Grief is most often associated with death—but people also mourn a wide range of non-death losses, including divorce, illness, aging, infertility, relocation, and even life transitions that are typically celebrated, like marriage or retirement. Because these experiences are frequently minimized or overlooked, clients may struggle to recognize their grief, and clinicians may feel unprepared to help. Nationally recognized grief expert Erica Sirrine, PhD, LCSW, FT, will guide you beyond traditional models to provide effective, compassionate support for clients navigating unexpected changes and non-death losses.

You'll learn to:

• Identify and assess non-death losses and their impact on emotional, social, and spiritual well-being
• Apply contemporary grief counseling models to support clients through life transitions
• Use practical strategies, including the loss-line tool, to help clients process and integrate non-death grief in healthy, adaptive ways

Grief can feel chaotic—especially for parents navigating the devastating loss of a child. Lara Krawchuck, MSW, LCSW, MPH, introduces Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy as a gentle, transformative framework for healing. Through compassionate guidance, she demonstrates how to welcome protective and wounded parts, foster SELF-leadership, and apply techniques that support both clients and clinicians during profound sorrow.

You'll learn to:

• Harness IFS therapy principles to help clients move from inner chaos to clarity and resilience
• Safely welcome and work with protective and grieving parts without overwhelming the system
• Apply SELF-leadership and U-Turn strategies to strengthen coping and maintain clinician well-being

This product is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the IFS Institute and does not qualify for IFS Institute credits or certification.