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Grief Therapy Masterclass: Advanced Skills in Working Through Loss
Help your clients better navigate life after loss and cultivate the seeds of transformative growth with the rich trove of tools demonstrated in this four-volume series by renowned grief experts Robert Neimeyer and Carolyn Ng. Working with seven clients suffering a range of losses, they’ll guide you through a powerful meaning-based approach to grief therapy that goes far beyond normalizing, educating and symptom management, to nurture growth from grief. 
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Does working with grieving clients, especially those impacted by violent and traumatic loss, challenge you clinically and emotionally beyond your comfort level? If so, you’re not alone. Although death and other losses are universal, most psychotherapists don’t have specific training in helping clients navigate these painful passages of life.

In this unparalleled series of clinical demonstrations and in-depth discussions, clinicians will develop powerful tools for reframing both their clinical role and the experience of their grieving clients. You’ll see grief therapy experts Robert Neimeyer and Carolyn Ng work with clients who in some cases have suffered unimaginable losses, from the death of a newly born infant, the violent unexplained murder of a son, eerily connected deaths of a son and daughter, a suicide of a military spouse, to the loss of a loving spouse after a happy marriage lasting over half a century.

Blending clinical strategies and exercises with a responsive, non-anxious presence, Neimeyer compassionately meets these clients where they are, in their darkest moments, to help them answer, “Who am I in the wake of loss?” In doing so, he’ll introduce you to his tripartite model that focuses on three fixations — areas of stuckness in grief — and provide a comprehensive set of techniques for responsively addressing the event story of loss (how the loved one died,) the backstory of the relationship (who the person that died was) and the personal story of self (who am I now?)  

What therapists are saying…

“Robert Neimeyer is an extraordinary therapist and teacher, and his understanding of how to work with clients in grief is profound. Any therapist will benefit from watching this course—myself included—and at the advanced age of 92 it’s a delight to discover I still have things to learn about the the field I have devoted my professional life to.”
—Irvin Yalom, MD,Psychotherapist, Writer, and Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Stanford University
“Dr Neimeyer is a master therapist. In these videos one not only sees sensitivity, skill, and knowledge, but moreover a model of the therapuetic process at its best. This is an excellent learning tool both for experienced therapists as well as those newly engaged in the field.”
— Dr. Kenneth J Doka, PhD, The Hospice Foundation of America and The College of New Rochelle
“Who can convey the effect of the framework presented in this Masterclass better than the client who stated at the close of session that Neimeyer provided a setting where “that story, or parts of that story can be told without judging and without trying to find solutions”? What I can say is that Dr. Niemeyer’s response to deepen the moment was the quintessential example, for me, of the cultivated care evident within the theory and techniques masterfully demonstrated in this course. If you are looking for ways to incorporate the empirical, the existential, and the humane, then this course is for you.”
— Daryk Scott, LPCC, Stuart Way Counseling, LLC
“Grief Therapy Masterclass with Dr. Bob Neimeyer is an invaluable resource for clinicians seeking advanced skills in navigating the complexities of grief and loss. Dr. Neimeyer’s wealth of expertise shines through as he delivers insightful strategies and practical techniques that serve to guide and support clients through the grief process.”
— Katie Atkins, Clinical Assistant Professor, The Family Institute at Northwestern University
"Grief Therapy Masterclass is the first of its kind for adequately training clinicians to address grief counseling. Dr. Neimeyer masterfully demonstrates how to make meaning and navigate the different phases of working with clients in mourning. As an instructor I appreciate the attention given to different types of loss and how specific skills were showcased to address each. I will definitely use what I learned in my graduate level grief counseling course!"
— Stephanie Hall Rutledge, PhD, Emory & Henry College
“In his Grief Therapy Masterclass: Advanced Skills in Working Through Loss, Dr. Neimeyer offers a deep and transformative approach to working through grief. Through the use of live clinical examples and case studies, Dr. Neimeyer introduces his foundational principles of meaning-making, reconstructing attachments to loved ones and redefining who we are after loss. The class offers a powerful approach to working with grief and loss that moves away from traditional approaches by fostering a sense of healing through the lens of life unfolding.”
— Dr. Leslie Whisinnand O’Ryan, EdD, Western Illinois University
“With great clarity, these videos offer efficacious applications of narrative therapy to addressing grief and grief-related issues. Before each demonstration there is an explanation of what is about to happen, the skills being utilitzed are labeled on-screen during the demonstration, with an in-depth explantation afterward. The mix of in-person and telehealth sessions makes the course feels moderns and approachable.”
— Audrey Zatopek, MA
In Depth
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This four-video series offers the opportunity to sit in sessions alongside Robert Neimeyer and Carolyn Ng, to deepen your understanding of the depth and breadth of grief in its many forms. It will also prepare you to better appreciate the many nuances that accompany grieving depending on who was lost, the nature of the loss, and who the bereaved was and reamains in its shadow.

Neimeyer and Ng’s clinical demonstrations focus on seven unique individuals whose losses are as varied as the circumstances of their lives before and after those losses.

Guy, along with his wife, lost two of their children in traumatic and traumatizing circumstances only years apart. Having barely recovered from the motor vehicle death of his son, Guy’s wounds have been tragically re-opened, accompanied by intrusive thoughts and images related to the more recent accidental drowning death of his daughter.

Christina and her husband were living in the Philippines when COVID descended on the world. Unable to travel home to Europe to give birth to triplets conceived through fertility treatments, the couple lost two of their three babies — one in utero, and another, Melina, post-partum after contracting a deadly bacterium from the equipment used to express Christina’s breastmilk. The remaining child, Zoe, suffered irremediable brain damage from the same bacteria that claimed the life of Melina.

Loretta, age 80, is stuck in the aftermath of the loss of her husband of 56 years. Having never lived alone in her life, she now bravely navigates her inner terrain with Neimeyer in a medical auditorium in front of 200 professionals.

Lisa’s only child, Ray Ray was murdered in a convenience store shortly before she began therapy with Neimeyer’s colleague, Carolyn Ng, who we join in their third session. There she struggles to understand why, in the absence of any seeming motive, he was killed and how to move forward in life now that she no longer identifies as a mother.

Erica is reeling in the aftermath of her military husband’s suicide death. Together with Neimeyer, she attempts to understand who she was prior to his death, and who she now wants to become.

Ingrid, now 40, lost her mother, someone she perceived as an indestructible force, to cancer over two decades before. Losing that “center of my universe” when only 14, Ingrid long believed that time would heal her wounds, and that she could simply lock away her pain in an emotionally impenetrable box inside her.

Carolyn is stuck in both the event story and unfinished business surrounding the loss of her father to COVID during the pandemic, under circumstances where she could not be with him. She carries forward traumatizing memories of his death.

Watching Neimeyer with this fascinating and challenging array of grieving clients, you will gain unique insights and strategies for:
  • freeing bereaved clients from the three core areas of fixation described above
  • implementing three fundamental tasks of therapy with grieving clients including bracing (supporting them in the face of a story that is eroded the foundation of their life), pacing (guide them along without re-traumatizing them by hurrying) and facing (prolonged exposure while we accompany them)
  • re-weaving the strands of grief narrative into a coherent and adaptive whole, including the external narrative (what’s actually happened), the internal narrative (what’s happening within), and the reflexive narrative (the attempt to make meaning of the loss)
  • employing a number of experiential therapeutic techniques including empty chair, visualization, journaling, letter writing, analogic dialog, and restorative re-telling of the narrative of loss

So, join Robert Neimeyer and Carolyn Ng as they teach you how to harness the healing power of responsive presence and therapeutic versatility to guide your grieving clients from the shadows of their loss to the light of healing, growth, and renewal.    

Length of Series: 8:37:57

English subtitles available

Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, and maintains an active consulting and coaching practice. He also directs the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition which provides online and onsite training internationally in grief therapy. Since completing his doctoral training at the University of Nebraska in 1982, he has conducted extensive research on the topics of death, grief, loss, and suicide intervention. He has received numerous awards for his scholarly and clinical contributions. Most recently, he has been granted Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Association for Death Education and Counseling and the International Network for Personal Meaning.

Neimeyer has published 35 books, including New Techniques of Grief Therapy: Bereavement and Beyond and The Handbook of Grief Therapies, the latter with Edith Steffen and Jane Milman. The author of over 600 articles and book chapters, he is currently working to advance a more adequate theory of grieving as a meaning-making process, both in his published work and through his frequent professional workshops for national and international audiences. Please visit the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition website to learn more about live online training, pre-recorded online training and on-site training opportunities.  

Robert A. Neimeyer was compensated for his/her/their contribution. None of his/her/their books or additional offerings are required for any of the Psychotherapy.net content. Should such materials be references, it is as an additional resource.

Psychotherapy.net defines ineligible companies as those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. There is no minimum financial threshold; individuals must disclose all financial relationships, regardless of the amount, with ineligible companies. We ask that all contributors disclose any and all financial relationships they have with any ineligible companies whether the individual views them as relevant to the education or not.

Additionally, there is no commercial support for this activity. None of the planners or any employee at Psychotherapy.net who has worked on this educational activity has relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies. Carolyn Ng, PsyD, FT, MMSAC, RegCLR, maintains a private practice, Anchorage for Loss and Transition, for training, supervision and therapy in Singapore, while also serving as an Associate Director of the Portland Institute. Previously she served as Principal Counselor with the Children’s Cancer Foundation in Singapore, specializing in cancer-related palliative care and bereavement counselling. She is a master clinical member and approved supervisor with the Singapore Association for Counselling (SAC) and a Fellow in Thanatology with the Association of Death Education and Counselling (ADEC), USA, as well as a consultant to a cancer support and bereavement ministry in Sydney, Australia. She is certified in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Narrative Therapy and holds an MA in Pastoral Ministry from Trinity Theological Seminary in the USA. She is also a trained end-of-life doula and advanced care planning facilitator. 

Carolyn Ng was compensated for his/her/their contribution. None of his/her/their books or additional offerings are required for any of the Psychotherapy.net content. Should such materials be references, it is as an additional resource.

Psychotherapy.net defines ineligible companies as those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. There is no minimum financial threshold; individuals must disclose all financial relationships, regardless of the amount, with ineligible companies. We ask that all contributors disclose any and all financial relationships they have with any ineligible companies whether the individual views them as relevant to the education or not.

Additionally, there is no commercial support for this activity. None of the planners or any employee at Psychotherapy.net who has worked on this educational activity has relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies.
This Disclosure Statement has been designed to meet accreditation standards; Psychotherapy.net does its best to mitigate potential conflicts of interest and eliminate bias in all areas of content. Experts are compensated for their contributions to our training videos; while some of them have published works, the purchase of additional materials are not required for any Psychotherapy.net training. Each experts’ specific disclosures can be found in their biography.

Psychotherapy.net offers trainings for cost but has no financial or other relationships to disclose.
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