Techniques of Grief Therapy - An Attachment-Informed Approach to Grief and Loss

Death may end a life but not necessarily a relationship.  In the course of counselling, you may come across clients who struggle with yearning for their deceased loved one or some forms of unfinished business that remain unaddressed, especially in difficult losses like suicide and tragic accidents. 

Drawing on attachment-informed models of bereavement and tripartite model of meaning reconstruction, this training will consider grieving as a process of reconstructing rather than relinquishing one’s continuing bond with the deceased.  This will also equip you with the relevant meaning-oriented techniques to enable clients to review their disrupted bond and realign their positioning with the lost attachment figure in the aftermath of loss.

Course Outline:

• Understanding grief and loss through attachment lens

• Differentiation between continuing bond and maladaptive bondage

• Application of Secure Base Mapping to identify resources to promote adaptation to life transitions

• Use of Our Braided Paths, a guided conversation to examine the relationship history

• Use of Tree of Legacy as a means for continuing bond in death-related losses

• Implementation of imaginal dialogues to process the unfinished business

Course Objectives

• Conceptualize the impacts of separation on grievers from the attachment perspective

• Identify dimensions of insecure attachment and unfinished business that complicate the post-separation adjustment

• Implement meaning-oriented techniques to re-establish grievers’ attachment security and reconstruct their bond with the lost attachment figure