Loss And Grief – Sitting With A Grieving Client
Grief is a profound, universal human experience, yet it is one of the most challenging territories for a therapist to navigate. The fear of “saying the wrong thing” or the urge to “fix” the client’s pain can often overshadow the simple, essential act of being present.
This PCI College workshop moves beyond traditional stages of grief, offering a compassionate, contemporary framework for understanding the nuances of loss. By participating, you will gain the confidence to sit alongside your clients in their darkest moments, turning the therapeutic relationship into a powerful container for healing and integration.
Who is this course for?
This workshop is designed for counsellors, psychotherapists, and helping professionals who work with individuals navigating any form of loss, whether recent or long-standing.
- Counsellors & Therapists: Develop a more nuanced clinical approach to grief that honours the client’s unique, non-linear journey.
- Helping Professionals: Social workers, healthcare staff, and chaplaincy volunteers will learn how to hold space effectively in high-distress environments.
- Students in Training: Build the foundational courage and presence required to support clients through life-altering loss.
- Existing Practitioners: Re-examine your practice through a modern, humanistic lens, moving away from clinical detachment toward empathetic presence.
What are the benefits of doing this course?
What are the benefits of doing this course?
This training helps you shift from being a “problem solver” to a “grief companion,” fostering deeper connection and trust with your clients.
- Clinical Presence: Learn to overcome the “urge to fix” and instead cultivate a calm, grounding presence that clients need most.
- Non-Linear Understanding: Gain a contemporary understanding of grief that moves beyond rigid “stages,” allowing you to meet the client where they are.
- Reflective Growth: Explore your own relationship with loss, which is essential to prevent countertransference and burnout.
- Professional Confidence: Feel more equipped to handle the emotional intensity of grief work without feeling overwhelmed by the client’s pain.
What will you learn?
The curriculum balances theoretical insights into the nature of loss with the essential, “felt” skills of being with someone in pain.
- Modern Grief Theory: Moving beyond outdated models to understand grief as an ongoing, individual process of meaning-making.
- Types of Loss: Recognising the impact of various losses, including bereavement, ambiguous loss, and disenfranchised grief.
- The Art of Presence: Mastering the micro-skills of empathetic listening and holding silence, the most vital tools in grief work.
- Personal Reflexivity: Exploring your own history of loss to become a more authentic and attuned therapist.
- Clinical Application: Using case studies to explore how to sustain long-term support and recognise when grief becomes complicated.
Course Content
This one day workshop will look at some contemporary theorists and how their work can be applied in a clinical setting, as well as taking some time to look at the therapists own relationship with grief and the grieving process.
Eligibility
This is a CPD workshop specifically designed for Counsellors & Psychotherapist or other helping professionals with therapeutic experience and students currently in professional training. BSc Counselling & Psychotherapy students in Years 1, 2, 3 and 4 of their studies are all invited to apply for this CPD workshop.
IT Skills
Students require sufficient IT skills to complete the course.
Additional Entry Requirements
Students can expect to be provided with advice and support concerning any learning difficulties that they may encounter. Any diagnosed learning difficulty, e.g. dyslexia, must be noted on the application.
Fees
Standard Rate: Applies to all non-affiliated participants.
PCI College Graduate: Discounted rate available for graduates of BSc Degree and Postgraduate programmes.
Current BSc/MSc Students & Alumni Members: Preferential rate available. Join our Alumni Group on LinkedIn to access this discount
Course Fees – Northern Ireland
Course Total