Human Services
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- June 21, 2019
- Behavioral Health
- Human Services
- Grief Support Specialist Certificate (Online)
Grief Support Specialist Certificate (Online)
Summary
A one-of-a-kind, uniquely designed, practical educational online program entailing instruction, facilitated discussions, and required participant activities. You’ll get to know the instructors—renowned experts who understand the complexity of personal loss. You’ll acquire knowledge and skills to enhance or create a professional specialty that focuses on counseling people who have suffered a major loss as the result of death, divorce, unemployment, destruction due to drug abuse, or other traumatic personal devastation.
This course replicates the in-person version in learning objectives and content, delivered over a two-month period of time. View details of the in-person course.
In The News
Read stories about this program in Isthmus and Brava Magazine.
Details
About the Program
The program includes five weeks of instruction and three weeks to complete a project/paper relevant to one’s work or life, centered on educating or counseling people who have suffered from some major loss: loss due to death, divorce, job loss, loss of health, the losses associated with substance abuse, loss of self-worth, etc. The fully online format provides a flexible schedule making it possible to earn the certificate without traveling or taking time off work. The instructors are renowned experts in the field, more than one of whom have experienced great loss themselves.
One-of-a-Kind
What makes this program so unique is not only the quality and practicality of the content, but that it’s the only such certificate granted by a major university.
CEUs and Prerequisites
The Grief Support Specialist Certificate provides 3.5 Continuing Education Units (35 hours of professional continuing education) for people in a variety of professions including, but not limited to, psychology, social work, counseling, and marriage and family therapy.
The UW-Madison Grief Support Specialist Certificate program is now approved for 35 Category 1 Continuing Education Hours for Funeral Home Directors.
Learn more about CEUs and CE approved hours >
To enroll, you must have a bachelor’s degree in a health care or counseling field and/or employment in a health care or counseling setting. Call Barbara Nehls-Lowe at 608-890-4653 if you have questions or concerns about this.
Program Delivery and Time Commitment
The online version of the Grief Support Specialist Certificate replicates the in-person 5-day version in learning objectives and content, but over a two-month period of time. The designs of many of the lectures and small group assignments and activities are slightly altered to better match the format of an online course.
This course is fully online with no real-time requirements. While the course is completely online, it is instructor-facilitated with significant interaction between instructor and student and between students. Participants are able to adjust their involvement in listening to the lectures and doing the assignments according to their personal and professional schedule.
Participants are expected to commit approximately 20-25 hours’ worth of time during the first five weeks of the course — about 5 hours per week (the lectures and assignments portion); and then 15-20 hours for a project or paper during the final three weeks of the course. Participants will upload weekly reflections and comment on at least two classmates’ work in small groups. Each student will comment on at least two classmates’ final projects to satisfy the requirements of the course.
It is possible to complete this course successfully while working full time and caring for a family.
Level
Beginner to Intermediate
Is Now the Right Time?
If you have had a significant loss within the past year, you may want to consider delaying participation in this program. The content may be difficult to process so soon after your own loss. If this applies to you and you would like to discuss, please contact Barbara Nehls-Lowe.
Outline
Week One: Psycho-Spiritual Model of Care, Theories and Tools
Doug Smith, lead instructor, explains a Psycho-Spiritual Model of Care and discusses grief counseling assessments—assessing for someone’s style of grieving, personal strengths, and personal needs. Doug also focuses on the grief counseling theories and tools of J. William Worden, Thomas Attig, John James, and Russell Friedman as well as general grief counseling tools and techniques.
Objectives Week One:
- Explain a style of counseling that helps people find meaning and value in the midst of suffering, even if the suffering cannot be removed.
- Describe the differences between “intuitive” (feeling-centered) grievers and “instrumental” (cognitive-centered or action-centered) grievers.
- Use a client’s own strengths to encourage self-help and self-determination.
- Explain the counseling theories of Worden, Attig, James, and Friedman.
- Identify and use various tools and techniques that help clients process their feelings and thoughts related to loss.
Week Two: Supporting Children and Adolescents in Loss
Molly Tomony describes the developmental, relationship, and cultural variables influencing how children and adolescents understand and cope with loss/death/change. Participants will explore ways to creatively support children by learning hands-on experiential activities.
Objectives Week Two:
- Examine the cognitive, emotional, and physical grief responses based upon a client’s developmental age.
- Describe cultural, religious, and relationship variables affecting children’s grief.
- Develop creative individual and group interventions to support grieving children and adolescents.
- Describe what disenfranchised traumatic loss is and how it may impact an individual’s coping.
Week Three: Spirituality
Doug Smith discusses spiritual issues and variables influencing attitudes towards loss along with tools and techniques addressing a client’s spiritual concerns.
Week Three: Cultural Competence
Ridley Usherwood discusses cultural influences in grief counseling, the effects of racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and other prejudices.
Week Three: Traumatic Grief
Doug Smith explains how to move beyond grief counseling with individuals or small groups to see ways to address large-scale grieving that a community may experience.
Objectives Week Three:
- Explain several ways of assessing someone’s spiritual language.
- Describe how to discover someone’s spiritual concerns and expectations.
- Use prayer/meditation with clients of various religious/spiritual backgrounds.
- Explain the influences of various prejudices on grief education/counseling, examining both the counselor’s and client’s perspectives.
- Develop a basic set of multicultural clinical practice competencies that can be used as guidelines for working with diverse patients and families.
- Identify options for addressing large-scale trauma that leaves large groups dealing with grief.
Week Four: Creating a Safe Place and Group Work
Tom Zuba discusses how to create a safe place in which to offer grief support and how to develop effective group work strategies.
Week Four: Self-care for Grief Counselors
Molly Tomony provides tools and techniques to help grief educators/counselors deal with compassion fatigue and care for themselves, equipping them to continue to care for others.
Objectives Week Four:
- Define and create a safe, sacred space where grief support can occur.
- Experience and understand the power of group work and develop strategies to ensure that the group environment is healthy, safe, and healing for all participants.
- Explain the nature of compassion fatigue and why grief educators/counselors cannot ignore its potential impact on them.
- Describe techniques that can help care for and recharge oneself.
Project/Paper Assignment
Each student will develop a project or paper related to their particular interests: e.g. an outline for a book, a job design/proposal and strategy, or a research paper on an aspect of grief counseling/support. Doug Smith will be available for consulting on these projects/papers.
Sharing projects with others: Students will share a description of their project online with the other participants and learn from the sharing of others.
Objectives for the Project/Paper:
- Summarize the depth and breadth of participant projects.
- Integrate key learnings into clinical practice and personal relationships.
- Develop an action plan to utilize this experience going forward.
Certificates and documentation of continuing education hours are granted upon satisfactory completion of the program and project.
A one-of-a-kind, uniquely designed, practical educational online program entailing instruction, facilitated discussions, and required participant activities. You’ll get to know the instructors—renowned experts who understand the complexity of personal loss. You’ll acquire knowledge and skills to enhance or create a professional specialty that focuses on counseling people who have suffered a major loss as the result of death, divorce, unemployment, destruction due to drug abuse, or other traumatic personal devastation.
This course replicates the in-person version in learning objectives and content, delivered over a two-month period of time. View details of the in-person course.
In The News
Read stories about this program in Isthmus and Brava Magazine.
Details
Details
About the Program
The program includes five weeks of instruction and three weeks to complete a project/paper relevant to one’s work or life, centered on educating or counseling people who have suffered from some major loss: loss due to death, divorce, job loss, loss of health, the losses associated with substance abuse, loss of self-worth, etc. The fully online format provides a flexible schedule making it possible to earn the certificate without traveling or taking time off work. The instructors are renowned experts in the field, more than one of whom have experienced great loss themselves.
One-of-a-Kind
What makes this program so unique is not only the quality and practicality of the content, but that it’s the only such certificate granted by a major university.
CEUs and Prerequisites
The Grief Support Specialist Certificate provides 3.5 Continuing Education Units (35 hours of professional continuing education) for people in a variety of professions including, but not limited to, psychology, social work, counseling, and marriage and family therapy.
The UW-Madison Grief Support Specialist Certificate program is now approved for 35 Category 1 Continuing Education Hours for Funeral Home Directors.
Learn more about CEUs and CE approved hours >
To enroll, you must have a bachelor’s degree in a health care or counseling field and/or employment in a health care or counseling setting. Call Barbara Nehls-Lowe at 608-890-4653 if you have questions or concerns about this.
Program Delivery and Time Commitment
The online version of the Grief Support Specialist Certificate replicates the in-person 5-day version in learning objectives and content, but over a two-month period of time. The designs of many of the lectures and small group assignments and activities are slightly altered to better match the format of an online course.
This course is fully online with no real-time requirements. While the course is completely online, it is instructor-facilitated with significant interaction between instructor and student and between students. Participants are able to adjust their involvement in listening to the lectures and doing the assignments according to their personal and professional schedule.
Participants are expected to commit approximately 20-25 hours’ worth of time during the first five weeks of the course — about 5 hours per week (the lectures and assignments portion); and then 15-20 hours for a project or paper during the final three weeks of the course. Participants will upload weekly reflections and comment on at least two classmates’ work in small groups. Each student will comment on at least two classmates’ final projects to satisfy the requirements of the course.
It is possible to complete this course successfully while working full time and caring for a family.
Level
Beginner to Intermediate
Is Now the Right Time?
If you have had a significant loss within the past year, you may want to consider delaying participation in this program. The content may be difficult to process so soon after your own loss. If this applies to you and you would like to discuss, please contact Barbara Nehls-Lowe.
Outline
Week One: Psycho-Spiritual Model of Care, Theories and Tools
Doug Smith, lead instructor, explains a Psycho-Spiritual Model of Care and discusses grief counseling assessments—assessing for someone’s style of grieving, personal strengths, and personal needs. Doug also focuses on the grief counseling theories and tools of J. William Worden, Thomas Attig, John James, and Russell Friedman as well as general grief counseling tools and techniques.
Objectives Week One:
- Explain a style of counseling that helps people find meaning and value in the midst of suffering, even if the suffering cannot be removed.
- Describe the differences between “intuitive” (feeling-centered) grievers and “instrumental” (cognitive-centered or action-centered) grievers.
- Use a client’s own strengths to encourage self-help and self-determination.
- Explain the counseling theories of Worden, Attig, James, and Friedman.
- Identify and use various tools and techniques that help clients process their feelings and thoughts related to loss.
Week Two: Supporting Children and Adolescents in Loss
Molly Tomony describes the developmental, relationship, and cultural variables influencing how children and adolescents understand and cope with loss/death/change. Participants will explore ways to creatively support children by learning hands-on experiential activities.
Objectives Week Two:
- Examine the cognitive, emotional, and physical grief responses based upon a client’s developmental age.
- Describe cultural, religious, and relationship variables affecting children’s grief.
- Develop creative individual and group interventions to support grieving children and adolescents.
- Describe what disenfranchised traumatic loss is and how it may impact an individual’s coping.
Week Three: Spirituality
Doug Smith discusses spiritual issues and variables influencing attitudes towards loss along with tools and techniques addressing a client’s spiritual concerns.
Week Three: Cultural Competence
Ridley Usherwood discusses cultural influences in grief counseling, the effects of racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and other prejudices.
Week Three: Traumatic Grief
Doug Smith explains how to move beyond grief counseling with individuals or small groups to see ways to address large-scale grieving that a community may experience.
Objectives Week Three:
- Explain several ways of assessing someone’s spiritual language.
- Describe how to discover someone’s spiritual concerns and expectations.
- Use prayer/meditation with clients of various religious/spiritual backgrounds.
- Explain the influences of various prejudices on grief education/counseling, examining both the counselor’s and client’s perspectives.
- Develop a basic set of multicultural clinical practice competencies that can be used as guidelines for working with diverse patients and families.
- Identify options for addressing large-scale trauma that leaves large groups dealing with grief.
Week Four: Creating a Safe Place and Group Work
Tom Zuba discusses how to create a safe place in which to offer grief support and how to develop effective group work strategies.
Week Four: Self-care for Grief Counselors
Molly Tomony provides tools and techniques to help grief educators/counselors deal with compassion fatigue and care for themselves, equipping them to continue to care for others.
Objectives Week Four:
- Define and create a safe, sacred space where grief support can occur.
- Experience and understand the power of group work and develop strategies to ensure that the group environment is healthy, safe, and healing for all participants.
- Explain the nature of compassion fatigue and why grief educators/counselors cannot ignore its potential impact on them.
- Describe techniques that can help care for and recharge oneself.
Project/Paper Assignment
Each student will develop a project or paper related to their particular interests: e.g. an outline for a book, a job design/proposal and strategy, or a research paper on an aspect of grief counseling/support. Doug Smith will be available for consulting on these projects/papers.
Sharing projects with others: Students will share a description of their project online with the other participants and learn from the sharing of others.
Objectives for the Project/Paper:
- Summarize the depth and breadth of participant projects.
- Integrate key learnings into clinical practice and personal relationships.
- Develop an action plan to utilize this experience going forward.
Certificates and documentation of continuing education hours are granted upon satisfactory completion of the program and project.
Earn Credit Hours
By participating in this class you will earn:
Click here to view an explanation of credit hours
What Attendees Are Saying:
“The wealth and depth of information and sharing were amazing. The knowledge level of instructors in tandem with their practical and life experience enhanced the applicability of the course.”
“I have been using Doug’s exercises in therapy with several clients, as many to most of the people I work with are dealing with some sort of loss. It’s been so interesting to see these exercises at work.”
Upcoming Dates
Register by phone: 608-262-2451
Schedule
Jun 21 – Aug 12, 2019
Instructor(s)
DOUG SMITH
DOUG SMITH (MA, MSc, MDiv, Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary) is a professional speaker, trainer, and consultant with more than 25 years' experience as a counselor, therapist, and health care administrator. He has written The Tao of Dying, Being a Wounded Healer, and several other books.
MOLLY TOMONY
MOLLY TOMONY (MA, ATR-BC, LPC, Norwich University) is a child and family therapist for the Rainbow Project in Madison. She has taught art therapy and education for the University of Wisconsin and Edgewood College and has worked in several hospices, specializing in art therapy and grief work with children. Tomony has written manuals for running grief groups in school settings, has worked with individuals with disabilities, and is currently an art instructor for SALSO (Strong Artistic Ladies Speaking Out).
GABRIELA CABALLERO-MOERSFELDER
GABRIELA CABALLERO-MOERSFELDER (MS, LPC, University of WI-Milwaukee) was born and raised in Costa Rica. She came to the USA with the Up with People (UWP) group –whose mission is "through music and action, we empower youth to be positive agents of change, build a more hopeful trusting and peaceful world"- in the early 1980's. Living in this country, she experienced first-hand being a minority and the lack of cultural sensitivity of many. These events created in Gabriela a passion to inform and encourage others to explore the beauty of diversity. Gabriela has been working as a Psychotherapist, Pastoral Associate, Spiritual Director and Community Volunteer in the Waukesha/Milwaukee area for more than 30 years. In these many roles, she has been privileged to accompany individuals from many different cultures on their grief and loss-healing journey.
ERICA SRINIVASAN
ERICA SRINIVASAN (PhD, Oregon State University) is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, where she also serves as the Director for the Center for Grief and Death Education, is Co-Chair for the Gerontology Emphasis, and is on the Planning Committee for the University's International Conference on Death, Grief and Bereavement. Her primary research is in the areas of grief and assisted death, and loss experiences with dementia.
Fee
$1,295 through May 21, 2019; $1,495 after
Location
Online
Madison, WI
Earn Credit Hours
By participating in this class you will earn:
View the explanation of credit hours
Questions?
Contact:- Barbara Nehls-Lowe
- barbara.nehlslowe@wisc.edu
- 608-890-4653
Continuing Studies FAQs
Cancellation Policy:
Our cancellation policy varies by type of program. View our policies page for more details about cancelling a program.
What Attendees Are Saying:
“The wealth and depth of information and sharing were amazing. The knowledge level of instructors in tandem with their practical and life experience enhanced the applicability of the course.”
“I have been using Doug’s exercises in therapy with several clients, as many to most of the people I work with are dealing with some sort of loss. It’s been so interesting to see these exercises at work.”
Our cancellation policy varies by type of program. View our policies page for more details about cancelling a program.
Have Questions?
Contact:- Barbara Nehls-Lowe
- barbara.nehlslowe@wisc.edu
- 608-890-4653
Barbara Nehls-Lowe
Email
DOUG SMITH
DOUG SMITH (MA, MSc, MDiv, Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary) is a professional speaker, trainer, and consultant with more than 25 years' experience as a counselor, therapist, and health care administrator. He has written The Tao of Dying, Being a Wounded Healer, and several other books.
MOLLY TOMONY
MOLLY TOMONY (MA, ATR-BC, LPC, Norwich University) is a child and family therapist for the Rainbow Project in Madison. She has taught art therapy and education for the University of Wisconsin and Edgewood College and has worked in several hospices, specializing in art therapy and grief work with children. Tomony has written manuals for running grief groups in school settings, has worked with individuals with disabilities, and is currently an art instructor for SALSO (Strong Artistic Ladies Speaking Out).
GABRIELA CABALLERO-MOERSFELDER
GABRIELA CABALLERO-MOERSFELDER (MS, LPC, University of WI-Milwaukee) was born and raised in Costa Rica. She came to the USA with the Up with People (UWP) group –whose mission is "through music and action, we empower youth to be positive agents of change, build a more hopeful trusting and peaceful world"- in the early 1980's. Living in this country, she experienced first-hand being a minority and the lack of cultural sensitivity of many. These events created in Gabriela a passion to inform and encourage others to explore the beauty of diversity. Gabriela has been working as a Psychotherapist, Pastoral Associate, Spiritual Director and Community Volunteer in the Waukesha/Milwaukee area for more than 30 years. In these many roles, she has been privileged to accompany individuals from many different cultures on their grief and loss-healing journey.
ERICA SRINIVASAN
ERICA SRINIVASAN (PhD, Oregon State University) is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, where she also serves as the Director for the Center for Grief and Death Education, is Co-Chair for the Gerontology Emphasis, and is on the Planning Committee for the University's International Conference on Death, Grief and Bereavement. Her primary research is in the areas of grief and assisted death, and loss experiences with dementia.
Stay In Touch
Keep up to date about Human Services offerings at Continuing Studies. You'll receive upcoming announcements and information related to Behavioral Health.
Upcoming Dates
June 21 - August 12, 2019
3314-20-PDAS
Register by phone: 608-262-2451
Schedule
Jun 21 – Aug 12, 2019
Add to CalendarInstructor(s)
Fee
$1,295 through May 21, 2019; $1,495 after
Location
Online
Madison, WI
Earn Credit Hours
By participating in this class you will earn:
Questions about this program?
Contact:- Barbara Nehls-Lowe
- barbara.nehlslowe@wisc.edu
- 608-890-4653
Cancellation Policy:
Our cancellation policy varies by type of program. View our policies page for more details about cancelling a program.
What Attendees Are Saying:
“The wealth and depth of information and sharing were amazing. The knowledge level of instructors in tandem with their practical and life experience enhanced the applicability of the course.”
“I have been using Doug’s exercises in therapy with several clients, as many to most of the people I work with are dealing with some sort of loss. It’s been so interesting to see these exercises at work.”
- Barbara Nehls-Lowe
- barbara.nehlslowe@wisc.edu
- 608-890-4653
Cancellation Policy:
Our cancellation policy varies by type of program. View our policies page for more details about cancelling a program.
Have Questions?
We have collected answers to common questions in our
FAQs.
You can also contact Customer Service at or
608-262-1156.
Continuing Studies FAQs
Barbara Nehls-Lowe
Email
Previous Class
3314-19-LAAS
Schedule
Jun 15-Aug 13, 2018
Instructor(s)
BARBARA NEHLS-LOWE
DOUG SMITH
MOLLY TOMONY
Location
Complete Online