Grief and Bereavement Workshop

Individual and Family Responses to Loss:

Clinical Approaches to Traumatic Grief

Dr. Stephen Fleming, C.Psych.

Tuesday October 26, 2010

Learning outcomes:

At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Identify similar and distinctive features of grief, anxiety, depression and trauma.
  • Discuss the impact of a trauma overlay to grief and the implications for treatment.
  • Understand the importance of examining self-blame and the role of counterfactual thought patterns in adaptation to loss and trauma.
  • Appreciate the metamorphosis of individuals and families from devastation to regeneration following the trauma of a child’s death.
  • Differentiate compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious trauma, appreciate their impact on clinicians, and identify how to address such inevitable hazards of trauma work

Throughout the day Dr. Fleming will use a combination of didactic instruction and a videotaped case, to explore the differences between grief and trauma and how they impact the grieving process and complicate intervention. In the afternoon, he will focus on family responses to loss, more specifically how parents continue to parent after a child has died.

About the presenter:

Dr. Fleming is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, at YorkUniversity in Toronto, Canada. The author of numerous book chapters, articles, and presentations on the grief experience of children, adolescence and adults, he has lectured in Canada, the United States, South America, Asia, and Europe. In addition to teaching graduate and undergraduate courses on the Psychology of Death, Dr. Fleming has qualified as an expert witness in litigation involving trauma, and he has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Palliative Care and Death Studies. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Noah Thorek Award for outstanding volunteer contribution to the Bereaved Families of Ontario; the Clinical Practice Award for outstanding contribution to clinical thanatology from the Association for Death Education and Counseling; the Dr. Beatrice Wickett Award for outstanding contribution to mental health education in the Province of Ontario; and the “Citizen of Distinction” award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving (Canada). A member of the Canadian Academy of Psychologists in Disability Assessment, he currently is Secretary-Treasurer of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement.

Along with is co-author, Dr. Jennifer Buckle, Dr. Fleming is author of Parenting After the Death of a Child: A Practioner’s Guide. Routledge, April 2010.