Today, there is a burgeoning transformation of cultural attitudes to death, and a plethora of theories, methods and practices that guide our work with the dying and bereaved. However, regardless of one’s approach or perspective, there is a growing recognition among spiritual caregivers and helping professionals that one is more adequately prepared for companioning the dying and bereaved by investigating one’s own personal reactions and responses to death and dying. This experientially-oriented workshop offers participants the opportunity to reflect on their personal grief journeys and to consider how family of origin and cultural influences shape the ways we understand and express grief. In the final analysis, we shall look upon death as a teacher that provides opportunity for psychological and spiritual development.

What you will Receive:

• 4 Live Interactive Webinars (via Zoom) with Q & A (listed in Pacific time)
• Recommended Readings and Resources
• A Verified PGI Digital Badge — stackable toward certificate and degree pathways
• 6 CECs

This Course is ideal for:

• Students in helping professions, chaplaincy, social work, and nursing.
• Practitioners working in hospice, pastoral care, funeral care and other areas of end-of-life care.
• Individuals wrestling with their own grief journey issues.

 

Course Overview:   

Week One: Introduction/ Awakening to the Grief Journey

• Introductions – Where Are You in Your Grief Journey?
• Experiential Process – “Bereavement Up-Close”
• From Death-Denial to a “Death-Positive” Culture
• Befriending Grief (Talking to Grief by Denise Levertov)

Week Two:  Cultural Images of Death

• Historical Images of Death in Western Culture
• Unconscious Images of Death
• Experiential Process – Encountering Our Image of Death
• Death Visions from Darkness to Light

Week Three: Exploring Personal Grief Journeys

• Guidelines for Counseling the Bereaved
• Experiential Process – Healing Our Family of Origin Story

Week Four: Stages and Tasks of the Grief Journey

• Stages and Tasks of the Grief Journey
• Bereavement Assessment
• Experiential Process -Envisioning Yourself as a Harbinger of the Emerging “Death Positive” Culture

Learning Objectives (6 CECs)

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the unconscious connections between personal, familial and cultural attitudes towards grief, in their lives and in those of their clients and students.
2. Prepare their comfort level in dealing with death, dying and bereavement so that they can more adequately deal with bereavement issues that emerge in counseling or informal settings.
3. Apply their understanding and perspective on their individual grief healing journeys.
4. Demonstrate a sense of being agents of transformation in the emerging “death positive” culture.

Course Addendums:

Bidwell Smith, Claire. 2024. Conscious Grieving: A Transformative Approach to Healing from Loss.

Doka, Kenneth J., and Terry L. Martin. 2024. Grieving Beyond Gender: Understanding Diverse Grieving Styles. Routledge.

Dowling Singh, Kathleen. 1997. The Grace in Dying: How We Are Transformed Spiritually as We Die. HarperSanFrancisco.

Ellison, Koshin Paley, and Matt Weingast, eds. 2016. Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End-of-Life Care. Wisdom Publications.

Gawande, Atul. 2014. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. Henry Holt and Company.

Newland, Guy. 2023. A Buddhist Grief Observed. Wisdom Publications.

Parnia, Sam. 2013. Erasing Death: The Science That Is Rewriting the Boundaries between Life and Death. HarperOne.

Raphael, Simcha Paull. 2015a. The Grief Journey and the Afterlife: Jewish Pastoral Care for Bereavement. Albion-Andalus.

Raphael, Simcha Paull. 2015b. Living and Dying in Ancient Times: Death, Burial, and Mourning in Biblical Tradition. Albion-Andalus.

Raphael, Simcha Paull. 2016. May the Angels Carry You: Jewish Prayers and Meditations for the Deathbed. Albion-Andalus.

Raphael, Simcha Paull, David Levin, and Dayle A. Friedman, eds. 2021. Jewish End-of-Life Care in a Virtual Age: Our Traditions Reimagined. Albion-Andalus.

Worden, William J. 2009. Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy. 4th ed. Springer Publishing Company.

Zitter, Jessica Nutik. 2017. Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life. Penguin Random House.

Zopa Rinpoche, Lama. 2025. How to Live and Die: The Transformative Power of Meditating on Impermanence. Edited by Gordon McDougall. Wisdom Publications.