GC 510

SPIRITUAL INTERVENTIONS IN GRIEF COUNSELING

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Course Information

This online course presents a newer approach to grief counseling and explores the spiritual dimensions of interventions that assist in healing the bereaved. Students learn to assist clients in finding support in spiritual practices and also learn to use a mindfulness meditation that is helpful to clients. Upon successful completion of this course, students earn 25 continuing education contact hours toward recertification. Course Code: GC 510

This course is particularly designed for those who are already or were recently certified by the American Academy of Grief Counseling, and are seeking continuing education to meet re-certification requirements.

Instructor/Course Author: Dominick L. Flarey, Ph.D, MBA, RN,BC, GC-C
Link to Resume

TEXTBOOKS: There is one (1) required textbook for this course.

Grieving Mindfully: A Compassionate and Spiritual Guide to Coping with Loss.
By: Sameet M. Kumar, Ph.D. California: New Harbinger Publications:2005. ISBN# 1-57224-401-1.

Link to Purchase on Amazon.com: click here

Audio Book Version Available Here

TIME FRAME: You are allotted two years from the date of enrollment, to complete this course. There are no set time-frames, other than the two year allotted time.

BOARD APPROVALS: AIHCP is an approved provider of continuing education by the American Institute of Health Care Professionals (The Provider) is approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses, Provider number # CEP 15595 for 25 Contact Hours.

This course, which is approved by the Florida State Board Of Nursing (CE Provider # 50-11975) also has the following Board of Nursing Approvals, for 25 contact hours of CE:

The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Arkansas Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Georgia Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the South Carolina Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Professional Registered Nurses. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the New Mexico Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.

Online Classroom Resouces and Tools

* Examination Access: there is link to take you right to the online examination program where you can print out your examination and work with it. All examinations are formatted as "open book" tests. When you are ready, you can access the exam program at anytime and click in your responses to the questions. Full information is provided in the online classrooms.

* Student Resource Center: there is a link for access to a web page "Student Resource Center." The Resource Center provides for easy access to all of our policies/procedures and additional information regarding applying for certification. We also have many links to many outside reference sites, such as online libraries that you may freely access.

* Online Evaluation: there is a link in the classroom where you may access the course evaluation. All students completing a course, must, without exception, complete the course evaluation.

* Faculty Access Information: you will have access to your instructor's online resume/biography, as well as your instructor's specific contact information.

* Additional Learning Materials: some faculty have prepared additional "readings" and /or brief lecture notes to enhance your experience. All of these are available in the online classrooms.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

1. Define and understand definitions and concepts of grief.
2. Discuss the author's concept of grieving mindfully.
3. Identify the basic teachings of Buddha and discuss their applicability to the concept of grieving
4. Briefly discuss various types of grief including cumulative, anticipatory, post-traumatic stress disorder.
5. Begin a discussion of the concept of spirituality in grief.
6. Discuss the concept of mindfulness meditation, how it is practiced and strategies to assist in using mindfulness.
7. Defining discuss the concepts of impermanence and grief.
8. In terms of Buddhist philosophy discuss types of suffering.
9. Discuss the understanding of grief as it relates to the understanding of life and relationships.
10. Discuss the author's concept of the spiral staircase.
11. Identify the major issues people deal with and process during the first year of grief.
12. Identify significant issues regarding the role that "memories" play in the grieving process.
13. Understand and discuss the concepts of grief "triggers."
14. Identify strategies for coping with triggers using radical acceptance.
15. Integrate knowledge around relationships, including shared relationships, during the grieving..
16. Understand how people grieve.
17. Discuss issues around the ability to find meaning in grief.
18. Describe what is meant by "grief changes your world."
19. Review and discuss issues related to sudden loss.
20. Defining discuss the guidelines for the transformation of grief.
21. Defining discuss the author's concepts of the alchemy of grief.
22. List and discuss the basic obstacles to personal transformation.
23. Review and discuss highlights related to major depression.
24. Identify and discuss how mindfulness may be used in working with clients were experiencing depression.
25. Identify the ways in which we learn from our grief process.
26. Identify ways that we may train the mind using grief as a teacher.
27. Discuss the concept of choosing compassion in ways that we may practice compassion spirituality.
28. Identify the primary tenants of the authors prose related to channeling grief to life.
29. Identify a process including questions in which we may evaluate the lessons learned from grief.
30. Identify and discuss the primary issues related to mindfulness and spirituality.

COURSE CONTENT:

1. Definitions and understanding of grief.
2. Buddhism and psychology.
3. Grieving mindfully.
4. Buddhism and grief.
5. Different types of grieving.
6. The stages of grief.
7. Spirituality and grief.
8. Mindfulness in grief
9. Grieving mindfully.
10. The practice of mindfulness.
11. Techniques for meditation.
12. Evaluating mindfulness.
13. The spiral staircase.
14. Impermanence and grief.
15. Types of suffering.
16. Permanence, identity, and grief.
17. Coping with grief and understanding your feelings.
18. The spiral staircase.
19. The unpredictable course of grief.
20. Going through the first year of grief.
21. Understanding grief triggers.
22. How to cope with triggers using radical acceptance.
23. Relationships during the first year of grief.
24. Closure and transformation.
25. Understanding how we grieve.
26. Types of losses.
27. Finding closure in loss.
28. Guidelines for transforming grief.
29. The transformative search for meaning in grief.
30. Spiritual meaning.
31. Obstacles to transformation.
32. Grief and depression.
33. Treating depression and the use of psychotherapy
34. Mindfulness and depression.
35. Learning from grief.
36. The role of compassion in grief counseling.
37. Channeling grief to life.
38. The lessons of grief.
39. Mindfulness and spirituality.
40. The spiritual path of grief.
41. Grieving mindfully and learning to live the mindfully.