Grief, Loss & Bereavement

Course Description

Summary

This course examines grief, loss, mourning, and bereavement from developmental, psychological, relational, cultural, existential, and systemic perspectives. Students explore contemporary theories and models of grief and develop an understanding of the varied ways individuals, couples, families, and communities respond to loss across the lifespan. Topics include death and dying, anticipatory grief, traumatic and sudden loss, disenfranchised grief, ambiguous loss, complicated and prolonged grief responses, reproductive and perinatal loss, illness and disability, relationship loss, migration and cultural loss, suicide bereavement, and cumulative and collective loss.

Emphasis is placed on distinguishing normative variations in grief from clinically significant symptoms and on developing culturally responsive approaches to assessment, case conceptualization, treatment planning, and counseling intervention. Students examine the intersections of grief with trauma, depression, anxiety, substance use, suicidality, identity, spirituality, family systems, and social context. The course integrates evidence-informed counseling approaches with attention to meaning-making, continuing bonds, resilience, narrative reconstruction, relational processes, and post-loss adaptation.

Students develop practical competencies for supporting clients experiencing grief and loss across clinical settings and service-delivery modalities. Ethical practice, counselor self-awareness, professional boundaries, cultural humility, counselor grief and countertransference, referral, consultation, and clinician self-care are addressed throughout the course.