Hatherleigh Behavioral Health

A New, Evidence-Based Approach to Help Clients Work through Loss

Abstract: Everyone grieves something at some time. However, even the best available evidence-based treatments often fall short in the treatment of grief, resulting in clients stalling or failing to progress in their treatment plan. Learning to grieve in adaptive ways is not only how we heal after loss, grieving itself it more than just healthy, it has been deemed essential for our very survival.

After more than a decade in development, Dr. Kay Towns created a novel grief model, the GRACE Grief Model™ to address known deficits in popular existing models. Dr. Towns’ grief model is rooted in evidence-based CBT with added elements of Narrative Therapy and Meaning Making (inclusive of spirituality).  This new model offers a fresh approach to work through loss with practical tools for the practitioner to offer clients.    

This continuing education course has been developed to provide psychologists, counselors, marriage and family therapists, social workers and other healthcare workers with an overview of a new grief model, the GRACE Grief Model™.  In this course, you will learn about this novel grief model (targeted for adults), as well as grain new insights about grief and learn new tools that will help you treat losses and the resulting grief that arises in the client population.

Competency Areas: This course addresses the following competency areas: Understanding Grief, Evidence-Based Approaches, Clinical Skills, Professional Education, Client-Centered Approaches

Keywords: Grief treatment, Evidence-based grief therapy, GRACE Grief Model™, Adaptive grieving, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Narrative Therapy, Meaning Making in grief, Spirituality in grief therapy, Grief counseling tools, Continuing education for therapists, Grief model for adults, Psychologist grief training, Counselor grief education, Marriage and family therapist grief course, Social worker grief training, Healthcare worker grief education, Novel grief model, Practical grief therapy tools, Healing after loss

Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this course participants will: Demonstrate familiarity with the GRACE Grief Model™; list new ways to understand grief and redefine grief; understand why it is important at times to re-story the loss narrative in healthy ways; name new griefwork tools used in the GRACE Grief Model™; understand ways connection with culture may impact adaptive grieving; describe how to move into the “new normal” in healthy ways after a loss event using the bio-psycho-social-spiritual model.

Target Audience:  Psychologists, counselors, marriage and family therapists, social workers and other healthcare workers.