Introduction
Date Course Created: March 2026
Many clinicians struggle with helping clients who feel stuck – clinging to the life they had before their loss and finding it difficult to accept a new reality. This training explores how to navigate those moments by identifying the root reasons clients may resist or struggle with the reality of their grief, including attachment, identity, and the body’s memory of loss. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of both experienced and anticipated loss, and how these dynamics shape the grieving process.
How can clients say goodbye in meaningful ways while maintaining a healthy, ongoing connection to their loved one? Drawing from concepts in Continuing Bond Therapy, attendees will explore a range of goodbye rituals and continuing bond activities that help clients release, reconcile with reality, re-establish a sense of order, and validate the importance of the relationship. These approaches emphasize that relationships do not end with death, but instead evolve in ways that can be adaptive, normal, and deeply comforting.
Through a collaborative and individualized approach, clinicians will learn how to support clients in creating personalized rituals that reflect cultural, religious, and personal meaning. In engaging in these practices, many clients are able to create and find a new and meaningful life after loss—one that honors both their grief and their ongoing connection.
The training also acknowledges the impact of grief work on clinicians themselves. Participants will explore the effects of vicarious grief, workload strain, and the reality that empathy is a finite resource requiring intentional care. By the end of the training, clinicians will feel better equipped to support grieving clients who are struggling with the reality of their loss, while also maintaining their own emotional sustainability in the work.
This is a 1-CE noninteractive, self-paced online video course delivered in home study format via an industry-standard online learning platform.
Agenda
00:00 – 00:15 → Introduction to Grief Counseling, Anticipated Loss, Roles of Pain / Identity / Compartmentalization
00:15 – 00:31 → Exploring Grief Rituals: Cultural, Religious, Individual
00:31 – 00:50 → The Concept of Continuing Bonds, Memory Boxes as a Grief Tool, Collages as a Therapeutic Activity
00:50 – 01:00 → Acceptance in Grief, The Importance of Self-Care for Clinicians, Recommended Resources
Objectives
This training will provide participants clinical knowledge and tools to:
After completing this training, participants will be able to conceptualize 2-3 reasons why clients may hold onto the life they had before their loss.- After completing this training, participants will be able to recall 3-4 continuing-bond activities to help clients say goodbye to their loved one.
Target Audience:
The target audience for this event includes psychologists, social workers, counselors, MFT’s, other clinical mental health professionals, and anyone seeking to understand the mechanisms of grief rituals after loss.
Instructional Level: Intermediate
Instructor(s): Tiffani Dilworth LCPC, CGCS
Material Author(s): Tiffani Dilworth LCPC, CGCS
For additional information about this course, the instructors, or the material authors, please contact Content Assistance at content@onlinececredits.com.
Course Materials & Delivery Method:
- Course Materials – The course is composed of a recorded presentation and written materials (e.g. a slide deck and/or other worksheets, manuals, or handouts as provided by the instructor). The slide deck and any additional worksheets or handouts (as provided by the instructor) are made available inside the Lesson module after a course is purchased.
- Delivery Method – This course is a recorded asynchronous, self-paced webinar training, and there is no access time limit or due date to complete it once enrolled. The enrolled learner will stream the recorded presentation and view the materials from their internet connected device via an industry-standard online learning platform.
CE Approvals:
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)
Online CE Credits has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6795. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Online CE Credits is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)
Mind Works Professional Education, Inc. DBA Online CE Credits, #1974, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: July 23, 2025 – July 23, 2028. Social workers completing this course receive 1 clinical continuing education credits.
Other Helpful Information:
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- Course Completion Requirements – 1.) View the entire Lesson module (accessible from the main course page), to include the embedded and/or linked presentation video(s), slide deck, additional materials, and/or links to any shared video clip(s) that may have been edited from the presentation video(s) to comply with copyright laws. 2.) Click into the Quiz module accessible from either the main course page or the Lesson page and complete the Quiz with an 80% or better pass rate. 3.) Complete the Course Evaluation – you’ll be sent to the Evaluation automatically once you successfully pass the Quiz.
- Posttest Requirements – You must answer 80% or more of the Quiz questions correctly to pass. If you fail to pass the first time, you may attempt the quiz again until you are able to pass with a score of 80% or better. Quizzes are graded instantly and automatically by the learning management system once your attempt is submitted.
- Certificate of Completion – Certificates of Completion are automatically generated – downloadable from your Dashboard and emailed to you – once you view the Lesson Materials and complete the Quiz and the Course Evaluation.
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