GriefWorks offers workshops or seminars

to suit your needs – we are flexible and creative.

Call to discuss your needs or

check the list below to get some ideas…

843-281-4232 celiaryan@griefworks.com

Some of the workshops that Celia has presented either alone or with her gifted colleague, Carol Colacurcio of Sound Acccord

(scroll down to view details of each presentation)

1. Forgiveness Frees The Forgiver

2. Finding Your Voice

3. Going Deeper

4. Becoming A Great Counselor

5. Grief: Does The Pain Ever End?

6. Grief and Loss: Using Sound To Process Change

7. Continuing Bonds

8. Grief And Loss In The School

9. Gifts You Give Yourself

10. Handling The Holidays

11. Dreams Do Come True!

12. Complicated Grief

13. Healing Hidden Grief

14. Let Go Of Pain, Keep The Memories

15. Trust Your Client

16. S.T.E.W. (Spiritual Talk For Enlightened Women)

17. Soul Journey

18. Get Relief! Get Joy!

19. Debunking the Myths

1. Forgiveness frees the forgiver!

Forgiveness is poorly understood by most of us – we know we are supposed to forgive but we don’t have any real guidelines. A better understanding of what Forgiveness is and is not may ultimately lead to a decision to forgive. Examples and exercises will be shared.

Program details:

This four-part workshop (or 2 weekends) will explore Forgiveness as an idea that can truly be freeing if one understands what it is and is not.

We will use didactic work to present the who, what and when of forgiveness.

We will show a brief video clip that helps to show what we mean by freeing ourselves.

Then we will use our own experience, using pen and paper, to complete some exercises that will begin to help us to be willing to learn more about how we can free ourselves by practicing forgiveness.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees will learn

a definition of forgiveness
an understanding of how one could forgive

3. a tool to begin the process of forgiving

2. FINDING YOUR VOICE

Explore your inner wisdom… Tap into your intuition …

Find out what gets in your way … Break old habits.

Do you wonder what else you might be doing to enhance and develop your growing wisdom and maturity?

This 4 –week series (or 2 weekends) will help you to explore these challenging issues with others seeking answers.

This series of workshops is experiential and includes writing, drawing, music and sound.

Going Deeper

Come and explore ideas with others who are seeking a deeper

understanding or longing for change in their lives…

· Clearing the path…what stands in the way of your journey or holds you back?

· Preparing for the journey… build on what you already know about yourself and learn some new tools and skills

· Embracing the changes… recognize the gifts that are coming and rejoice in them

Re-envisioning the future… who/what will you be now?

4. Becoming a GREAT counselor

Being an effective counselor is more about you than any technique – most of the studies of theories show that it is the qualities of the counselor rather than any modality that make for effective therapy. Are you fully engaged using all your talents skills and uniqueness? If not, why not? What are you waiting for…?

This workshop will be experiential and explore what it takes to begin and grow as a counselor

“Why would you want to do that?” And other awkward questions that challenge your self-perception…

· The client knows the question and the client knows the answer… if that is true then what is your role?

· Re-engaging with yourself and your dreams

5. Grief: Does the pain ever end?

We will look at grief as a teacher…

Raw Grief has an ending, mourning is lifelong…

Death ends a life, but not a relationship.

We have continuing bonds with the deceased

6. “Grief and Loss: Using Sound to Process Change”

Participants in this experiential workshop will

Understand how music can be a tool to express difficult feelings and release tension

Use simple breathing techniques (toning) to work with pain

Enhance listening and communication skills

Become more aware of the effects of sound in our everyday lives

Look at grief and loss as manageable life transitions

Learn a simple model to provide structure and framework for the experience of loss

7. “death ends a life but it does not end a relationship” Robert Anderson

Continuing Bonds

For more than a 100 years the model has been that to successfully resolve grief the mourner must disengage from the deceased and let go of the past

Death is a life-changing event for the living too, one we accommodate to, but do not get over or put it behind us.

In the past decade the research supports that the resolution of grief involves a continuing bond that the survivor maintains with the deceased. These continuing bonds can be a healthy part of the survivor’s changed life

· Bonds formed in the past can inform our present and our future – the ongoing connection may come through dreams, being “watched over” and a sense of presence or conversations with the deceased

We construct an inner representation of the deceased that is not static but grows and changes over time

There is an ongoing re-negotiation of the meaning of the loss over time.

There is a social/familial/cultural context that supports this bond
The intensity may fade with time but the memories are not lost…

· People integrate the experiences of loss into the larger stories of their lives

8. Grief and Loss in the School…

Children's grief responses: What you need to know

NORMAL GRIEF

Grief is a normal response to a life event.

Common reactions:

Significant loss is a life-changing event

Grief Models:

Worden, Rando, Kubler-Ross

How adults can help:

Educating self and others about grief and loss…

Teachers’ Role:

The classroom can offer structure and consistency in a crisis, a "normal" place where students can feel some mastery and control.

School & community:

Education, proactive, prevention, support, resources etc

RED FLAGS

Recognize trigger times

COMPLICATIONS

Complicated grief, traumatic grief, PTSD

9. Gifts you give yourself

First,

YOU are a gift

Come & learn how to treat yourself as beautifully as you do others…

YOUR Special List

Breathing exercise

Therapeutic use of sound

Back to basics; drawing, letters

Show & tell!

Graduation

10. HANDLING THE HOLIDAYS

Do you “Do” the holidays every year; or do the holidays “Do you in”! Do you find yourself burdened with obligations, shoulds, promises, commitments that are robbing you of the joy to be found at special times?

The temptation is to bypass the whole thing (“Wake me up when it’s over!”)

We will look at what still helps and what can helpfully change…

Tradition and ritual

Nurturing v destructive elements

Change is a process – we can

Assess
Consult
Communicate
Empower

11. “Dreams Can Come True!”

Envisioning the future; for yourself, your clients

· What are the challenges to success?

· Get an “encouragement team”

· Be a resource gatherer

· Empowerment

· Motivation

This workshop will encourage you to take a fresh look at yourself and whether you are living your dreams or settling for second best – come prepared to be excited & reinvigorated!

12. Complicated Grief: How to recognize it; What to do?

This workshop will educate about the complications of grief and whether they will lead to a complicated grief process.

Professionals will have a model of assessment and several helpful tools at the end of the session

Some topics to be covered:

Four tasks of normal grief
Seven high-risk predictors of complicated grief
Clues to complicated grief
Linking objects, STUGS
Normalize, universalize, educate
Continuing Bonds
Assess isolation/suicidal intent
Medical complications
Companioning model
Groups
Resources

13. Healing Hidden Grief: Dealing with Post Abortion Trauma

Text Box: Using material from nearly 20 years of working in this field …
you will learn to set aside many myths and come to understand the destructive nature of this secret grief. Using lecture, music, video and witness stories you will never approach the issue of abortion the same way again…

Abortion as a disenfranchised grief explained

Abortion as trauma

Steps to Recovery

How can you help?

Rachel’s Vineyard© – an overview of a powerful healing program

14. Let Go of the Pain; Keep the Memories

Anniversary reactions

Triggers

Pain is reaction to loss

Physical – less raw in time, changed life

Spiritual– inner representation, new constructs

Emotional – accommodation and resolution

Psychological – meaning making

Memorializing v interminable grief

Paradox of transforming and transcending

Modernist v. traditional

Temporal-Sociocultural context

Pathology or Purpose?

Grief is not a single event, unfolding and changing over time

Grief is social, interdependent, not isolated

15. Trust your Client!

your client knows the question and your client knows the answer…

Taped interview with Dr. Robert Neimeyer, master thanatologist and clinician, and an interactive Q & A teaching session to follow.

Bob Neimeyer is a prolific writer and teacher, his work on Constructivist Therapy has informed and enlightened the field of grief and loss work. If you are familiar with him you will want to attend this session and see him at work and if you don’t know of him come and see how beautifully he demonstrates a gentle respect, yet powerful meaning-making with a bereaved mother….

This workshop will be of particular interest to those who work in the grief and loss field and all who want to hone his or her counseling skills

16. You are invited to a

S.T.E.W.

Spiritual Talk for Enlightened Women (and men)

This workshop will use the guidance of a musician and a therapist

to explore your personal spirituality in a fun but respectful setting.

Please bring

Your friends

Your imagination

Your questions

Your energy

Your enthusiasm

Your creativity

Your wisdom

Your best practices

Your curiosity

Your open heart

17. Soul Journey

A day of personal spiritual exploration to enhance your growing awareness of the possibility of a “transcending self”… using writing, drawing, sound, and other tools you will journey to a heightened personal awareness

Am I still OK ?

Surviving and thriving after separation and divorce

__________________________________________

· Guided meditation

· Timing and process

· Who am I now?

· Special list

18. Stressed? Get relief by taking action!

Instead…Go get JOY!

· self care

· listen to your body

· physical and emotional pain

· deal with fear, panic, and anxiety

· coping skills

19. New Ideas in Grief and Loss? Debunking the Myths

MYTH I: Grief and Loss is only relevant when talking about death, dying, divorce, etc… All who are attached grieve. Unrecognized losses…

Truth: Grief and Loss is everywhere. Disenfranchised grief, Doka Models...Worden(4 tasks) Rando (6 R Processes)

MYTH II: Time Heals

Truth: only if you do your grief work. Time Frames: How long? "Frozen grief” Pauline Boss STUG – (sudden temp upsurge of grief) Rando

MYTH III: You need to "get over" or "resolve" loss to be mentally healthy.

Truth: We never "get over" a significant loss. Continuing Bonds: give up the pain, not the memories. Klass & Silverman

MYTH IV: Divorce rates are high when parents have a child die.

Truth: Divorce rates are high, death of a child is a high risk factor, but not the necessary reason for divorce. Complicated grief factors … Rando

MYTH V: Men and women grieve differently, women cry, men don't…

Truth: Men and women grieve differently, grief is related to, but not determined by, gender …Doka & Martin