Using ACT to support grieving people

Grief is one of the most universal experiences, and for many brings the greatest suffering of a lifetime. Sometimes, the power of that suffering and the way an individual responds to it can make it hard both to adjust to the pain of loss, and to build a new life in the absence of the person (or thing) that has been lost.

Most ACT practitioners support grieving clients. Whilst we usually feel confident about our ability to listen compassionately to the deep emotions that are expressed, there are points when grief can get ‘stuck’. At Contextual Consulting we frequently hear these questions:

• How do I tell if this ‘normal’ or ‘complicated’ grief?
• When is it better to focus on the loss, versus concentrating on building a new life?
• How do I work with the guilt, or anger, at the idea of ‘moving on’?
• How to manage the traumatic memories of their loved one’s death?
• What can I do if my client had a difficult relationship with the person they lost?
• What’s the best way to teach ‘holding it together’ strategies in an ACT consistent way?

ACT is a powerful model for helping people make sense of their experiences, guiding them to deal with their suffering and building a meaningful, worthwhile life even in the presence of adversity. It’s especially relevant to grief support work.

Who would benefit from this workshop?

This is an intermediate level skills workshop, and you need to be familiar with the ACT model before attending.

It’s suitable for any professional who works with physical or psychological health and well-being and finds themselves supporting grieving people. This includes psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists, coaches, BCBAs, physicians, CBT therapists, social workers, and marriage & family therapist, spiritual support workers (e.g. chaplains). The workshop is also open to trainee therapists and researchers.

Meant for practitioners who have received training in ACT, as this workshop builds on our Introduction to ACT for grief workshop (the recorded introductory workshop is available for purchase here), this practical, skills focused 2 x ½ day online workshop will teach you core techniques.

“Excellent and very valuable. It’s so nice to to have so much talk of palliative setting as there are so few courses which focus on this .Thanks so much” Nikki, Palliative care Physiotherapist

“It was friendly and accessible – not always easy to achieve in the online format.” Dr Brett Grellier, Counselling Psychologist.

“Ray is a very gifted teacher and educator. Thanks for offering!”

“Ray has a wonderful voice and is very engaging”

“Inspiring and instructive” John Foran, Chartered Psychologist (Ps.S.I.)

Learning objectives and skills

At the end of the training you’ll be able to:

• Use practical values that both validates emotions and moves forward
• Do ‘in the moment’ rapid, impactful functional assessments
• Use practical skills to address strong feelings of not only sadness, but also anger, fear, guilt and shame
• Balance the ‘Loss-oriented’ and ‘Restoration-oriented’ elements of grief in a respectful and effective manner

In the course of the workshop, participants are very likely to come into contact with their own thoughts and feelings about losses in their own lives: please be aware of this in choosing to attend, especially if you have recently experienced a significant loss of your own.

In you are interested in a more introductory level workshop on using acceptance and commitment therapy with grief, you can view our workshop, Acceptance and commitment therapy for grief with Dr Ray Owen

Group booking discounts

Contextual Consulting offer discounts for groups of people from the same organisation e.g. an NHS Trust that does not have a contract arrangement with us.

Please email us here  to arrange a group discount or find out more about our CPD contracts here.