educational programs &
Public Seminars

1. Effective Strategies of Grief Support:

Loss is woven into the fabric of our society, yet it is a thread, which is rarely acknowledged or validated.  With the increasingly complicated reactions to many situations of loss, and the growing interest in grief issues among many clergy, health care and helping professionals, there is an urgent need to provide practical information and sound strategies to enable caregivers to develop effective therapeutic interventions.  Dr. Bill Webster comes to help us identify life losses and outline the grief process; sharing some effective methods of support and resolution.  Dr. Webster will also bring some interesting case studies from his own work for a practical strategy opportunity.

2. Dealing with Loss: A Personal and Professional Perspective

In recent years, there has been an increase in awareness of grief issues, and an acknowledgement of the increasingly complicated reactions to many situations of loss.  Traditionally dealing with loss has focused on the death of a loved one.  But clients can mourn other situations including loss of employment, family break-up, the process of institutionalization and many other life changes.  There is an urgent need among many health care workers and helping professionals to have practical information and sound strategies to enable caregivers provide appropriate support with effective therapeutic interventions. Yet, for many of us in the field, dealing with our own losses and the grief the losses of our patients triggers in us, can complicate this process and makes for a specific focus of care for the caregiver.

3.Complicated Mourning

Identifying the criteria by which grief is considered complicated, and examining the specific strategies that can be employed in treatment.  Emphasis can be on disenfranchised grief, trauma and loss, anticipatory grief, or a combination of factors that can complicate the mourning process.  Case studies in the areas felt most beneficial to the specific seminar audience would be offered, as well as some video interviews by those in such situations.

4. Helping Children Cope with Grief

In what ways do children grieve differently from adults.  What are their issues?  How can we assist and support children who are experiencing significant loss.  This seminar examines how children grieve and what the issues are for children of different ages.  It is illustrated by children and/or teenagers talking about how loss impacted them through the medium of video.

5. The Purpose of a Meaningful Funeral

We live in a society that “de-ritualizes” many of the symbols that helped to bring some meaning where there was no meaning, and indeed, many of the traditional rituals have lost their meaning to a modern culture.  This seminar looks at the issues of the grieving person at the time of death and how the pastor, funeral director, counselor or other health care professionals can assist in facilitating a good grief process beginning with a meaningful ritual or funeral.  With many people choosing not to have any funeral service or meaningful memorial, how does this complicate the mourning process.

6. Crisis Management:  The Care Provider’s Role

In this practical and informative seminar, Dr. Bill Webster identifies the need, examining some definitions of crisis, explore the development of crisis theory, and listing some common elements of a crisis situation.  He will also identify some characteristics of people in crisis, and use some video excerpts to illustrate.  After a break, building on the information provided, Dr. Webster will share several strategies of implementing a treatment model, and suggest some basic steps to help a person in crisis.  Case studies from a variety of crises situations will be presented, and participants will be able to choose an area of crisis intervention that is of interest to themselves for small group discussion.

7. How to Organize & Facilitate A Community Grief Support Program

This workshop would include a consideration of the following topics:  The Context of Grief Support; Social Perspectives; Different Models of Support Groups; Understanding the Issues of Grief; Understanding Ourselves; Understanding the Tasks of the Caregiver; Developing Basic Skills; Leadership; Grief Group Dynamics; and Putting it all Together.  This workshop would require a minimum of 2 Days, or two weekends.

8. Cumulative Grief

Cumulative Grief implies a reaction to human situation where losses and their grief consequences become “heaped up”, increasing by successive additions, leading to what some may call “bereavement overload”.  Although this phenomenon may seem indisputable, there is surprisingly little reference to it in the research literature.  Cumulative grief manifests itself in unresolved sequential losses as well as in multiple losses.  Yet it is felt not only by traditional grievers, but also by professional caregivers are consistently exposed, by the nature of their work, to the reality of loss.  The accumulation of these losses can lead to a specific “compassion fatigue” which demands a reconciliation of cumulative grief.

9. Cultural Distinctives in Grief and Mourning

Grief is always a uniquely personal experience, and one of the many variables that effects human response to loss is the cultural context in which mourning was observed and learned.  In a multicultural society such as Canada, so rich in different ethnic backgrounds, it is vitally important for caregivers to understand some of the cultural traditions, rituals and practices, so as to identify and effectively incorporate the distinctives of each personal reaction to death and to loss.  Dr. Bill Webster shares some of the cultural distinctives that can influence the grieving process, as well as suggesting some effective strategies of companioning grieving people on their own grief journey.  There will also be an opportunity for group participating and care studies.