Grieving Hand in Hand

Many bereaved adults, devastated by their own personal losses, are not prepared to support the children in their lives who are also grieving. Since grief counsellors often specialize in working either with adults or with young people, they, too, may not be prepared to coach adults who are learning not only about their own grief, but also about their child’s. This two-day program will address the dual challenge facing many adults who are learning to grieve well while also learning how to mentor their grieving children.

The first day will introduce a bereavement support model inspired by cutting-edge clinicians/researchers in the field of thanatology.

The second day will focus on understanding grieving children, adolescents, and young adults, and how bereaved adults — parents, grand parents, and others — can be helped to walk with their children as they all grieve together. We will cover how to teach adults how to explain the cause of a death and the meaning of death to children. We will also examine how to support children facing violent deaths.

You will learn —

Robert Zucker, LCSW, FT, is a grief counsellor, writer, teacher, and Fellow in Thanatology. As a faculty member of the American Academy of Bereavement, he has offered bereavement seminars to thousands of social workers, psychologists, nurses, teachers, and clergy. Mr. Zucker has been a practising social worker for 30 years, and in that capacity has served as Director of a hospital-based bereavement counselling program, and has run various bereavement groups for young and old, including specialized groups for young widows and widowers, bereaved parents and grandparents, child homicide survivors, and bereaved siblings.