Working with Grief and Loss

Welcome to the Working with Grief & Loss course on Udemy. 

I'm excited that you've chosen to join me in this course, and I hope you find it useful on both your working and personal lives. 

The course is focused on Bereavement and dealing with death: but everything can be applied to loss of any kind: relationships, housing, jobs etc. 

Don't foget to download the Definitions sheet as part of this lesson. 

Feel free to start a discussion for us all to join in. If you something you wish to share of a more persnal nature, then feel free to email support@aspiren.org

Whenever people experience loss, they start to ponder 3 of life's big questions. This lesson intorduces them. 

It also asks you to consider what kinds of loss do you work with. Maybe it's death. But maybe it's a whole host of other stuff too! 

Elizabeht Kubler Ross wrote an amazing book: On Death & Dying. The first attempt to see a pattern in the way we grieve. She wrote about the Death Denying Culture of western society. That's what we look at here. 

The lesson finishes with an exercise for you to complete, Understanding your loss history. 

Download it below. 

Now there's a lot in this 5 minute video. You might need to watch it and then go over it again, stopping to think about each of the comments. 

It will be worth it. We need to challenge myths as they cause untold pain and suffering. We need to re-inforce the truisms. 

There is no right or wrong about grieving. We all have our own ways. And it's all totally natural! 

Getting our head around the statements will help us serve others. 

Do you agree with me about the myths & truisms? Have you any others you'd like to add? 

Use the discussion to add your own...or disagree with the ones I've said. I'd love to hear from you. 

We've split the Grief Jouney into 2. Again you may wish to watch this over again considering for yourself each of the stages. Remember your experiences. Does this fit? 

I've split this section into 3 to make it easier to follow. 

There are 4 tasks of mourning that enable us to understand what people need to do in order to move on. 

It sounds all so clean in a training course...I understand that.....life doesn't work in such a linear fashion!  But having a solid understanding of these tasks can help you as you work with people who are mourning. 

What do you think of the tasks I have identified? Do you agree? Have you got anything else to add? Feel free to add comments underneath the lesson. 

The next few lessons are shorter. But that doesn't mean they are not important. Take your time listening and watching. Maybe watch them a couple of times. 

Think about YOUR patterns. Does anything fit for you? 

What about some of the people you have worked with? 

Again there is much to be considered in this lesson, from a number of perspectives. 

Yes, it is worth considering in situations where there have been a number of related deaths

But it is also worth considering in terms of people who seem to have "tragic lives"

And think about it too from a workers perspective. 

What are your key thoughts from this lesson? 

This one is hard. This is when people are really stuck. Still showing these indicators osme time after their loss is not expereincing the "normal" loss journey. 

Remember again to consider this not only about death. But clients who may have experienced "tragic" lives. 

And also Workers who have not dealt with their clients losses. 

You may want to do something fun after the last couple of lessons. When I teach this face to face we usually stand up and jump around after this part of the day! I've known some people go and ring their kids and tell them they are loved!! Do whatever works for you. But don't stay in this place!! 

OK... after the last couple of "heavy" lessons, let's have some fun! 

Make yourself a list. Post it up onto the disussion forum. Let's build up a great list of ways we learn to cope. 

This final lesson is all about closure. In particular, using the Aspects of Closure worksheet (which you can download below) you can get a good feel of where people are at in terms of their loss.

You can also use the worksheet in supervising staff who have been dealing with loss.  Or even as an evaluation of this course!!

Why not do that and email it to me (graham@aspiren.org).

Thanks for taking part in this course. I hope you have found it useful. Not only for the people you work for but also for yourself.

If the course has kicked up anything you want to speak about, then please feel free to get in touch with me by email.

Graham