Event is presented by Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD, and Carolyn Ng, PsyD.

Nancy Irland
for Clark County Today

Across the course of living, everyone inevitably experiences innumerable losses — of people, places and possibilities that were once central to the story of our lives. When these losses are tragic, untimely, and unanticipated — as through the death of a child or the sudden or violent death of a loved one — we contend not only with anguishing emotions, but also with an assault on our psychological and spiritual assumptions about how the world is “supposed to” work. This shakes the existential ground beneath our feet, and in such cases, grieving entails an attempt to reconstruct a world of meaning that makes sense in our new reality.

Area residents are invited to attend this insightful event on Sun., March 10, from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at the Meadowglade Adventist Church in Battle Ground.

In this day-long, experiential workshop, we will explore the practical implications of a meaning-focused approach to grief, whether the loss is related to a death or to a non-death event such as the loss of health, relationships, meaningful work, social connections or life-defining roles.

The workshop introduces a rich selection of practical tools and techniques to help us consider the impact of loss on our spiritual meaning systems and our self-narrative …  the story of who we are. Attendees will learn and practice a variety of modalities that include arts-assisted methods, reflective exercises, interactive group work and symbolic visualization that can help us restore a sense of coherence and meaning in the aftermath of its disturbance or decimation.

This workshop will benefit those who are:

• Therapists, chaplains and other professionals working with end-of-life, trauma, loss and grief

•  Clergy engaged in pastoral work with families

•  Volunteers supporting bereaved persons in church and community contexts

•  Mourners grieving the loss of loved ones through death, separation or estrangement

•  Academics studying loss, trauma and bereavement

Workshop overview

Morning session – 9 a.m. – noon

PART ONE will introduce an approach to grieving as a meaning-making process and will explore three common obstacles that impede our capacity to integrate the loss and move forward adaptively. We then use diverse media and experiential exercises to explore the loss epicenters along our lifeline, and the impact these have had on our sense of self, our world, our spiritual beliefs and our future.

PART TWO will focus on the Complicated Spiritual Grief experienced by many religious mourners, and the impact of traumatic loss on our previous relation to belief systems, faith communities and religious practice. We will then experiment with a novel assessment of spiritual grief and offer tools for processing the erosion of our faith, sense of justice, beneficence of the universe, or personal control.

Afternoon session – 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.

PART THREE will explore bereavement as a process of reconstructing rather than relinquishing a bond with our loved one, and the ways in which – for both devoutly religious and entirely secular mourners– such bonds can be sustained in the person’s physical absence. We will then practice the life imprint technique, tracing the way the grieved-for relationship left enduring impressions on our way of being in the world, from our most basic mannerisms to our core values.

PART FOUR will explore how aspects of ourselves embodied in different roles, relationships, beliefs and values may stand in concert or in conflict with one another. We will work symbolically using representational objects to depict the state of our “community of self” both before and after a significant loss, and consider how we might use this work to help us recompose life after loss.

Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD.

The event is facilitated by Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD, a professor emeritus in the department of psychology, University of Memphis, who maintains an active consulting and coaching practice. He also directs the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, which provides online training internationally in grief therapy. Neimeyer has published 35 books, including The Handbook of Grief Therapies and New Techniques of Grief Therapy: Bereavement and Beyond, and serves as editor of the journal Death Studies. The author of over 600 articles and book chapters and a frequent workshop presenter, he is currently working to advance a more adequate theory of grieving as a meaning-making process. Neimeyer served as president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and chair of the International Work Group for Death, Dying, & Bereavement.

Carolyn Ng, PsyD, FT, MMSAC, RegCLR

Carolyn Ng, PsyD, FT, MMSAC, RegCLR maintains a private practice for training, supervision and therapy, while also serving as an associate director of the Portland Institute. Previously she served as principal counselor with the Children’s Cancer Foundation in Singapore, specializing in cancer-related palliative care and bereavement counseling. She is a master clinical member and approved supervisor with the Singapore Association for Counseling (SAC) and a Fellow in Thanatology with the Association of Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), USA, as well as a consultant to a cancer support and bereavement ministry in Sydney, Australia. She is certified in solution-focused brief therapy and narrative therapy and holds an MA in pastoral ministry from Trinity Theological Seminary. She is also a trained end-of-life doula and advanced care planning facilitator.

Learning objectives for this course

At the end of this program, participants will be better able to:

•  Trace the direct and indirect impacts of loss in a personal lifeline

•  Assess complications in grieving arising from challenges to a religious or secular meaning system

•  Identify living legacies engendered by important relationships that have ended through death, but remain accessible in non-physical ways

•  Construct symbolic compositions that capture one’s sense of identity before and after a significant and unwelcome life transition

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/loss-and-the-quest-for-meaning-the-spiritual-arc-of-tragic-loss-tickets-790455302087