Pre-Death Grief and Loss Series: Quest for Meaning in Terminal Illness

INTRODUCTION

In the course of counselling, you may come across clients who foresee their own impending death and separation from their loved ones through different illness and dying trajectories. This training will introduce meaning reconstruction perspectives to understand the meaning crisis and examine the resulting death anxiety and preparatory grief as experienced by those who are diagnosed with a terminal illness. It will also equip you with meaning-oriented intervention tools to facilitate life review and enhancement of sense of self, as well as prepare these clients to face various challenges in the end-of-life phase and their eventual death.

COURSE OBJECTIVES 

This course will help participants:

• To examine the threat of terminal illness and its implications from a tripartite meaning reconstruction framework
• To address the pre-death anxiety and preparatory grief and unfinished business distress
• To implement meaning-oriented techniques to facilitate the quest for meaning in the face of terminal illness and impending death

COURSE CONTENT

• Terminal illness as a crisis of meaning
• Use of Virtual Dream Stories to explore death anxiety and preparatory grief
• Use of My Life Footprints to facilitate life review
• Spiritual distress and hope along the dying trajectory
• Use of Feast of My Life as a form of life celebration and legacy building
• Application of various assessment tools to examine different dimensions of preparatory grief, differentiate between palliative grief and depression, and evaluate dying patient’s sense of dignity

 WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Counsellors, healthcare workers, social workers, psychologists, school personnel, pastoral staff, and people involved in the helping profession

AWARD

Participants who meet 80% class attendance will be awarded a Certificate of Accomplishment by the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition (PI).

Certification

This workshop is eligible to earn Credits for 1 Core Course and 3 Techniques Modules towards to Certification in Grief Therapy as Meaning Reconstruction or Certification in Grief Therapy for Non-Death Losses (NDL) offered by the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition (PI), Portland, OR, United States. For certification enquiries, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

TRAINER

Dr Carolyn Ng, PsyD, FT maintains a private practice, Anchorage for Loss and Transition (for more information, please visit: www.anchorage-for-loss.org).  She also serves as Associate Director and Faculty with the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition in Portland, OR, United States.  Previously, she was a Principal Counsellor with the Children’s Cancer Foundation in Singapore, specialising in cancer-related palliative care and bereavement counselling support.  She is a registered counsellor, master clinical member and approved clinical supervisor with the Singapore Association for Counselling (SAC).  She is also a Fellow in Thanatology (FT) registered with the Association of Death Education and Counselling (ADEC), USA; as well as a consultant to a cancer support and bereavement ministry in Sydney, NSW, Australia.  She is certified in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Narrative Therapy as well.

Carolyn first graduated with Bachelor of Arts from the University of New South Wales, Australia, majoring in psychology, followed by Master of Social Science (Counselling) from the Edith Cowan University, Australia and a Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry (Conflict Management) from the Trinity Theological Seminary, USA.  She subsequently completed her doctoral training in psychology with the California Southern University, USA.  She is also trained in the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, USA, community crisis response by the National Organisation for Victim Assistance (NOVA), USA, as well as Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) by LivingWorks, Canada.  She is certified as Advanced Care Planning facilitator as well. 

Her wide counselling experiences cover youth delinquency issues, marital issues, family violence issues, mental health issues, incarceration issues, grief and loss issues, and crisis interventions.  She has varied supervisory experiences with such helping professionals as counsellors, social workers and therapists in diverse settings as well.  She also conducts training workshops and presents on various topics in English, Mandarin and Cantonese, as invited by different organizations both in Singapore and other countries like Malaysia, Taiwan, Bhutan, Australia and United States over the years. 

APPLICATION and ENQUIRIES

Dave Goh

6593 5284

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.