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Specialty Certification in
Grief Therapy for Suicide Bereavement
Click the PDF icon to download
Information Sheet for GTSB Certification Program.
GTSB Certification Overview (Approximately 36 Hours)
Required Components (click here for more details)
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GTSB Orientation: 2 modules / 2 credits
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GTSB Techniques Modules: 4 techniques / 4 credits
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GTSB Case Studies: 2 cases / 2 credits
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GTSB Practicum Studio: 4 studio sessions / 4 credits
Note: Completion of the Certification Core Courses is a prerequisite for this specialty certification program (https://www.portlandinstitute.org/online-training). All other modules can be taken in live online training, recorded training and/or onsite training modalities, in any combination and any sequence the learner desires.
Fee Structure
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Enrollment Fee: USD $100
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Component Pricing:
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All required components may be delivered either in (a) convenient Live Online Training or Recorded Training modules of 3 hours each or (b) single or multi-day Onsite Workshops, Training Institutes or Retreats.
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Online training modules are a uniform USD $99 each, whereas the cost of onsite training is established with PI’s various partner organizations around the world and therefore varies somewhat in pricing depending on local economic conditions, costs of facilities etc.
The overall cost of certification may range between USD $1,300-2,500 (excluding the cost of travel and accommodation in the case of onsite training), well below the cost of many certification programs in the health and mental health professions.
Note: Completion of all the required components leads to Specialty Certification in Grief Therapy for Suicide Bereavement (GTSB).. All licensed or registered counselors or therapists completing GTSB Certification will be listed on the Portland Institute website as part of our Global Provider Network.
Meeting Our Specialty Faculty Team Here:
FEATURED GUEST SPEAKERS
Karl Andriessen, PhD, MSuicidology, BSW, is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Mental Health in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Australia, an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, and a Research Fellow at the KU Leuven, University of Leuven, Belgium. Karl’s involvement in the field of suicide bereavement and suicide prevention is rooted in clinical practice, starting 35 years ago in Belgium as a Social Worker in youth and family counselling, and telephone crisis lines, followed by leading positions in suicide prevention, bereavement, community mental health, and suicide prevention policy development. He served as Chair of the Special Interest Group on Suicide Bereavement (2002-2015) of the International Association of Suicide Prevention and is an advisor to several projects in the field of suicide prevention and bereavement. He has published widely, including studies on supporting adolescents bereaved by suicide and other traumatic death, and the landmark handbook Postvention in action: The international handbook of suicide bereavement support (Hogrefe, 2017). He is the recipient of several awards and serves as Associate Editor of Death Studies.
Karl Andriessen, PhD
Lynne Henry, BA
Lynne Henry, is currently the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Marketing in the Office of Philanthropy at University of Maryland, Baltimore. A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, Lynne received a B.A. from Cornell University in English and Art History, before embarking on a publishing career at ARTnews Associates and Hearst Magazines, specializing in the circulation promotion management of leading art and consumer magazines and museum catalogues. Lynne also served as Director of Marketing and Creative Services at Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library. Lynne’s passion for the creative arts resurfaced after the death of her youngest son, James, in September 2020. Under the mentorship of Sharon Strouse, MA, ATR-BC, LCPAT, Lynne began to explore art therapy as a powerful way to navigate traumatic loss, finding respite through collage work and continuing bonds therapy.
John (Jack) Jordan, PhD, is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where he has specialized in work with survivors of suicide and other traumatic losses for more than 45 years. He served as the Clinical Consultant for the Grief Support Services of the Samaritans in Boston, Massachusetts, and was the Professional Advisor to the Loss and Healing Council of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). He also served as the Co-Chair of the Survivors of Suicide Loss Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. In 2015, this Task force released postvention guidelines for the United States, titled Responding to Grief, Trauma, and Distress After Suicide: U.S. National Guidelines. For over 45 years, Jack has also provided training nationally and internationally for professional caregivers, and has helped to lead many healing workshops for suicide loss survivors. Jack has published over 50 clinical and research articles, chapters, and full books in the areas of the practice of grief therapy, bereavement after suicide, support group models, the integration of research and practice in thanatology, and loss in family and larger social systems. He is the co-author of four books: After suicide loss: Coping with your grief (2nd ed.) (2015 – self-published); Grief after suicide: Understanding the consequences and caring for the survivors (Routledge, 2011), Devastating losses: How parents cope with the death of a child to suicide or drugs (Springer, 2012); and Attachment-informed grief therapy: The clinician’s guide to foundations and applications (Routledge, 2016).
John (Jack) Jordan, PhD
Becky Ladd, MA
Rebecca Ladd, MA, is an educator, artist, classical musician, and dog lover. She spent 30 years as a reading specialist. After the suicide death of her son in 2010, she has slowly transformed into a new person. She embraced the deep grief and the changes that have come. She is now focused on sharing her story and the tools used for the evolution. She welcomes all questions and feels she has many skills to help others both understand the trauma of violent death and the steps needed for healing. She sings classical music, creates all types of art, especially woodturning and mandala making, and she is attuned to the natural world, adores all dogs, and loves the absurd.
FEATURED PI FACULTY
Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD, is a Professor Emeritus of the Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, and maintains an active consulting and coaching practice. He also directs the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition (www.portlandinstitute.org), which provides online training internationally in grief therapy. Neimeyer has published 33 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. In recognition of his scholarly contributions, he has been granted the Eminent Faculty Award by the University of Memphis, made a Fellow of the Clinical Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association, and given Lifetime Achievement Awards by both ADEC and the International Network on Personal Meaning.
Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD
Carolyn Ng, PsyD, FT
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Carolyn Ng, PsyD, FT, MMSAC, RegCLR maintains a private practice, Anchorage for Loss and Transition, for training, supervision and therapy in Singapore, while also serving as an Associate Director of the Portland Institute. Previously she served as Principal Counsellor with the Children’s Cancer Foundation in Singapore, specialising in cancer-related palliative care and bereavement counselling. She is a registered counsellor, master clinical member and approved supervisor with the Singapore Association for Counselling (SAC), a Fellow in Thanatology with the Association of Death Education and Counselling (ADEC), USA, as well as a consultant to a cancer support and bereavement ministry in Sydney, Australia. She is a trained end-of-life doula and advanced care planning facilitator. 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. Her recent writing concerns meaning-oriented narrative reconstruction with bereaved families, with an emphasis on conversational approaches for fostering new meaning and action.Find out more at: www.anchorage-for-loss.org.
Sharon Strouse, MA, ATR-BC, LCPAT, is a board-certified and licensed clinical professional art therapist and Associate Director for the Portland Institute. Her art therapy private practice, national presentations, trainings and practitioner supervision / mentoring focus on traumatic loss, specifically with parents who have lost a child, suicide bereavement, and military loss / Gold Star Families. The theoretical foundations of her group and individual art therapy work are grounded in meaning reconstruction, attachment informed grief therapy, continuing bonds with the deceased and restorative retelling. She is author of Artful Grief: A Diary of Healing, (www.artfulgrief.com) written twelve years after the suicide of her seventeen-year-old daughter. She is co-founder of The Kristin Rita Strouse Foundation (www.krsf.com), a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting programs that increase awareness of mental health through education and the arts.
Sharon Strouse,
MA, ATR-BC, LCPAT
For any enquiries, simply email Carolyn.