This experiential, interactive module explores the use of creative personal rituals and representational objects as practical tools for accepting loss, managing strong emotions and inviting the sacred into the grief journey.  These tools can be used effectively by both intuitive and instrumental grievers and can also help clinicians become more present for the dying and the bereaved while developing multi-cultural awareness.

 

This module will explore the following areas of study:

1. How rituals and ceremonies can help with counseling and psychotherapy;

2. Rituals that are inclusive for all clients and communities, whether religious or secular;

3. Facilitating ceremonies in a virtual environment;

4. Personal rituals for life milestones and transitions that are not traditionally recognized; and

5. Social, cultural, ethical and theological issues related to ritual practices. 

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Incorporating creative rituals into the healing journey allows us to address a specific problem while also shifting our perception of the problem, which can generate a new narrative and provide inspiration for a new vision of the future.  Creative ceremonies and rituals can revitalize traditional religious practices and social customs that may lack sufficient personal relevance as well.  Finally, these rituals allow us to work with symbolic representations of loss and pain, which can give form to the formless and help us visualize what recovery and restoration might look like.

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In this module, learners will be guided in the use of ritual practices, such as drawing the grief and loss landscape, constructing community altars, creating a grief and growth timeline, and creating a trauma story string, with the goal of adapting these and other ritual activities to a range of contexts at the end-of-life, in bereavement, and in the context of non-death losses.

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Key Topics Covered:

• How rituals address limitations in grief counseling;   

• Creating sacred space;

• Milestones and rites of passage frequently overlooked or neglected;

• Multi-cultural resources;

• Ritual as a trauma intervention;

• Types of ceremonies and rituals: Healing, release and celebration;

• Definitions of “ritual” vs “ceremony;”

• Pre and post-liminal ceremonies for death and dying; and

• Infusing traditional rituals with new meaning.

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Explain the value of ritual and ceremony for processing change and transition;

• Assess needs of clients, patients or congregants that can be addressed by the use of ritual;

• Discuss a variety of multi-cultural ritual practices;

• Identify scenarios in which ritual can be helpful in counseling practice;

• Utilize ceremonial processes as a tool for spiritual healing;

• Discuss current research on the use of ceremony / ritual in counseling; and

• Demonstrate awareness of the ethics involved in the use of multi-cultural rituals.

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Note:  Completion of this module and return of the Responsive Journal satisfies 1 Technique Module required for Certification in Grief Therapy as Meaning Reconstruction, Certification in Art-Assisted Grief Therapy or Certification in Grief Therapy for Non-Death Losses.

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PROGRAM CONTENT

This program contains the following video segments:

1. The Spectrum of Loss:  Bereavement and Beyond (40 mins)

2. Landscapes of Loss:  Case Studies of Creative Ritualization (53 mins)

3. The Functions of Ritual:  From Grief to Growth (53 mins)

4. Stations of the Heart:  A Potpourri of Practices (47 mins)

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COURSE PACK CONTAINS...

• A PDF copy of the presentation slides;

• Instructions on how to create, design and facilitate rituals for groups or individuals; 

• Case examples and suggested scenarios for ritual as a therapeutic intervention; and

• The Responsive Journal that, upon completion and return, confers 1 credit of Technique Module leading to Certification in Grief Therapy for Meaning Reconstruction, Certification in Art-Assisted Grief Therapy or Certification in Grief Therapy for Non-Death Losses.