The Power of Rituals to Help System-Involved Youth Process and Release Emotions Related to Loss

Wendy Kessler, MSW, FT

Training Description

Since the beginning of civilization, people have practiced rituals as a way to process and release the emotions related to loss. This training offers an educational presentation about the power of rituals to connect us to our agency, resilience, and one another as we integrate loss into living and help system involved youth to do so as well. Participants will be informed through presenter instruction, a slide presentation, and small group processing. This training also offers instruction on specific ritual practices which can be used to support system involved youth who are processing loss, as well as ritual practices for helping those who support system involved youth to release vicarious grief.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

· Name three benefits of practicing rituals to help system involved youth process and release emotions related to loss.

· Acquire and apply at least five ritual practices which can be used to support system involved youth.

· Identify at least 1 ritual practice which can be utilized by those who support system involved youth to release the vicarious grief.

Agenda

10:00 – 10:15am  Welcome & Introductions

10:15 – 11:15am  PPT Education - The Power of Rituals to Help System-Involved Youth Process and Release Emotions Related to Loss

· Understanding Loss as Grief

· History of Rituals to Facilitate Grief

· Rituals & Agency

· Rituals & Resilience

· Rituals & Connection

11:15 – 11:45am  Breakout Rooms

· Small Group Discussion

· Guided prompts

11:45am – 12:15pm  Break (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

12:15 – 1:45pm  Rituals & Supporting System Involved Youth

· Loss Rituals

· Crisis Rituals

· Personal Grief Rituals

· Communal Grief Rituals

· Rituals for New Beginnings

· Rituals for the Caring Professional

1:45 – 2:00pm  Questions & Answers

2:00 – 2:15pm  Closing Ritual & Wrap-up

Meet Our Trainer

Wendy Kessler, MSW, FT is a Grief Specialist who is credentialed as a Fellow in Thanatology (the study of death, dying, and bereavement) by the Association of Death Education and Counseling. She is also certified as a Mental Health First Aid Instructor by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Wendy’s experience includes working as Hospice Bereavement Counselor from 2017-2022 where she offered grief care to patients’ loved ones, hospice staff, and community partners. Through her hospice work she recognized a gap in grief education for helping professionals, and a need for better understanding and support for grievers. As a result, she left corporate hospice care and launched Grief Guide Consulting, LLC in 2022. Her grief services include individual counseling, support group facilitation, group education, and consulting. She believes that grief is not a problem to be fixed. It is a journey that we can learn to navigate, and when the path is unfamiliar or uncertain it can help to have a guide. You can learn more about Wendy or contact her at her website: www.griefguideconsulting.com.

This course meets the qualifications for (3.75) BBS CE hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.