ACT for Grief and Loss

Whether it’s the loss of a loved one or a job, the end of a relationship, a serious illness, or a global pandemic —nothing really prepares us for those moments when life knocks us around and turns our world upside down. Our pain may seem unbearable at these times. But there is hope. ACT offers a compassionate, wise and practical model to help people recover from these major life blows, effectively handle the suffering that goes with them, and even grow through the experience. On top of that, ACT gives us all the skills we need to address complicated grief, ambiguous grief, disenfranchised grief, and any other type of grieving difficulty.

This four-week advanced level online training - which includes numerous videos from genuine therapy sessions with real clients - offers a wealth of ACT strategies for coping well with any type of loss from bereavement or miscarriage, to loss of physical health or an important relationship.

You’ll learn how to help your clients open up and make room for all those difficult thoughts, feelings, emotions and memories - without getting swept away by them, and how to:

• be there for themselves in a kind and supportive way

• take a courageous stand in the face of their losses

• rebuild their lives, one small step at a time.

In this journey through grief and loss, you’ll discover how to use ACT to:

• Help in each stage of normative grieving

• Work flexibly with all forms of grieving difficulty: complicated grief, ambiguous grief, disenfranchised grief, etc.

• Create hope and optimism in the face of devastating loss

• Help clients cope with intense emotional pain, through grounding, acceptance and self-compassion

• Sensitively to facilitate grieving, without turning it into a clinical issue

• Understand complicated grief primarily in terms of cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance

• Develop self-compassion step-by-step in just about anyone

• Overcome guilt and shame, and practice self-forgiveness

• Develop and use healing imagery

• Cope with the aftermath of suicide

• Create grief rituals

• Handle suicidality in complicated grief

• Apply mindfulness and defusion as antidotes to worrying, rumination, hopelessness and catastrophising

• Rebuild life after loss, and experience growth, using values and self-compassion

• Help people move forward after loss, without conflict or invalidation

• Revitalize and appreciate life after loss

Each week, Russ will take you step-by-step through the core principles of ACT, supported by instructional videos, engaging animations, videos of therapy sessions, written materials, audio recordings, client handouts and worksheets, and interactive quizzes to test your learnings as you go.

To complete your interactive experience, the course also includes a fully supported forum where you can ask questions daily, and share your experiences with Russ and your peers from around the world.

This course is an eight-hour course, delivered over four weeks, with two hours of new material released each week. There is also an extra two hours of bonus material including demonstrations of therapy sessions.

This course is open to any professional who works with physical or psychological health. This includes therapists, coaches, counselors, physicians, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, physios, dietitians, occupational therapists, youth workers, BCBAs, speech therapists, and any other type of health professional - as well as students and researchers in these fields.

Before Taking This Course

This is an advanced level course, which assumes at least a beginners-level knowledge of ACT. Before enrolling, you must do at least one of the following:

• Attend an introductory level 2-day ACT workshop (with any trainer).

• Complete the online ACT for Beginners course.

• Thoroughly work through a beginners-level ACT textbook from start to end, such as ACT Made Simple, 2nd edition or Learning ACT. (This means not just reading it, but actively doing the experiential exercises. An ACT self-help book such as The Happiness Trap or The Reality Slap will not suffice; it must be a textbook).