Working with Ambiguous Loss
Grief and Closure
Recorded Friday 7 October 2022
With Professor Pauline Boss
CE Credits: 3 hours
In this workshop Dr Pauline Boss will share how to work effectively with ambiguous loss, a ubiquitous yet understated phenomena that differs in its effects and expression from unclear loss. An ambiguous loss might arise, for example, from the disappearance of a loved one, declining health or ecoanxiety. It lacks the clarity of a loss through death, divorce or critical illness and its impact on mental health is far less obvious to others.
Often it may be unresolvable, internalized, and difficult to communicate, and the individual’s symptoms can be the sole focus of treatment while the context goes unnoticed.
READ MORE...Pauline however, challenges the idea that we need closure from such losses. Rather, she suggests, people can come to live well with the grief if they can find meaning in it, often in creative ways, and new purpose and joy in life. For such a situation of loss, a therapy based on stress and resilience is required, and the capacity in the therapist to hold the ambiguity deep within themselves is essential. The workshop will provide a road map for working with this kind of loss offering guidance on meaning, mastery, identity, ambivalence, attachment, and a new hope.
Continuing Professional Development (CE) credits for 3 hours are available as part of the course fee. You will need to fill out an evaluation form and pass a multiple choice questionnaire related to the content in order to receive your certificate.
Access to the Talks On Demand runs for 365 days from the date of purchase.
FULL PROGRAM
Ambiguous loss and its effects
Pauline will outline the characteristics of ambiguous loss is and its two types: psychological and physical. She will explain how ambiguous loss differs from loss from death and how its effects are evident in individuals, families, and communities. Through this presentation it will become clear why knowing about ambiguous losses matters today for mental health professionals. She will offer a framework for therapy and intervention that is primarily stress and resilience-based as opposed to a medical model.
Q&A
Building resilience and accepting paradox to live with ambiguous loss
The focus of this session will be on ambiguity as the stressor and how symptoms are a result of the context, not personal or familial weakness. There will be discussion on new ways of thinking about ambiguous losses, for example, ‘both-and thinking’ as the way to live with the ambiguity surrounding the loss. The disadvantages of binary thinking, either/or thinking versus absolute thinking will be discussed. An example of the ambiguity in an unresolvable loss might be “he is probably dead and maybe not” or when caring for someone with dementia “she is both here and gone“. The myth of closure as an end of grief will be discussed as it pertains to both ambiguous losses and the clear loss of death. We will consider continuing bonds as a way to work through losses, rather than detachment and closure.
Q&A
Guidelines for therapy and interventions for individuals and families
Pauline will present six recursive guidelines for building the strength and resilience to live with ambiguous loss. These guidelines are focused on finding meaning, adjusting mastery, reconstructing identity, normalizing ambivalence, revising attachment, and discovering new hope. She emphasizes the flexibility of the guidelines, and how to apply them as a road map for therapists to help individuals, families, and communities live with the ongoing grief and loss when there is no certainty about a loved one’s whereabouts or status as dead or alive. Sadly, in most cases of enforced disappearance and missing, families never obtain certainty, so we must help them to live with the ambiguity of unanswered questions. This is not easy in mastery- oriented cultures. To end, we will consider how professionals can increase their own tolerance for ambiguity for we cannot bring patients and clients farther than we can go ourselves.
Q&A
FEES (USD)
Includes: 1 year’s access, test and CE Certificate of Attendance, subtitles and transcript
INDIVIDUAL
$78 (or $39 Confer member)
GROUP RATE
$50pp in groups of over 10 (please apply to accounts@confer.uk.com)
CE
Continuing Education (CE) credits for 3 hours are available as part of the course fee. You will need to fill out an evaluation form and pass a multiple choice questionnaire related to the content in order to receive your certificate. You can submit this test up to a maximum of 5 times.
This Talk On Demand is accredited by:
- NBCC
- NYSED (Psychology)
This Talk On Demand is NOT accredited by the following organisations:
- ASWB
Please contact events@conferonline.org for any further questions.
Confer has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7136. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Confer is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Confer is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychologists #PSY-0169
SCHEDULE
00:02:27
Ambiguous loss and its effects
00:41:36
Q&A
00:57:53
Building resilience and accepting paradox to live with ambiguous loss
01:30:25
Q&A
01:59:15
Guidelines for therapy and interventions for individuals and families
02:45:43
Q&A
03:30:45
End
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Describe what ambiguous loss means and its effects, and how it differs from ordinary losses.
- Summarize what resilience is, the diversity in the ways it is revealed, and cautions about expecting resilience.
- Apply the Six Guidelines for Therapy and Interventions when working with individuals and/or families experiencing ambiguous loss.