Stepping into the Heart of Grief and Loss:
Working Beyond Models
Offered ONLINE via zoom across 4 half-days
Thur 11 & Fri 12 and Thur 18 & Fri 19 SEPTEMBER 2025
This 2 day existentially-informed workshop may be taken as stand-alone CPD or as part of an accreditation pathway*
This workshop engages a phenomenological exploration of how we understand and work with grief, loss and bereavement and will encompass the latest thinking that goes beyond models. We will refer to current theories and explore the functionality of grief, along with the role of the grief counsellor or therapist. But we will start from the existential position that death and loss are part of life. Therefore, grief is not something to be treated or its symptoms merely alleviated, rather it is about how to gently and meaningfully integrate it into our existence. We will explore ways in which we can move beyond a therapeutic stance that simply focuses on alleviating the distress of a grieving client. Our aim will be to discover how we can professionally ‘companion’ our clients in a way that facilitates the spontaneous (and often intuitive) processes that can help lead to a functioning, lovingly expressed ongoing relationship between the living and the dead or the part of life that has gone.
This workshop, like all our CPD, is an intimate, experiential offering with a small number of participants and a great deal of synchronous interaction, delivered in the same fashion as a face-to-face offering. Active participation throughout is supported via large group discussion and small break-out rooms. Where appropriate, you’ll be encouraged to use examples from your own practice/experience when contributing.
At the completion of this workshop you will:
- Understand and be able to apply contemporary theories of change, loss and bereavement
- Have the capacity to bring an existential orientation to working with grief and the integration of loss
- Be able to engage with both love and fear in the grieving process
- Know how to introduce grief and death awareness into the therapeutic relationship
- Understand what can help and what can hinder the development of a loving relationship between the bereaved and the person who has died
- Have an expanded awareness around the various signposts and ideas that can help us ‘companion’ a bereaved client in a way that is meaningful and supportive
You can take this workshop as stand-alone CPD or as part of a pathway to certification as a bereavement practitioner. The series of 6 workshops can be taken in any order and at your own pace. However, this one is foundational and is ideal as a first option. See further details on the whole series on our website here.
Facilitator: Dr Greg Roberts PhD, BSW (Hons), MAASW
Greg Roberts introduces this workshop as part of an existentially-informed series that is designed for practitioners wanting to develop their skills in the field of grief, loss and bereavement. The series is designed for both practitioners who are new to this field of practice and those that are experienced and wanting to add to their professional development in specific areas of grief, loss and bereavement.
Other workshops in the Grief, Loss & Bereavement series include:
- Working with Complex, Prolonged Grief – Addressing Crisis of Meaning and Existential Angst: workshop details here
- Trauma and Grief – Safe and Effective Ways of Working with Sudden and Unexpected Loss, Death: workshop details here
- Grief Across The Life Span – Children, Adolescents, Adults and Older Age: workshop details here
- Anticipatory and Non-Finite Grief – Supporting Clients through Terminal/Chronic Illness, Injury and Disability: workshop details here
- Grief and the Body – Working Holistically with Loss and Bereavement: workshop details here
*Accreditation Pathways
Completing 5 workshops in our Grief and Loss series – which encompasses workshop hours, readings and successful completion of two assessments – fulfills the grief and loss training component required for certification with:
Grief Australia – formerly Australian Centre for Grief & Bereavement (Australian certification)*
See full information on Grief Australia certification here
Association for Death Education and Counselling (International certification)*
See full information on ADEC certification here
*notes: Meeting the training criteria for ADEC entitles you to sit their certification exam. Certification is fee-based for both ACGB and ADEC
Greg Roberts PhD, BSW (Hons), MAASW
Greg is a Doctor of Philosophy (Grief and Bereavement) and an accredited Counsellor and Social Worker with specialisation in the field of grief, bereavement and trauma. He founded a suicide bereavement support group in 2004 and co-founded the Suicide Prevention Awareness Network (SPAN) in Victoria. Greg is the Manager of Client Care Volunteers for Peninsula Home Hospice and the Founder and Director of the Grief & Trauma Support service in Geelong, Victoria.
ONLINE via ZOOM
Date: Thur 11 & Fri 12 and Thur 18 & Fri 19 SEPTEMBER 2025
Time: 9.30am to 12.45pm AEST each day (15 minute breaks each session are accommodated)
Location: online via zoom (registrants will receive an invitation to participate and all the details they require in advance of the date)
Cost: $480 (Early Bird flat rate)
CPD Hours: 12
Expressions of Interest in this workshop have now closed. We will open registrations generally in the last week of June 2025 and send out an email to this effect
