Dr Chloe Paidoussis-Mitchell
The Invisible Losses of Life:
an existential exploration of living after rupture
An international workshop delivered online via zoom over four 2-hour sessions
Mon 25 MAY and Mon 1, 15 and 29 JUNE 2026 (change of date last session)
Introduction
Many of the most profound losses we experience are not easily named, publicly recognised, or socially ritualised. They may not involve death, yet they reshape our sense of self, safety, belonging and future just as deeply. These invisible losses— of identity, health, assumed futures, relationships, meaning or trust in life—often live quietly beneath the surface, generating grief, anxiety and disorientation that can be hard to articulate and difficult to legitimise.
Workshop Overview
This four-part workshop offers an existential and phenomenological exploration of types of invisible losses and of living after rupture. Rather than treating Invisible Loss as a separate category of grief, the series approaches it as a lived experience that unfolds across the Four Worlds of existence – the physical, social, personal, and spiritual. Positioned as the phenomenological thread that runs through human existence, you will examine with Dr Chloe Paidoussis-Mitchell how invisible loss is often quietly present, frequently unacknowledged yet profoundly impactful.
Over the four evenings, you will examine loss, not simply as an external event, but as a shift in our internal state of being. Particular attention will be given to the existential anxiety and disorientation that accompany rupture and how practitioners can recognise and hold these experiences in the therapeutic space. Each session will combine teaching, clinical illustration and reflective integration and Dr Greg Roberts (who develops and presents CEP’s Grief and Loss series) will be present as an Australian host, offering clinical material from his practice to ground the work within the Australian context.
What will be covered:
- Monday 25 May 2026 : Mapping Loss Across the Four Worlds
The opening session will introduce the Four Worlds as a living existential framework and invite a broad re-thinking of what we mean by loss. You will be invited to reflect on how different forms of loss show up across the Four Worlds in your own life and clinical or professional contexts, laying a shared foundation for the series - Monday 1 June 2026: The Physical World: Body, Health, Safety and Ground
This session focuses on losses rooted in our physical existence: illness, ageing, chronic pain, trauma, disability, and the loss of bodily trust, with emphasis on the embodiment of grief, vulnerability, control and safety - Monday 15 June 2026: The Social World: Belonging, Love, Recognition and Exclusion
This session explores relational and social losses, including divorce, estrangement, childlessness, singleness, friendship loss, workplace rupture, and experiences of being unseen or unchosen - Monday 22 June 2026: The Personal and Spiritual World: Identity, Meaning, Freedom and Living with Loss
The final session brings the series together by exploring losses that affect our inner orientation to life: loss of assumed identity, future narratives, purpose, faith in life. You will be invited to reflect on freedom and responsibility after rupture and, rather than seeking closure or transcendence, to ask what it means to live well with loss.
What you can expect to walk away with:
- An existential framework for understanding invisible loss
- Greater confidence in working with shame, disorientation and identity rupture
- An expanded capacity to sit with unresolved grief without prematurely moving to “solution”
- A therapeutic formulation of the Four Worlds model
- Reflective tools to deepen both therapeutic practice and personal awareness
Who Should Attend
All counsellors and psychotherapists (in addition to those who are well versed in grief and loss practice) who would like to expand their capacity to both recognise and hold the space for clients experiencing the rupture of invisible loss.
“Chloe brings a really interesting, unique and helpful lens to the field of grief and loss, particularly around this important topic.
The perspective of this workshop resonates and aligns with the Grief and Loss series that I offer through CEP.
I look forward to sharing the event with my Australian networks and to personally participating”
Greg Roberts, PhD, BSW (Hons), MAASW
References:
A selection of references that will be used:
- Boss, P. (1999). Ambiguous loss: Learning to live with unresolved grief. Harvard University Press.
- Eger, E. E. (2017). The choice: Embrace the possible. Scribner.
- Neimeyer, R. A. (Ed.). (2012). Techniques of grief therapy: Creative practices for counseling the bereaved. Routledge.
- O’Connor, M.-F. (2022). The grieving brain: The surprising science of how we learn from love and loss. HarperOne.
- Paidoussis-Mitchell, C. (2023). The loss prescription: A practical roadmap to grief recovery. HarperCollins.
- Warne, S. (Ed.). (2024). The phenomenology of post-traumatic growth. Routledge.
- Yalom, I. D. (2008). Staring at the sun: Overcoming the terror of death. Jossey-Bass
The Details
Dates: Monday 25 MAY and Monday 1, 15 & 29 JUNE 2026 (change of date last session)
Time: Please join at 6.45pm to iron out any technical issues
Each session: 7.00pm to 9.00pm AEST
Location: online via zoom (registrants will receive an invitation to participate and all the details they require in advance of the date)
Cost: $420 (flat rate in AUD)
CPD Hours: 8
note to registrants:
if you have registered for other CEP international events in 2026, the registration form will show checked boxes for those. Just check the box for this registration – you do not need to uncheck the others.
Presenter: Dr Chloe Paidoussis-Mitchell is a UK Chartered Counselling Psychologist, author and existential therapy practitioner whose work centres on the lived experience of grief, loss and trauma. Her approach is grounded in existential philosophy and phenomenology, exploring grief not only as bereavement, but as a fundamental encounter with the conditions of being; including invisible losses of health, belonging, safety, identity, and assumed futures. She is the author of The Loss Prescription (2024, HarperCollins) and a contributing author to Simon Warne’s The Phenomenology of Post-Traumatic Growth (Routledge, 2025), where she examines existential transformation following traumatic loss. Her work draws upon the Four Worlds framework through which loss is experienced across the physical, social, personal, and spiritual dimensions of life. Alongside her independent therapy practice in London, Dr Chloe supervises doctoral research projects on Grief and teaches internationally on existential therapeutic approaches to grief and invisible losses. She is committed to raising awareness of an existential understanding of all loss; one that restores depth, dignity and psychological coherence to human suffering, and invites a reflective engagement with freedom, authenticity, responsibility and meaning.
Host: Dr Greg Roberts holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Grief and Bereavement) and is an accredited Counsellor and Social Worker, providing counselling, supervision and education with a focus on grief, bereavement and trauma. Greg brings a strong interest in holistic approaches to the many and varied challenges in life. As an educator and trainer, he adopts an inductive and experiential approach, with the intention of creating a learning dialogue between himself and participants. Greg co-founded the Suicide Prevention Awareness Network (SPAN) in Victoria and is the Founder and Director of the Grief & Trauma Support service, based in Victoria, Australia.