Common issues for grieving children will be explored, including factors affecting the grief response, how grief is expressed and understood at various developmental stages, needs of grieving children, and how the grief experience can vary across different religious and cultural backgrounds. A variety of creative & expressive art techniques appropriate for children ages 6-17 will be presented for social workers to utilize throughout the stages of bereavement. The techniques presented in this workshop can be utilized and adapted in clinical work with individual children/teenagers, groups, and families. Interventions include ideas and activities for psychoeducation, honoring & remembering loved ones, expressing feelings, coping, and building confidence. Participants will have the opportunity to explore many of the activities experientially. [Elective for Child/Adolescent Mental Health Certificate Program]
At the conclusion of this webinar, participants will be able to:
Describe common losses children experience, how they understand and are affected by death at different ages, and needs of grieving children & families
Utilize a variety of expressive art activities for honoring & remembering a loved one through play therapy
Recommend a variety of creative art and play therapy interventions for expressing grief related feelings an enhancing coping
10:00 am Welcome/Introductions
10:05 am Psychoeducation
Common loses children experience (definitions, prevalence)
How children understand and are affected by death at different ages
Needs of grieving children and families
Common do's and don'ts
Psychoeducation for caregivers and children
Religious and cultural considerations
11:15 am Therapeutic Art Interventions
Honoring and Remembering
Feeling Expression
Coping
Esteem Building
12:50 pm Conclusion/Q&A