Counter Bereavement Myths with Grief Counseling Training

One of the ways in which funeral directors can most help client families is by developing a thorough understanding the bereavement process and grief counseling. As professionals whose very work requires them to be in constant contact with those who are suffering the raw pain of grief and loss, they should become compassionate, caring resources for their clients.

As families prepare for the funeral services, sensitive directors will be attuned to commonalities and the differences across the various individuals she or he serves. As part of professional development, many funeral directors and funeral service assistants choose to take grief counseling training to give them the foundation for better attention to the needs of the bereaved.

One of the first things that a good bereavement counseling program does is take the wind out several popular myths about grief and bereavement. Let’s look at five common ones that funeral directors are likely to encounter and can help explode.

Myth 1: The grieving process takes about a year, after which the bereaved person should “get on” with life.

The truth is that each person’s response is different. A spouse or child is not a car; each relationship is unique and cannot be replaced. While research suggests that grief may take up to two years, for elders the loss of a spouse can be especially shattering, as can losses through suicide. Also, trying to force widowers and widows to start dating before they are ready may be well meant, but it is off target.

Myth 2: If the bereaved person does not mention the loss, don’t bring it up because you’ll just stir up sadness and grief.

The reality is that the bereaved person wants and needs to talk about the loss. Conversations about their experience of loss with compassionate others is part of the healing process. When my friends lost their 13-year old in a gun accident, they welcomed the opportunity to talk with me about their son. “Pretending that nothing changed is like having an elephant in the middle of the living room—and no one wants to bring it up.” What does not help is a gruesome nosiness that probes into hurtful places, e.g., asking a person to relive any part of the death experience that they do not want to recall.

Myth 3. It is comforting to remind the bereaved that “It was God’s will.”

Instead of creating a good reason for the bereaved to question God, invite them, as appropriate, to turn to the love and compassion of their God at this painful time. I remember one woman with 12 children, one of whom died of a childhood illness. “Well, aren’t you lucky that you have 11 others, and besides he is with God now!” many told her. “I never felt that I had one too many, and I wanted him with me,“ she told me sadly.

Myth 4. Funerals are a waste of time.

A funeral can be planned that fits the finances and the emotional needs of the family. The act of holding the funeral visitation and services are a powerful transition ritual that is an important experience for the bereaved. Not having the opportunity to talk about loss is detrimental and slows the healing. Some of my own family and friends have said “skip the funeral” since it’s a “waste of time.” One of my aunts chose to override her deceased husbands “no funeral” wishes because she wanted to create a place where all could come and express grief in community. She was amazed at the turnout by those who wanted to express their own grief for a lost friend and offer her compassion and assistance afterwards. She still talks about how much support she felt from holding that service.

Myth #5. Grief is something that should be done alone and in private.

Suffering in silence and alone is not helpful, although some cultural norms promote that. One of the most supportive venues for learning to live with the loss can be found in “bereavement groups,” where participants receive encouragement, compassion, as well as advice and support from others who have already been there. Many well-meaning friends and family just do not know what to say or what kind of help to offer, but others who have recently shared the experience can provide support and healthy role models.

Funeral directors find themselves in a unique position to provide the most compassionate, healthy transition possible at a very difficult time. By taking time to learn more about the grieving process through courses and certification programs, they will discover deeper rewards in their profession.

Advances in Continuing Education for Health Professionals

Are you a health care professional seeking continuing education credits for licensing or other professional reasons? Are you not sure what is out there for you, but know that you need something that is useful and accessible given your busy schedule?

Health care providers, from physicians and nurses to social workers and counselors, share a professional and legal commitment to continuous learning. Staying current with information and practices not only allows you to maintain their various licenses and certifications but also insures that you provide the standard of care necessary today. Fortunately there are now options to fit nearly every schedule and inclination.

In content and delivery method, the options have increased considerably over the last decade. While many service providers may elect to deepen or sharpen their knowledge and skills in their original areas of specialization, others use the continuing education requirement as an opportunity to widen their base of knowledge and tools. Many of these instructional avenues also lead towards certification, which can add to your ability to further serve your current patients or clients or lead you to new career paths.

Furthermore, in addition to the traditional venues of classroom instruction and conference workshops, the prevalence of continuing education via distance education on line has skyrocketed. What this means for you as the educational consumer is that courses are available on an amazingly wide variety of topics can by highly qualified instructors. These generally entail a lower overall cost, given the expense of travel and lodging, not to mention the cost of any cancellation of clients in order to attend courses in person.

Here are just some of the fields in which continuing education and certification is available for those who care for the bodies, minds, and spirits.

· Hypnotherapy

· Grief counseling

· Holistic and integrative health care

· Pastoral thanatology

· Stress management

· Meditation instructor

· Crisis intervention

· Spiritual counseling

· Health care life coach

· Case management

· Legal nurse consulting

· Forensic nursing

While some of these areas pertain only to particular professions (e.g., only nurses can do legal or forensic nursing), other areas such as stress management and grief counseling can be very relevant for providers across the spectrum. Regardless of the presenting symptoms or issues, almost anyone can benefit from a doctor, nurse, pastor, or counselor who can provide help with stress management, for example. Also, grief strikes us all eventually, and knowing what to expect and how to help can do much for those who look to you for compassion and guidance.

Some tracks are clearly oriented toward management issues, such as case management and legal nurse consulting, whereas others are more relevant to actual services, e.g., spiritual counseling and crisis intervention. Even meditation has been shown to have applications in both medical and psychological services.

In choosing continuing education courses, it is important to consider which focus will best meet your patients’ needs as well as those that may be required or advised by your current or future employer, if relevant. As you choose your educational provider, decide if you want an institution that can provide additional training and even certification, if desirable or necessary.

In a world with rapidly advancing technology and research, keeping up to date on a wide variety of issues that affect you and those you help can be a rewarding and exciting experience.

Four Proven Reasons Why You Need to Teach Meditation to Your Patients

As research continues to demonstrate the many benefits of meditation, health care professionals show increasing interest in being able to share this with their patients.

Physicians, nurses, psychologists, therapists, counselors, and social workers are discovering the positive impact that simple meditation practices can have for not only themselves but also their patients and clients. Courses and certification for meditation instruction are available from reputable institutions for those who wish to add this to their toolbox.

Based on Buddhist tenets, both mindfulness meditation and loving kindness meditation have been shown to have powerful effects in improving wellbeing. Here are just some of the many research findings that demonstrate how it can benefit for many health care patients.

1. Meditation increases positive emotions.

Various studies show reductions in stress and anxiety and a boost in positive emotions for both kinds of mediation. Loving-kindness meditation is especially recommended by Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, author of Positivity and an esteemed positivity psychology researcher. She found that practicing meditation four times a week for 20 minutes boosted feelings of hope, lessened stress, and greater resilience. Meditators even reported better sleep.

The Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, led by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, has trained over 18,000 people in a highly successful mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program. Participants find “greater balance, ease, and peace of mind,” reports the Center.

2. Meditation improves cognitive functioning.

More recent studies find that mindfulness meditation also leads to improvement in cognitive tasks. Those who were trained in mindfulness meditation showed increased focus and attention on challenging tests, for example.

3. Mediation can boost physical health.

While the actual mechanisms are not yet understood, research over the last quarter century has amassed enough evidence of health benefits for meditation to suggest it just might be “the magic bullet.” Benefits include the following: lowering of blood pressure by as much as 15 points, an average lowering of 30 points in cholesterol level in those with high cholesterol, less dependence on drugs, pain reduction, and even improvements in motor skill improvement and concentration.

4. Mediation can improve social relationships.

Various studies have shown that meditating enhances social relationships, perhaps because meditators feel calmer and more positive, attributes which can facilitate healthy relationships.

Are there any reasons NOT to meditate?

While in general meditation appears to be a boon for most people, the National Institutes of Health does offer a caution: “There have been rare reports that meditation could cause or worsen symptoms in people who have certain psychiatric problems, but this question has not been fully researched. People with physical limitations may not be able to participate in certain meditative practices involving physical movement. “

Given that meditation is easily available, economical, and effective, it is sure to become more widely used in both physical and mental health care venues. Health care providers who want to stay ahead of the curve should consider seeking quality training in meditation instruction to their clients. In doing so, it is likely that they will enjoy the many benefits themselves, so this is truly a win-win situation.

What is grief counseling education?

At any point in life, we may suffer loss and subsequent grief from a variety of sources, including death of a loved one, divorce, separation, or even natural disasters. Over the last few decades, professionals have become more sensitive to the experiences of grief and the ways in which others can be helped in navigating these life passages more safely.

Grief counseling(also known as "bereavement counseling") education can be key in developing a more comprehensive understanding of the bereavement processes and the various approaches for offering valuable assistance. The emphasis is on helping persons work through normal grief as noted below.

In terms of occupation, you do not need to be a therapist to have frequent contact with individuals who are suffering from grief. Social workers, ministers, physicians, nurses, funeral service directors, funeral assistants, and others often have to work directly with the bereaved and can benefit from training. Otherwise it can be hard to know what to say or what do in such difficult moments, or we may impose our own particular and narrow ideas on the situation.

What is grief counseling at its best?

When there is a widespread disaster or a personal loss, grief counselors may be called to the scene or made available to help with the recovery process. What makes grief counseling different from other kinds of social support? In its “Field Manual to Grief Counseling Guide,” the NY State Office of Mental Health offers this list of what a grief counselor actually offers:

· Listens in a supportive manner to individuals’ concerns.

· Helps disaster survivors recognize that, in most cases, their emotional reactions are natural, normal, and to be expected.

· Assists survivors to reduce additional stress by organizing and prioritizing day-today and recovery-related tasks.

· Helps individuals to understand and recognize the wide range of reactions to trauma, such as numbness, frustration, confusion, anger, anxiety, sadness, and feelings of helplessness.

· Assists individuals to draw on their own strengths and develop healthy coping mechanisms that permit them to gradually resume their pre-disaster level of functioning.

· Sensitively and caringly helps individuals to grieve their losses in their own unique ways.

· Systematically draws upon an array of recovery resources for appropriate referrals.

Grief counseling education and certification

Grief counseling education equips the counselor to offer all of the above. Coursework and voluntary certification may be offered virtually as well as in face-to-face trainings. Those who are dedicated to providing the highest quality of grief counseling may opt for certification. Certification is often considered “the gold standard” for specialty practices as it testifies and provides a verification of defined educational requirements, adherence to a solid code of ethics, and in many instances prerequisites of practice experience for the practice of grief counseling, bereavement education and facilitation, thanantology and closely related professional services.

Are You Called To Do Spiritual Counseling?

In an age where so many aim for wholeness and personal growth, spiritual counseling

is a very satisfying and growing occupation.

In fact, many helping professionals (e.g., registered nurses, physicians, counselors, counseling psychologists, chaplains, addictions counselors, etc.) often elect to develop their ability to offer spiritual counseling

to meet the needs of their clients or patients to create deeper meaning and joy as whole persons.

In order to be able to serve others ethically and responsibly as a spiritual counselor, there are several personal and professional factors that you should keep in mind. Personal qualities of integrity, authenticity, and compassion are absolutely necessary to be able to help anyone else.

First of all, working as a spirit guide requires you to be committed to your own spiritual growth on a daily basis in order to help others grow. Before you can help others on their life path effectively, you need to be deeply engaged in the deeper questions of life. This can come from daily spiritual practices such as prayer and meditation, as well as

study and reflection of spiritual matters.

It is also common for a person to have a spiritual guide before becoming one. At the very least it makes sense to talk to one or more experienced spiritual counselors and ask them about their work. How did they train? What do they find most rewarding about spiritual counseling? What are the biggest challenges? Are they certified?

While not required, certification can be an asset in a field as it demonstrates your commitment to learning and professional standards. There are several virtual study programs available. Be sure to evaluate the quality of the organization and the instructors before you enroll. Does the organization have a good record and reputation to date? Will it still be there if you need extra time to complete the coursework?

An advantage of a certification program can be the exposure to a wide variety of philosophies and strategies for spiritual counseling. Highly regarded programs offer courses in from research, spiritual, and experiential perspectives. They may include such topics as meditation, “positive prayer,” abundance and prosperity, chakras, energy, and healing.

As you develop your understanding of what it means to offer spiritual counseling, work with one or two clients who understand that you are new at this. There is nothing like direct experience in offering spiritual counseling to hone your skills and to identify where you may need further work. You may find great benefit in one-on-one work with your own spiritual counseling mentor for your personal growth and for developing healthy ways of working with any client challenges.

As a spiritual counselor, you will need to be in touch with physical, mental, and spiritual solutions to the life problems and opportunities that your clients face. While this endeavor obviously requires a special devotion, it also offers incredibly satisfying rewards.

Firefighters Benefit from Crisis Intervention Counseling Certification

Becoming a firefighter is a tradition in my family. There have been four generations of firefighters in my family. Going through proper training and keeping up with specific qualifications can be almost as demanding as my job. With working long hours in a busy fire department does not always leave time for continued education through the more traditional methods. By continuing my education online has been a better fit for my busy lifestyle.

Getting my certification online in Crisis Intervention Counseling has helped me to continue my education. It was very important to me that I find a great online program, since my job, as a firefighter does not allow me to attend a traditional college. By continuing education online has enabled me to become certified in between working hectic hours at the firehouse.

The reason why I decided to enter into this type of program was to learn how to better help those that are affected by a disaster. Losing a home or loved due to a fire, car wreck or other natural disaster can have devastating effects on the survivors. By having the proper skills to help a person that is caught in this type of situation has helped made my job more rewarding. After all helping and protecting people is the main reason why I became a firefighter in the first place.

The programs that are offered by AIHCP have helped me to further continue my education as a firefighter. Not only are the programs convenient for those that work unconventional hours in their fields, they teach some of the most current applications in the health care industries. For these reasons have been highly recommending their programs to others that work in the emergency services or health care fields.

Having continued my education has helped me to better serve the public in almost every facet of my job as a firefighter. Since completing this course I am now better equipped to handle the personal aspects of my job. I feel that not only am I just a firefighter, am now a more productive member of my team during a crisis situation.

Online Pastoral Thanatology

The subject of thanatology deals with clergy or pastoral members who are educated to handle social, psychological and other aspects involving death. When someone passes away, it is a time of sorrow, grief and other emotions -- people will turn to pastoral counseling for a variety of different reasons and the pastor becomes a spiritual and emotional sounding board. Pastors educated in Thanatology are equipped to help people of varying faiths face the death of a loved one and can find assistance in end of life care, spiritual needs and mourning the lost loved one.

Grief counseling is a very delicate area and when someone passes away, the family is left shattered, overwhelmed and confused. It helps to have the support and guidance that only pastoral care can provide. People deal with death in different ways and grief affects everyone differently, churches know this and most now offer specially trained clergy members to help during this most delicate of times.

Thanatology is a specialized course of study and includes Death, Dying and Mourning, Grief Counseling for the Helping Professionals, Grief Therapy and Working with Grieving Children. When trying to find some help with grief counseling, be sure to find someone who has participated in continuing education classes for these topics.

It's quite a developed field. The programs offered are comprehensive and detailed and designed to meet the needs of the ever changing field of Grief Counseling. A Certified Pastoral Thanatology course requires the individual to have previously completed an official education program to prepare the person to practice Thanatology.

In some institutes, all candidates seeking to be certified in the field must either have a degree in one of the following fields: nursing, theology, ministry, pastoral care. The person must currently work in pastoral care under the supervision of a licensed clergy member, or a college level degree in human behavior fields, as well as have experience working with the dying.

Once a person has completed the certification it puts them in the unique position of being able to help the terminally ill, as well as their family members. Dying is a delicate and emotional topic for families and as someone approaches the end of life, there will be questions, concerns and the situation will be highly emotional. Pastors that complete this degree can help make the transition from death to dying much easier on a family to bear and make a real and valid difference in how grief affects a family.