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Course Details

This powerful event brings together inspirational speakers from the UK, US, and New Zealand. The theme of the conference focuses on the personal, professional, and political responses to bereavement from and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Course curriculum

    1. EVENT DETAILS

    2. Introductions - Professor Lynne Gabriel, Dr John Wilson

    3. Trauma, love and loss rethought: Covid-19 as a shadow in the light of our interconnectedness - Professor Divine Charura

    4. Stories of Loss, Campaigning for Justice. Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK

    5. Bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK: Interim findings from a national survey - Dr Lucy Selman & Dr Emily Harrop

    6. The bereavement sector’s responses to the challenges of the pandemic – What further support is needed by families and by services - Alison Penny

    7. Bereavement and the Pandemic: an organisation’s response - Andy Langford

    8. ‘One Perfect Day’: An indigenous autoethnographic reflection of birth, death and bereavement during COVID-19 Lockdown - Dr Tess Moeke-Maxwell

    9. Personal and Professional Reflections on Covid-19 Loss and Grief - Professor Andrew Reeves

    10. Adapting our bereavement service to the changing COVID-19 environment - Paul Parsons

    11. Supporting Covid Families on Social Media - Deborah Lewis

    12. Loss, grief and resilience in the time of COVID-19 - Professor George Bonanno

    13. When Grief Goes Viral: Psychological Assessment and Intervention in the COVID Crisis Panel - Professor Robert Neimeyer

    1. WORKSHOP RESOURCES

About this course

  • £29.99
  • 14 lessons
  • 9.5 hours of video content

ROBERT A. NEIMEYER, PHD

Psychological Assessment and Intervention in the COVID Crisis

With the global pandemic of COVID-19 has come the loss of a world of once familiar routines, relationships and resources that previously conferred on our lives a sense of security and meaning. This presentation provides carefully validated screening tools for both coronavirus anxiety as the contagion spreads and the complicated bereavement it will leave in its wake and suggests evidence informed interventions for dealing with these disturbances constructively. Because of the pervasiveness of changes engendered by the Coronavirus and policies required to mitigate contagion, ambiguous losses and challenges to our assumptive world compound grief associated with bereavement and call for greater recognition and support by mental health professionals. Robert A. Neimeyer is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, maintains an active consulting and coaching practice, and also directs the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, a “university without walls” for international online training in grief therapy. Neimeyer has published 30 books, including Routledge’s series on Techniques of Grief Therapy, and serves as Editor of Death Studies. The author of over 500 articles and chapters and a popular workshop presenter, he is currently working to advance a more adequate theory of grieving as a meaning-making process. In recognition of his contributions, he has been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by both the Association for Death Education and Counseling and the International Network on Personal Meaning.

DR TESS MOEKE-MAXWELL NGĀI TAI, NGĀTI POROU

PhD, B Soc Sci (With 1st Hons), MNZAC

Tess has dedicated her life to helping Māori, especially through the end of life research she does with Māori whānau. This is a sacred time when the spirit prepares to transition to the heavenly realm. Whānau, as caregivers, have an important role in caring for their dying, and helping the dying person’s wairua to transition ‘well’. She believes that end of life and dying are important opportunities for us to release the past, forgive, be forgiven, and to love without conditions. Writing and speaking about these things from the perspectives of whānau are the greatest enjoyments of her academic career. In the 1980s Tess worked voluntarily for Rape Crisis as a sexual abuse counsellor which led her to undertake degrees in psychology and gender studies at the University of Waikato. She has won numerous scholarships and grants to help her undertake her post graduate work and PhD. Māori ethnic diversity is another research passion and her PhD thesis is about Māori women’s bi/multi-racial post-colonial identity.

GEORGE A. BONANNO, PH.D.

Professor of Clinical Psychology, Columbia University

Professor Bonanno received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1991. His research and scholarly interests have centred on the question of how human beings cope with loss, trauma and other forms of extreme adversity, with an emphasis on resilience and the salutary role of flexible coping and emotion regulatory processes. Professor Bonanno’s recent empirical and theoretical work has focused on defining and documenting adult resilience in the face of loss or potential traumatic events, and on identifying the range of psychological and contextual variables that predict both psychopathological and resilient outcomes. In 2019, he received lifetime achievement awards from both the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA). His most recent book is The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science of Bereavement Tells us about Life After Loss (2009 Basic Books).

Professor Divine Charura

Professor of Counselling Psychology York St John University. Trauma, love and loss rethought: Covid-19 as a shadow in the light of our interconnectedness.

Dr. Divine Charura is a Professor of Counselling Psychology. He is a Chartered Psychologist, and Counselling Psychologist with the British Psychological Society. He is registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council in England. Divine is also registered with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy as an Adult Psychotherapist. He many has years of various work experience working with individuals and families presenting with Trauma in diverse psychiatric/clinical/social and therapeutic settings including the UK National Health Service (NHS), voluntary sector and private practice. He has presented keynote lectures at numerous international conferences including in South East Asia, Africa, and Europe. Over the last 15 years Divine has also worked with refugees and asylum seekers internationally many of whom have been tortured and present with complex trauma.

Jo Goodman

Jo founded Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice after the death of her Dad Stuart from Covid-19. She is joined today by Matt Jamie and Leshie, all of whom lost their fathers to Covid-19.

Matt Fowler

Matt Fowler is Co-Founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice. Following the loss of his father Ian (56) in April, he felt that support for the bereaved was severely lacking, and with Jo, aimed to create a support community for others like them. Matt works in manufacturing for Jaguar Land Rover and is studying for an engineering degree.

Leshie Chandrapala

Leshie Chandrapala is a member of Covid-19 Beareaved Families for Justice. She lost her Dad, Ranjith Chandrapala, who was a London bus driver, on 03 May. Leshie has been campaigning for safe working environments for bus drivers and justice for those bus drivers who died during the pandemic.

Jamie Brown

Jamie Brown joined the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK team shortly after his father passed away on the 29th March.

Andy Langford

Clinical Director, Cruse Bereavement Care UK

Andy Langford is the Clinical Director for Cruse Bereavement Care. Cruse is the largest bereavement support organization in the UK - providing support to those grieving, across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Andy has worked in the voluntary sector for 23 years, in homelessness, mental health, substance misuse, and with older people. Andy has been a BACP accredited member for over 15 years, with over 17 years’ experience working directly with bereaved people. He holds qualifications in integrative counselling, cognitive behavioral therapy, clinical supervision, life coaching, and an MSc from Cass Business School. Andy’s experience includes private practice and training, as well as managing and directing services of many shapes and sizes! Andy has a passion for working with people experiencing suicidality, as well as young people in foster care (for whom he provides respite foster care, with his family).

Deborah Lewis

founder, Covid19 Families UK

Deborah lost her Mum to cancer in the Autumn of 2019, and her Dad to Covid-19 in the Spring of 2020. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to set up regional groups on social media, both to support the bereaved and to publicise the plight of those affected by the pandemic.

Paul Parsons

Bereavement Service Coordinator St Christopher’s Hospice

Paul Parsons is the Adult Bereavement Service Co-ordinator at St Christopher’s Hospice and co-ordinates the London Boroughs of Bromley and Lewisham Bereavement Services. Paul has a Diploma in Supervision as well as completing a Diploma in Trauma and PTSD. He has been supporting many clients directly and indirectly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. He has also developed and manages a Covid-19 response counselling service for a large Hospital Trust in partnership with the Hospice.

Alison Penny

Director, Childhood Bereavement Network. Coordinator, National Bereavement Alliance

Alison is Director of the Childhood Bereavement Network, the hub for those working with bereaved children and young people across the UK. She is also Project Coordinator of the National Bereavement Alliance, a strategic collaboration of organizations and individuals working with bereaved people in England. She keeps the sector updated with relevant developments, and helps the field to develop consensus on key policy and practice topics, contributing to gains in national policy in bereaved people’s interests. Alison has a particular interest in supporting bereavement services to demonstrate the effectiveness of their work and is taking this forward as a PhD. She is an editor of the peer-review journal Bereavement Care and a member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement.

Professor Andrew Reeves

Associate Professor in the Counselling Professions and Mental Health, Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy (Advance HE), Fellow, British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

Dr Andrew Reeves is an Associate Professor in the Counselling Professions and Mental Health, a BACP Senior Accredited Counsellor/Psychotherapist and a Registered Social Worker. His practice experience spans over 35 years, when he first trained as a Samaritans volunteer at 18, before moving into social and work therapy. His research focus in working with risk in therapy, having experienced the suicide of a client during his training. Since then, he was published extensively in this area. He is previous Editor-in-Chief of Counselling and Psychotherapy Research journal, past-Chair of BACP and is Chair of the York St John Advisory Board Counselling and Mental Health Research Clinic. He supervises mostly doctoral research in counselling, psychotherapy and psychological trauma.

Dr. Lucy Selman

Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol. I will be co-presenting

Dr Lucy Selman is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, where she co-leads the Palliative and End of Life Care Research Group. Her research over the last 15 years has focussed on people’s experiences of serious illness, the end of life and bereavement, and how to improve care in these domains. She is also the founder of Good Grief, a public festival about grief, loss and bereavement which launched in October 2020.

Dr Emily Harrop

Marie Curie Research Associate, Cardiff University

Dr Emily Harrop is a Marie Curie Research Associate and social scientist at the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Centre, Cardiff University. She has led on several recent studies in bereavement care and is Co-Principal Investigator on a UK wide mixed methods study looking at Bereavement during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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