Goals – To orient you to the program, provide an understanding of why and how traumatic grief is different and establish your roots in order to ground yourself prior to beginning grief and trauma work.

Week 1 Videos

• An introduction to Growing Through Traumatic Loss
• Traumatic Grief is Different
• Establishing Grounding Roots for Safety

Growing exercises will include assessments to document where you are at the beginning of this program and will be available to track progress and thoughts throughout your program. Additional exercises will provide opportunities to create safety and structure and establish routines to strengthen day to day wellness and functioning. You will also learn how to use grief thermometers to monitor feelings and emotions, as well as pleasant event scheduling to provide brief distractions from your pain.

Below are the full titles for each of the Tip Sheets and Growing Exercises for Module 1. Once you purchase the course you will have access to the titles of the materials of the remaining modules as the modules open for access.

Tips Sheet Titles

• Trauma Basics
• Grief Basics
• Traumatic Grief Basics
• The importance of establishing roots

Growing Exercise Titles

• Grief check-in
• Symptom inventory
• Grief thermometer
• Developing Routines
• Grief & Growing Goals

Goals: To identify where you are in your traumatic grief and who you are right now. To identify what needs to be grieved, honored and shared.

Growing exercises will focus on what has been lost, left and unfinished in both your life and the life of the loved one you have lost. Additional exercises will provide prompts and guidance to narrate your loved one’s story without focusing on the manner of death and help you engage in optional legacy projects to commemorate his or her life.

Goals: To address the isolation associated with grief, the necessity of self-care and challenges that arise when you have to care for others or attend to professional obligations while living with traumatic grief.

Growing exercises will assist you in identifying the people, activities, and boundaries you will require to thrive.  Exercises will also provide you with tools to establish boundaries and protect yourself from empathy overload, highlight how to develop a self-care plan tailored to your needs and how to help others help you.

Goals: To learn about contemporary grief and trauma models used to guide treatment and utilize skills to manage cognitive and emotional grief and trauma symptoms to improve functioning and quality of life.

Growing exercises will help you identify important grief tasks toward healing, cope with diverse emotions, regulate your emotions, and build an individualized toolbox to manage grief and trauma symptoms. 

Goals: To create a new sense of normality without your loved one while still finding a way to feel united with their presence.  To learn how to handle difficult interactions with others and important life milestones in the absence of your loved one.

Growing exercises will focus on how to use new tools to help contain grief when faced with daily tasks and challenges, and techniques to cope with triggers and grief attacks.   Exercises will also identify ways to feel united with your loved one throughout the day, encourage the use of a gratitude practice to shift your energy, and reframe daily thoughts about grief.

Goals:  To focus on discovering the changes and growth within and commit to your “why for living” while creating an enduring connection without the physical presence of your loved one.  To strengthen strategies for living with grief as it changes and further embeds itself within your daily existence.

Growing exercises will help you identify your why for living, your core values, and the person you would like to become.  Exercises will also assist you in managing grief in your everyday existence and identifying ways to incorporate your loved one into future experiences.

Goals: To develop a long-term relationship with your grief, honor the needs of your grief and create a new relationship with your loved one.  To generate continued growth, develop a personal meaning of closure and learn how to live with uncertainty.

Growing exercises will help you create rituals for remembrance, guide you in writing a narrative for the unknown, and create a sustainable relationship between you and the essence or spirit of your loved one.

Goals: To reflect on your grieving experience so far, contemplate the perceived meaning of your experiences and connect with future possibilities for yourself.

Growing exercises will help you conceptualize what it means to move forward in your life without moving on and envision future possibilities that may be possible from your growth.

In one sense all loss and associated grief is traumatic.  No matter how prepared you may feel or how much you understand the circle of life, the loss of a loved one is a traumatic experience. A traumatic loss USUALLY involves a loss that is sudden and unexpected.  However, what really matters is how you perceive the loss and how you are reacting to the loss.  If your loss feels traumatic, if the experiences described in this program resonate with you or the course curriculum sounds like a good fit, then you are in the right place.

One of the hallmark features of traumatic grief is feeling overwhelmed and out of control. Because grief and trauma have no timeline, you have no time limit to complete program materials. Take your time. Pace yourself. The program was designed to make you feel less overwhelmed and to break things down into small pieces. You can make it manageable for yourself.

I am so glad you are receiving professional support to help you through this difficult time. In an ideal world, everyone who enrolls in this course would integrate the content and process the growing exercises with their therapist!  This program is not meant to replace professional mental health services and it is a perfect complement to your therapeutic work. The program, however, is available for individuals who do not have access to mental health services or individuals who are not interested in pursuing therapy at this time.

Absolutely, grief is a unique journey with no time line.  Some people begin working with traumatic grief days after a loss has occurred and others wait years before they are ready. It does not matter how soon or how long you wait to start the program. The exercises are tailored to your experience and where you are right now in your grieving process.

Even when you have an amazing support network, grief can be an isolating experience.  Friends and family are well meaning but often do not understand the different needs of a traumatic loss.  I developed Growing After Traumatic Loss as an experienced traumatic grief expert to teach you the skills and tools you need to move toward healing.