Advanced Ambiguous Loss Case Studies

 Earn 1.5 CE Contact Hours

This workshop is part of Ackerman’s Ambiguous Loss Expert Series with Dr. Elizabeth Weiling. The goal of this series is to train the next wave of experts in ambiguous loss. Practitioners will learn how to effectively support their clients and are invited to carry forward the work of ambiguous loss for future generations. Please check course prerequisites before completing your registration.

In Advanced Ambiguous Loss Case Studies: Clinical Treatment with Couples and Families, Dr. Wieling will use case studies, presented by clinicians, to address questions about how to apply the theory of ambiguous loss to help people manage stress and trauma in clinical settings.

As this workshop is interactive, not only do we want you to discuss, but we want you to bring your clinical questions and quandaries from your own clinical cases of ambiguous loss and trauma.
Case studies of traumatic ambiguous loss (physical and psychological) will be presented. Dr. Wieling will then give feedback, focusing on context, assessment, trauma, treatment, and ending therapy. Discussion will center on why grief therapy does not work with ambiguous loss, what to use instead, and our own tolerance for ambiguity.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Be able to apply the theory of ambiguous loss more broadly, to recognize, understand, and assess such unresolvable losses at personal, family, and community levels
• Gain a clinical understanding of intergenerational trauma and loss, the passing on of trauma (and resilience?), and which interventions can help those exposed to multiple types of traumatic stress
• Know how to increase resilience for the trauma of ambiguous loss with the six guidelines and both/and thinking while also interrupting the transmission of trauma to another generation
• Know that the goal with the trauma of ambiguous loss is to find meaning and understanding, not closure

Who Should Attend:

Mental health professionals, therapists, social workers, counselors, psychologists, and marriage and family therapists who have completed prior training in Ambiguous Loss and are seeking advanced clinical consultation. This workshop is ideal for clinicians working with complex cases involving trauma, family separation, migration, chronic illness, intergenerational trauma, and other forms of unresolved loss who want to strengthen their assessment, intervention, and case conceptualization skills.

Required Prerequisite:

To participate in this training you must have attended an ambiguous loss workshop at the Ackerman Institute within the last three years OR have completed the University of Minnesota’s Ambiguous Loss Online Training.

Meet Dr. Wieling:

Elizabeth Wieling, PhD, LMFT is a Professor and Program Director of Marriage and Family Therapy Program at the University of Georgia. Her program of research is focused on preventive and clinical intervention models that demonstrate effectiveness with systematically marginalized and trauma-affected populations in the United States and abroad. She has expanded her work to include a multi-component interdisciplinary agenda that includes developing ecologically and culturally relevant interventions. Specifically, she uses Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) with individuals to address complex post-traumatic stress; GenerationPMTO with parents to interrupt intergenerational transmission of psychopathology and violence; and Ambiguous Loss to support immigrant and refugee families.