Using Mindfulness and Compassion to Support Grieving Children and Families

Mental Health Education and Training for Practitioners 

Using Mindfulness and Compassion to Support Grieving Children and Families
Date: May 8, 2019
Facilitators: Andrea Warnick, RN, MA, and Andrew Blake.
This training is suitable for: Front-line workers and volunteers, medical professionals, educators, clergy, social workers, administrators, residential workers, counsellors, funeral service providers and hospice volunteers.

This workshop will explore the concept that when awareness is balanced between self and other, compassion has a dual pathway, where our care extends both to ourselves and to those in our care. In addition to the use of compassion in clinical work, mindfulness practices that can be used with children, adolescents, and families will be explored, along with the clinician's own mindful practice. Participants will gain essential skills and strategies to develop mindfulness practices that can be incorporated into clinical work with those who are grieving a death. 

Learning Objectives: 

• Essential skills in bringing mindfulness, healthy empathy, and compassion into their lives. 
• Strategies for developing open presence and deep listening in their work.
• Benefits and limitations of empathy and compassion through the lens of neuroscience, including how mindfulness enables us to remain grounded and open in the face of suffering and distress.
• Mindfulness practices that can be incorporated into clinical work with children, youth and families who are grieving a death.

This is Learning Module 3 of the 2019 Certificate Program in Children's Grief and Bereavement. This module may be taken separately from the certificate program as a stand-alone workshop.