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Digital Seminar
Advanced Grief Specialist Certification Retreat

Advanced Grief Specialist Certification Retreat

Standard - $599.99 $299.99

Watch renowned grief educator and Director of Social Work at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Dr. Erica Sirrine, for three days of advanced clinical training and deep personal renewal.

You’ll explore the most effective grief counseling strategies—rooted in cutting-edge research and practical application—for clients navigating loss of all kinds. From developmental considerations to cultural contexts, complicated grief, and meaning-making, you’ll finish with the tools to support even your most complex cases.

You’ll walk away knowing how to:

  • Assess grief presentations with clarity and create personalized intervention plans for every client.
  • Apply evidence-based strategies to help clients process loss while fostering resilience and post-loss growth.
  • Navigate challenging moments, from intense emotions to crisis points, with confidence and compassion.

As a bonus, you’ll receive your Certified Advanced Grief Counseling Specialist (CAGCS) designation—free with registration (a $99 value).*

CERTIFICATION MADE SIMPLE

  • No hidden fees – PESI pays for your application fee (a $99.99 value)!
  • Simply complete this training and the included post-event evaluation, and your application to be a Certified Advanced Grief Counseling Specialist through Evergreen Certifications is complete*

Attendees will receive documentation of CAGCS designation from Evergreen Certifications 4 to 6 weeks following completion.

*Professional standards apply. Visit www.evergreencertifications.com/cagcs  for professional requirements.

Here's What You'll Learn

Understanding Different Types of Loss and Grief
  • Death vs. non-death losses
  • Losses that accompany serious illness
  • Secondary losses
  • Ambiguous losses
  • Cumulative losses
  • Disenfranchised grief
  • Anticipatory grief
Common Misconceptions about Grief and Grief Counseling
  • Reframing our language and expectations about grief and loss
  • The trouble with assigning timelines to grief
  • Distinguishing between grieving and mourning
  • “Getting Over” vs. Integrating Loss
  • Depression vs. Bereavement: A Distinction
  • Supporting vs. Treating Grief
Supporting Clients Beyond a Staged-Model of Grief
  • Common emotional, physical, cognitive, social, and spiritual expressions of grief
  • Factors that influence expressions of grief and mourning
  • The Dual-Process Model of Coping
  • The Two-Track Model of Bereavement
  • The Tasks of Mourning
  • The Six Needs of Mourning
Grief and Loss Assessment
  • Using a loss line as an assessment tool
  • Standardized assessment measures of grief
  • Risk assessments for suicidal ideation and violence
  • Assessment and screening for substance use as a coping mechanism
Special Considerations in Grief Counseling
  • Grief following suicide, violence, or substance use
  • Stigmatized losses and deaths
  • Identifying vicarious trauma and generational trauma
  • Prolonged Grief Disorder- diagnosis, assessment, and treatment
  • Differential diagnosis and co-occurring disorders
Continuing Bonds Following Death
  • Attachment theory, grief, and continuing bonds
  • Linking objects as a form of continuing bond
  • Assessment of continuing bonds, including whether a bond is adaptive or maladaptive
  • Common expressions of continuing bonds across the lifespan
Anticipatory Grief Counseling
  • Understanding and normalizing the dying process and anticipatory grief experience
  • Sustained hope in anticipatory grief
  • Legacy-based interventions
  • Talking to children about serious illness
  • Preparing clients to return to work after a death
Strategies to Support Grieving Children and Adolescents
  • Current statistics on childhood and adolescent grief
  • Cognitive components of understanding death
  • Magical thinking
  • Developmental differences in understanding and expressions of grief
  • Common grief expressions across developmental milestones
  • Childhood traumatic grief vs. normative grief
  • Evidence-based interventions for treating traumatic grief in children and adolescents
  • Explaining suicide and homicide to children
  • Preparing children and adolescents to attend death rituals, including a funeral or memorial service
  • Preparing children and adolescents to return to school after a significant loss
Individual Grief Counseling: Over 40 Creative Interventions and Strategies to Support Children, Adolescents, and Adults
  • Clinician considerations
  • Bibliotherapy
  • Therapeutic games
  • Expressive play for young children
  • Expressive arts
  • Expressive writing
  • Music
  • Memorialization activities
  • Self-care and self-compassion strategies
Family and Group Grief Counseling: Considerations, Interventions, and Strategies
  • Impact of loss on the family system
  • Family involvement in grief counseling
  • Grief and loss support groups: Children, adolescents, adults
  • Support group curriculum & session topics (adaptable for individual therapy sessions)
  • Community grief and bereavement camps for children and adolescents
  • Creative intervention strategies to promote family resilience
    • “From Broken to Whole”
    • “Love after Loss”
Promoting Client Resilience and Growth
  • Fostering post-traumatic growth and resilience
  • Promoting reconciliation and integration of grief
  • Meaning-making in grief
Ethical Considerations in Grief Counseling
  • Applying ethical principles to grief counseling
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks in grief counseling
  • Balancing clinical guidance with cultural and spiritual traditions
  • Navigating professional boundaries in grief groups and memorialization activities
  • Preventing compassion fatigue and burnout
  • Fostering professional resilience

Everything You're Getting

  • Approx. 18 Hours of video content
  • Up to 16.75 CE credits
  • Certificate of completion
  • Handouts and resources

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Advanced Grief Specialist Certification Retreat
Digital Seminar
$299.99
$599.99
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Meet Your Experts

Erica H Sirrine, PhD, LCSW, FT

Toggle speaker biography

Dr. Erica Sirrine is a licensed clinical social worker with over 25 years of experience in the field of death, dying, and bereavement. She earned a PhD in social work and has been awarded the distinction of Fellow in Thanatology by the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Dr. Sirrine has conducted and published research on grief and bereavement, including a study on college student experiences of loss amid the COVID-19 pandemic that was published in OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying and featured in TIME magazine. She maintains a blog on grief and is the author of Sammy’s Story, an anticipatory grief counseling book for young children experiencing the serious illness of a parent.

Dr. Sirrine has extensive expertise providing individual and group therapy to children, adolescents, adults, and families experiencing illness and loss. She has implemented numerous interventions and programs aimed at improving the emotional health of clients and currently serves as the director of social work at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dr. Sirrine frequently presents seminars on bereavement and loss throughout the United States and is known for her interactive and engaging workshops.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Erica Sirrine has employment relationships with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. She receives royalties as a self-published author and a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Erica Sirrine is a member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, the Association of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers, the National Alliance for Children’s Grief, and the National Association of Social Workers.
More taught by Erica H Sirrine, PhD, LCSW, FT

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Media Type:
Digital Seminar
Product Code:
POS150508
Duration:
Approx. 18 Hours
Copyright:
Jan 05, 2026
Format:
Audio and Video

ADA Needs

We would be happy to accommodate your ADA needs; please call our Customer Service Department for more information at 1-800-844-8260.

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