Webinars

Grief After Suicide:
How Does Suicide Change the Grieving Process?
With John R. Jordan, PhD, FT
Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Webinar Time:
1:00 - 2:30 p.m. EST
12:00 - 1:30 p.m. CST
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. MST
10:00 - 11:30 a.m. PST
7:00 - 8:30 a.m. HAST
What time does the webinar begin where I am?

While it shares some of the characteristics of all traumatic losses, suicide often presents unique challenges for mourners and for those who would help them. People mourning the loss of a loved one to suicide (known as suicide survivors) face a complex set of recovery tasks. These include making sense of a death that often makes no sense, sorting out responsibility for and preventability of the death, dealing with shock and horror at the manner of death, dealing with the impact on family relationships and coping with the stigma that often surrounds suicide. Likewise, the process of counseling for suicide survivors is often more complex and prolonged than after most other types of losses. In this workshop, we will address the central concerns that most survivors bring to therapy and the themes that caregivers must help survivors address.

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Learning Objectives
After this presentation, the participant will be able to:

• Identify at least four themes in bereavement after suicide.
• Describe common psychological recovery tasks for suicide survivors.
• Identify broad clinical guidelines for work with mourners after a suicide.

About your instructor
John (Jack) Jordan, PhD, FT, is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Wellesley, MA, and Pawtucket, RI, where he specializes in working with loss and bereavement. He was also the founder and, until 2007, the director of the Family Loss Project, a research and clinical practice providing services for bereaved families. He has specialized in work with survivors of suicide and other losses for more than 30 years. As a Fellow in Thanatology from the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), Jack maintains an active practice in grief counseling for individuals and couples. He has run support groups for bereaved parents, young widows and widowers and suicide survivors, with the latter running for over 13 years.

Jack is the clinical consultant for Grief Support Services of the Samaritans in Boston, where he is helping to develop innovative outreach and support programs for suicide survivors. He is also the professional advisor to the Survivor Council of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), and a former Board member of AFSP (New England Affiliate) and ADEC. He has been involved in several research projects on the needs of people grieving after a suicide and was the recipient of the ADEC 2006 Research Recognition Award.

Jack has published clinical and research articles in the areas of bereavement after suicide, support group models, the integration of research and practice in thanatology, and loss in family and larger social systems. He has published in professional journals such as Omega, Death Studies, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, Crisis and Family Process. He is the co-author of After Suicide Loss: Coping with Your Grief, a book on suicide bereavement for surviving friends and family. He is currently co-editing a new professional book on working with suicide survivors.

CE Credits: 1.5
Nursing Contact Hours: 1.5

Purchase a recording of this webinar now.

Cancellations for this session will be accepted through end of business on Monday, February 15, 2010. Registrants who cancel within that time will receive a refund, minus a $10 service fee. Cancellations received after that day will not be refunded.