A Comparison of Non-Certified and Certified Grief Counselors in Regard to Education, Experience, Credentials, and Supervision

2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack P. Locicero
Keyword(s):  
Professional Organization ◽  
Information Support ◽  
Grief Counseling ◽  
Death Education ◽  
Training Experience ◽  
National Board ◽  
Bereavement Counseling ◽  
Grief Counselors ◽  
Individual Knowledge ◽  
Composite Scores

This study utilized a causal-comparative research design to explore the similarities and differences between non-certified and certified grief counselors in the areas of education, training, experience, credentials, and supervision. Respondents included 623 non-certified and certified grief counselors, all of whom were members of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC). The response rate was 63 percent. The findings of this study provide data on certified and non-certified grief counselors who are members of ADEC. Certified grief counselors report significantly more experience as counselors at the post-master's level, significantly more grief counseling experience, significantly more credentials, significantly higher mean composite scores on the 14 knowledge areas adapted from ADEC (1995) and the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), and significantly higher scores on 12 of the 14 individual knowledge areas. ADEC is the oldest multi-disciplinary professional organization dedicated to promoting excellence in death education, bereavement counseling, and care of the dying. Through theory and research, ADEC provides information, support, and resources to its multicultural membership, and through them, to the public. ADEC is the only professional organization that provides credentialing in grief counseling and death education.

Assessing Knowledge and Predicting Grief Counseling Skills Among University Counseling Center Therapists

2021 ◽  
pp. 001100002098352
Author(s):  
Greta Jankauskaite ◽  
Karen M. O’Brien ◽  
NaYeon Yang
Keyword(s):  
Counseling Center ◽  
Clinical Work ◽  
Case Vignette ◽  
Grief Counseling ◽  
Counseling Skills ◽  
University Counseling Center ◽  
Training Experience ◽  
University Counseling ◽  
Training Research ◽  
Qualitative Responses

This mixed-method study advances knowledge regarding the practice of grief counseling in a sample of 171 university counseling center therapists. First, several components of therapists’ self-reported work with grieving clients was assessed (e.g., training level, initial responses to a grieving client, principles applied in counseling, therapist comfort, and potential therapist issues related to counseling grieving clients). Second, grounded in the death competence model (Gamino & Ritter, 2012), predictors of perceived grief counseling skills were examined. Cognitive competence and emotional competence predicted perceived grief counseling skills, with training/experience being the most robust predictor. Notably, the participants in this study rarely received education regarding death, dying, and grieving in their graduate programs, and they indicated that their knowledge about grief counseling was insufficient. Moreover, the therapists’ qualitative responses to a case vignette were lacking in many grief-specific domains. Future directions for training, research, and clinical work are discussed.

scholarly journals Psychology Students' Perceptions of COVID-19 in a Death Education Course

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ines Testoni ◽  
Erika Iacona ◽  
Cecilia Corso ◽  
Sara Pompele ◽  
Laura Dal Corso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Psychology Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Death Education ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Training Experience ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
University Level ◽  
The University

The systematic removal of death from social life in the West has exposed people living in areas affected by COVID-19 to the risk of being unable to adequately manage the anxiety caused by mortality salience. Death education is a type of intervention that helps people manage their fear of death by offering them effective strategies to deal with loss and anxiety. To that end, a path of death education has been carried out with University students of psychology. The main purpose of the research is to understand how students who participated in the death education course perceive the lockdown experience in light of course teachings. The research was carried out at a University in northern Italy in an area severely affected by COVID-19, during the first year of the pandemic. The group of participants included 38 students, 30 women and 8 men, with an average age of 25.45 years (SD = 7). At the end of the course, the students could respond on an optional basis to the request to comment on the training experience according to what they experienced during the pandemic. A thematic analysis was subsequently carried out on the texts, which made it possible to identify the most relevant thematic areas for the students. The qualitative analyses permitted recognition of three main forms of discovery: the removal of death in contemporary culture; the importance of community, ritual and funeral, and spirituality; and the significance of death education for future health professionals. The texts have highlighted how the removal of these issues exposes people to the risk of being unable to handle extremely painful events such as those related to dying. The results show the positivity of death education pathways conducted at the University level to help students reflect on these issues and manage the related anguish.

Death and Grief in the Family Comics

1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Brabant
Keyword(s):  
Grief Counseling ◽  
Death Education ◽  
Cultural Artifacts ◽  
Comic Strips ◽  
Attitudes Toward Death ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
The Family

The use of comic strips as cultural artifacts to identify prevailing beliefs, norms, and values has long been recognized. The recent depiction of death and grief in three family comics strips, “Curtis,” “For Better or Worse,” and “Sally Forth,” presents a unique opportunity to identify current culturally accepted attitudes toward death and grief. Implications for death education and grief counseling are discussed.

Professionals' Experiences of Grief Counseling: Implications for Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice

2011 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren J. Breen
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Grief Counseling ◽  
Intervention Effectiveness ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Grief Work ◽  
Grief Counselors ◽  
Counseling Practices ◽  
Current Practices ◽  
Grief Theories

Despite the escalating interest in grief interventions, there is a clear misalignment between contemporary grief research and grief counseling practices, and this disparity may limit intervention effectiveness. Semi-structured interviews with 19 grief counselors revealed their current practices of grief counseling. The counselors' descriptions of grief and their grief counseling practices were diverse and many were influenced by classic grief theories and the grief work hypothesis. The grief counselors described negotiating several issues and dilemmas in their work and provided recommendations for achieving greater exchange between research and practice. The findings have the potential to inform the delivery, efficacy, and relevance of grief counseling in Western Australia.

When Our Clients Sing their Blues

1992 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-300
Author(s):  
Richard R. Ellis ◽  
Lois C. Dick
Keyword(s):  
Grief Counseling ◽  
Grieving Process ◽  
Grief Counselors ◽  
Human Need ◽  
Interactive Behaviors

Some grievers find it helpful to interact with a grief counselor, someone who is effective in aiding the grieving process. Here, we examine the parallels found between the interactions of grievers with their grief counselors and those of musical blues performers with their audiences. There is a traditional musical/lyrical form known as the blues; there are conventional instrumental musical accompaniments within the blues form; and there are accepted interactive behaviors between blues performers and their audiences. Similar conventions and traditions exist in grief counseling. The wellspring of the traditional blues/blues performance and of grief/grief counseling is the human need for expression.

scholarly journals Health Connections

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-62
Author(s):  
Eula W. Pines ◽  
Maureen Rauschhuber ◽  
Sarah Williams
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Grief Counseling ◽  
Counseling Services ◽  
Aids Orphans ◽  
Grief Counselors ◽  
Professional Development Needs ◽  
The University ◽  
Nursing Professionals

Nearly half of Zambia's population is under 15 years old, with an estimated 630,000 “AIDS orphans,” children who’s parents have died from HIV/AIDS, and are now left to survive without complete families. Zambian caregivers of these AIDS orphans have been overwhelmed with the task of providing grief counseling services to these children. Nursing professionals at the University of the Incarnate Word responded to the professional development needs of grief counselors in Zambia, and launched Health Connections in 2004-2006. Health Connections is a cross-cultural grief education program designed to educate caregivers in a rural Zambian village on how to help grieving children. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of the Health Connections “train-the-trainers” program.

Grief Counseling: An Investigation of Counselors' Training, Experience, and Competencies

2012 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne M. Ober ◽  
Darcy Haag Granello ◽  
Joe E. Wheaton
Keyword(s):  
Grief Counseling ◽  
Training Experience
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