Thanatology, Children, Adolescents, and Family Grief Support Post-Master’s Certificate

Designed for people who work with children and adolescents, this post-master’s certificate examines dying, death, loss, and grief in the context of the family, with special emphasis on supporting children and adolescents. This certificate is appropriate for child life professionals, medical caregivers, social workers, child and adolescent psychologists, and employees or volunteers with family grief centers or grief camps.

Learning Objectives:

• Discern, reflect upon, and evaluate student’s own relationship with death and grief, both as an individual and a member of society
• Examine and evaluate the role of the family as the unit of care, and the ways family dynamics impact children and adolescents with respect to dying, death, and grief.
• Evaluate the research literature on the attitudes and responses of children and teens to death, loss, and grief
• Examine current research and literature on suicide among adults (prevention, assessment, intervention, post-intervention, postvention, special populations, ethnic/cultural groups, and global context)
• Evaluate evidence-based approaches to assessment, clinical intervention, treatment models, and safety planning for adults, children, and teens