Grief, Loss, and Meaning I

Catalog description

This course will cover key topics on loss, grief, and trauma, and the application of existential psychotherapy approaches (e.g., Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy) to treating associated distress. Specific topic areas to be covered include: existential psychology; death across the lifespan and contextually (e.g., life-limiting illness, unexpected death, suicide); psychooncology; palliative care and hospice; grief and bereavement assessment and intervention; and service-related trauma (e.g., military service, 9/11 responders). Students will be encouraged to consider topics from an intersectional lens as well as engage in reflection on their own beliefs about loss, meaning in life, and death. Students will also be introduced to clinical research methods, including qualitative study design and analysis, mixed methods in psychotherapy research, and psychometrics. Students will assist with participant recruitment, consenting, database management, data analysis, grant application preparation, literature reviews, IRB applications and conference presentations.