Some Intro

Throughout life people experience a lot of instances of grief.

Grief cannot only be caused by a death of a lovely person. A divorce, the end of a relationship, a serious injury that causes changes in ordinary lives, moving to another home, city or country, even the loss of a job position can create feelings of bereavement with serious consequences to mental health.

In 1969, Elisabeth Kubler- Ross described the five common stages of grief, that a person passes in order to finally accept the new situation and move on to life. They are commonly known as DABDA:

• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance

While moving forward from one stage to the other, each person expresses a variety of behaviors and feelings, sometimes not easily understandable and explainable. There are people who feel extremely sad and lose their interest in past activities, but at the same time some others seem to be very happy and behave like nothing changed in their lives. It is very important to learn why people behave in this way and how to interact with them.

In this context, this training focuses on the knowledge of these stages, how to observe these behaviors, understand and explain them and finally help not only children and young people, but also adults to deal efficiently with them. Counselling techniques that will be helpful for the different age groups are included in this training.

Who is this course for

Teachers, trainers, educators, school administrators, etc.

• School principals & directors (primary & secondary)
• Teachers (primary & secondary)
• Academic staff (tertiary)
• Directors & personnel in International coordination offices (tertiary)
• Entrepreneurs & people involved in startups (education)
• Social entrepreneurs
• Directors/managers (companies/NGOs)
• Personnel/staff responsible for the business development strategy of their organisation
• Individuals involved in startups, networks of excellence & innovation
• Trainers (formal & non formal education)
• Individuals with interest in entrepreneurship in relationship to education
• Parents

Description

This course will cover the whole theory behind the grief. When we experience grief, what are the stages that we go through until we finally overcome this difficulty, what we can do to feel better and which are the counselling techniques that can be applied in these cases?

Specifically, the training course includes understanding of the cases that can cause grief with personal storytelling and external anonymous personal cases. In depth knowledge of the 5 stages of grief (Elizabeth Kubler- Ross). Counselling and therapeutic techniques

Objectives

By completing this course participants will:

• Be able to understand when and why someone will experience grief.
• Gain in depth knowledge of the five stages of grief, based on the theory of Elizabeth Kubler- Ross
• Be able to observe, understand and explain grief behaviors, based on each stage.
• Be educated on how to help themselves and others when they will cope with grief.
• Be educated on counselling and therapeutic techniques for children, young people and adults in different contexts (schools, family, working environment, psychotherapy).
• Be educated on tools that they can use for improving mental health in people with grief.

Methodology

All tasks of the course have a strong experiential form and give the opportunity to participants to practice hands on. The course includes, interactive presentations and lectures for fully understanding of the theory, narration of personal stories, clinical cases and in-depth explanation of the symptomatology. The education on the counselling and therapeutic techniques will firstly include presentation of the theoretical background of each technique and then live practice.

Books, videos, games for children, power point presentation and other tools will be used to enhance the knowledge of the participants.

This training is appropriate for mental health professional, teachers and people who work with children and also for individuals who want to improve these skills for their personal lives. 

Agenda/Course schedule

5 days programme

Day 1

• Welcoming and Introduction of the course programme  
• Presentation of participants  
• Ice-breaking activities  
• What do we mean by grief in life?
• Exploring the importance of helping people who experience grief.

Day 2

• Detailed definitions of grief.
• Explanation of cases when we experience grief.
• Personal stories of grief
• 5 stages of grief- Elizabeth Kubler- Ross
• Reading of cases and understanding the different stages in them.

Day 3

• What can we do to help others?
• Explanation of the counseling and therapeutic techniques, appropriate for cases of grief in children.
• Practice on duals
• Explanation of the counseling and therapeutic techniques, appropriate for cases of grief, in young people.
• Practice on duals.
• What can schools do to help them? Practice in groups.

Day 4

• Explanation of the counseling and therapeutic techniques, appropriate for cases of grief, in adults.
• Practice on duals
• Practice in groups.
• What can we do as parents, teachers, employers, mental health workers?

Day 5

• Summary of tools (books, table games, drawings, personal stories, techniques) that can be used for improving mental health in people who experience grief.
• Experiential exercises for closing the education and understanding how we feel at the end of it.
• Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competencies, feedback, and discussion
• Awarding of the Certificate of Attendance of the course

29.05 - 02.06.2023 Mount Olympus Area     

05.06 - 09.06.2023 Skiathos Island      

10.07 - 14.07.2023 Mount Olympus Area                 

18.09 - 22.09.2023 Skiathos Island