Description & Objectives

Continuing Education Hours: 1.5 CEs for LPC, SW, LMFT, and Psychologists - NBCC Approved

Description: Many individuals impacted by trauma and life disruption are grieving ambiguous, secondary, and disenfranchised losses that do not have a clear or socially recognized pathway for mourning. These grief experiences often remain unnamed, misunderstood, or misinterpreted as resistance, avoidance, or feeling “stuck.” This session explores how unresolved and cumulative bereavement and ambiguous losses shape identity, self-perception, and a person’s relationship to the future. Participants will examine how grief persists and resurfaces through triggers, anniversaries, life transitions, and ongoing stressors, even when individuals appear to be doing well or moving forward. Using a trauma-informed, grief-centered framework, this presentation offers practical language, clinical concepts, and tangible strategies to help professionals more accurately identify and validate these forms of grief. Participants will learn ways to support individuals in naming their losses, understanding why grief endures, balancing grief alongside daily responsibilities, and identity shifts, while walking alongside them as they find ways to move forward with meaning and hope.

Instructor

Kerri Newman

Kerri Newman (she/her) is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with over a decade of experience supporting children, teens, and families who are grieving. She began her work in the bereavement field in 2012 and served as Program Director at Journey of Hope Grief Support Center from 2015 until its closure in 2025. Kerri now serves as a therapist and the Operations Director at Wellspring Counseling Center, where she sees clients and leads the next chapter of Journey of Hope peer grief support groups and provides individual and family therapy. Kerri is passionate about creating spaces where people feel seen, supported, and empowered to navigate their grief experiences.