GRM 650 – Understanding and Treating Complicated Grief
Instructor: Thomas H. Schear, Ph.D.
COURSE OVERVIEW: Welcome to GRM 650: Understanding and Treating Complicated Grief
This course is part of the Accelerated Masters in Grief Counseling program at Breyer State University. It is a 6-hour semester course that should be completed within 6 weeks. The aim of this course is provide students with a working understanding of the dynamics of “complicated” grief and how to facilitate this process through counseling. Clients with complicated grief may feel that the bereavement process has taken over their lives, gone on unaltered for a long time, and/or led them to feel “stuck in time”. Conversely, complicated grief may present as muted, absent or “blank” reactions to loss actually underlie problematic emotional dynamics of denial and displacement that can in turn facilitate a host of issues (from depression to addictions). This course will provide you with an understanding of these topics and skills needed to approach them therapeutically within the context of counseling.