This session explores the helper’s internal journey when engaging another’s profound grief and lament. Rather than relying on exact shared life experiences, effective care requires intentional emotional attunement and ethically grounded vulnerability. Participants will learn how to sit with deep suffering without avoiding the pain or inadvertently hijacking the narrative. By integrating core frameworks—including the Dual Process Model, the Model of Adaptive Grieving Dynamics, Therapeutic Presence & Use of Self, and Dr. Alan Wolfelt’s Companioning Model—this presentation shifts the focus from "fixing" grief to walking alongside others through the complex, non-linear realities of loss.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Understand a posture of emotional resonance and therapeutic presence that bears witness to deep lament without requiring identical shared life experiences, emotional avoidance, or over-identification.
Contrast multiple grief constructs to better comprehend and navigate the nonlinear nature of loss.
Formulate three practical, actionable steps to authentically and ethically journey with others during seasons of grief and lament.