Course Description:
Exploration
of losses that occur across the lifespan, caused by death, situational crisis,
and biopsychosocial development. Emphasis on individual grief responses and the
impact these may have on one’s future social and psychological growth. Focus on
praxes-oriented professional interventions and support for grieving persons.
Introduction:
Every life involves loss. Losses through death
are perhaps some
of the most painful
losses suffered by individuals,
but they are not
the
only ones. Loss Across the Lifespan will explore both
death losses and the often-unrecognized
“living losses” across the lifespan, namely developmental or maturational losses as
well as traumatic losses. We will strive to acquire the tools needed by helping professionals to assist
those who are navigating lives in which death losses and
living losses coexist and complicate individuals’ grief responses. Our readings
are
situated within the complexity of
loss across the lifespan; analyzing and responding to course
material, while reflecting on
the
losses in our own professional
and private lives, may provide us
with a greater understanding of the
breadth of human losses,
the varying responses and interventions to loss, and
the skills required to bear
witness and assist in
the aftermath of the losses experienced by those we
serve.
This is an intensive graduate seminar and is designed to maintain an empathic, student-centered virtual classroom. You will be held to high standards in terms of your commitment to the course and the work you produce; you will also be treated as a member of a learning community that shows respect for all values, beliefs, and experiences of its members.
- Teacher: Sara Murphy