About this course

Learning Objectives

• Identify at least three pervasive myths about grief that continue to influence clinical assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning.
• Differentiate grief, trauma, and depression using symptom presentation, timing, relational context, and meaning-making.
• Recognize hidden and secondary losses commonly experienced in grief, including changes in identity, relationships, functioning, and sense of self.
• Analyze how mislabeling or minimizing grief can impact diagnosis, treatment goals, therapeutic alliance, and client self-perception.
• Apply a grief-informed clinical framework that supports clients without pathologizing normal grief responses, emphasizing validation, patience, and normalization.

Learning Levels

• Beginner, all levels are welcomed

Target Audience

Course Instructor(s)

• 

  Kelly Daugherty, LCSW-R, FT, GC-C, BC-TMH

  Grief Specialist and Educator

  Kelly Daugherty is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Fellow in Thanatology, and grief specialist with over 25 years of experience supporting individuals, families, and professionals through some of life's most profound losses. Based in Malta, New York, Kelly is the founder of Kelly Daugherty, LCSW, PLLC, a private clinical practice specializing in acute and traumatic grief, and the Center for Informed Grief, LLC, an education and training organization dedicated to advancing grief-informed practice across school, clinical, and community settings. She is also the creator of Healing Strides, a trademarked, research-based program that combines grief group support with 5K race training for grieving women.

  Kelly's clinical expertise spans traumatic grief, suicide loss, parent loss, and grief in children and adolescents. She is a sought-after trainer and educator whose work reaches mental health professionals, school counselors, and helping professionals across the country. As a Senior Faculty Member for EngagedMinds Continuing Education, she brings both clinical rigor and personal understanding to every training she delivers — drawing on her experience as a motherless daughter and bereaved child to deepen her work with others.

  A prolific author and contributor to the grief field, Kelly is the lead author of The Grief Experience: Tools for Acceptance, Resilience and Connection, a collaborative work featuring 25 authors, and has contributed chapters to Holistic Mental Health, Brave Kids (Volumes 1–3), and Ultimate Guide to Self Healing, Vol. 6. She also recently published The First Year After Loss: The GRIEF Ladies Guide to Everything You Need to Know and is currently completing The GRIEF Ladies: A Guide to What Comes Next. Kelly is the co-host of the GRIEF Ladies Podcast and co-creator of the GRIEF Ladies framework, a practical, evidence-informed approach to navigating life after loss.

• 

  Karyn Arnold

  Grief Coach and Educator

  Karyn Arnold is a grief coach, educator, and founder of Grief in Common, LLC, an online community connecting individuals through shared experiences of loss. With over 25 years of experience in grief support, Karyn helps people navigate what has happened, understand where they are, and explore what’s next. She provides validation, education, and guidance through individual coaching, couples sessions, monthly support groups, and self-study courses. Karyn has facilitated programs for loss of spouse, loss of parent, and complicated grief, including seminars on self-esteem, communication, and navigating difficult emotions. She is a published contributor to The Grief Experience: Tools for Acceptance, Resilience, and Connection and the author of more than 75 blogs on grief, healing, and resilience.

Disclosure

References

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• Harrsen, K., Tølbøll, M. M., & Larsen, L. H. (2022). Effects of an integrated treatment program on grief and distress among parentally bereaved young adults. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 89(1), 155–171. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228211069713
• Killikelly, C., & Maercker, A. (2023). The cultural supplement: A new method for assessing culturally relevant prolonged grief disorder symptoms. Clinical Psychology in Europe, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.32872/cpe.7655
• Lee, S. A., & Neimeyer, R. A. (2022). Grief Impairment Scale: A biopsychosocial measure of grief-related functional impairment. Death Studies, 47(5), 519–530. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2022.2113605
• Peña-Vargas, C., Armaiz-Peña, G., & Castro-Figueroa, E. (2021). A biopsychosocial approach to grief, depression, and the role of emotional regulation. Behavioral Sciences, 11(8), 110. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs11080110
• Reed, G. M., First, M. B., Billieux, J., Cloitre, M., Briken, P., Achab, S., Brewin, C. R., King, D. L., Kraus, S. W., & Bryant, R. A. (2022). Emerging experience with selected new categories in the ICD‐11: complex PTSD, prolonged grief disorder, gaming disorder, and compulsive sexual behaviour disorder. World Psychiatry, 21(2), 189–213. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20960
• Szuhany, K. L., Malgaroli, M., Miron, C. D., & Simon, N. M. (2021). Prolonged Grief Disorder: Course, diagnosis, assessment, and treatment. FOCUS the Journal of Lifelong Learning in Psychiatry, 19(2), 161–172. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.20200052