About this course

Learning Objectives

• Explain the therapeutic benefits of creative interventions in the grief process.
• Create innovative strategies for integrating creative interventions into grief counseling practices, considering emerging research and best practices.
• Apply knowledge of creative interventions to design comprehensive treatment plans for grieving clients.
• Critically evaluate the ethical considerations involved in using creative interventions in working with grieving clients.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of creative interventions in promoting emotional expression and healing for grieving clients.
• Apply writing, journaling, poetry, and visual arts exercises tailored to meet the needs of grieving clients.

Learning Levels

• Beginner, all levels are welcome

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.

• 

  Tracy M. Gilbert, ATR-BC, LMHC

  Assistant Professor and the Program Director for the Russell Sage Creative Arts in Therapies/Expressive Arts in Mental Health program

  Tracy Gilbert, ATR-BC, LMHC is a Board Certified Art Therapist and NY Licensed Mental Health program. After working in clinics, non-profits, schools, and hospital settings for 15 years, in 2018 Tracy established a private practice specializing in teens and younger adults who were facing struggles with anxiety, life transitions, and trauma. After guest lecturing and presenting at Russell Sage College multiple times, Tracy was invited to be an Assistant Professor and Program Director for the Creative Arts in Therapies/Expressive Arts in Mental Health program. She continues to maintain a small private practice so that she can be current in her teaching methods. Tracy has a working knowledge (read: rusty fluency) of American Sign Language and is a very beginner at Spanish. She is an avid reader and painter and loves to sing in the car.

Disclosure

References

• Barbara Rubel, MS, BCETS, DAAETS. (2024). Palette of Grief®. In Griefwork Center, Inc. (pp. 2–3). https://www.griefworkcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/PALETTE-OF-GRIEF2024.pdf
• Beaumont, S. L. (2013). Art Therapy for Complicated Grief: A focus on Meaning-Making Approaches. Canadian Art Therapy Association Journal/˜the œCanadian Art Therapy Association Journal, 26(2), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/08322473.2013.11415582
• Crowley, K. (n.d.). The Personal is Poetic: A Case for Poetry Therapy. DigitalCommons@UMaine. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/483
• Gold, R. P., & Jordan, E. (2018). Grief, poetry, and the sweet unexpected. Death Studies, 42(1), 16–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2017.1370413
• Hilliard, R. E. (2007). The effects of Orff-Based music therapy and social work groups on childhood grief symptoms and behaviors. ˜the œJournal of Music Therapy/Journal of Music Therapy, 44(2), 123–138. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmt/44.2.123
• Larsen, L. (2022). Letter writing as a clinical tool in grief psychotherapy. Omega, 89(1), 222–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228211070155
• Małecka, K., & Bottomley, J. S. (2020). Grief memoirs: The familiarity of helping professionals with the genre and its potential incorporation into grief therapy. Death Studies, 46(4), 842–850. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2019.1705938
• Matthews, A. (2019). Writing through grief: Using autoethnography to help process grief after the death of a loved one. Methodological Innovations, 12(3), 205979911988956. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059799119889569
• Nan, J. K., Pang, K., Lam, K., Szeto, M. M., Sin, S. F. Y., & So, C. (2018). An expressive-arts-based life-death education program for the elderly: A qualitative study. Death Studies, 44(3), 131–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2018.1527413
• Neimeyer, R. A. (2015). Techniques of grief therapy: Assessment and Intervention. Routledge.
• Nelson, K., Lukawiecki, J., Waitschies, K., Jackson, E., & Zivot, C. (2022). Exploring the impacts of an art and narrative therapy program on participants’ grief and bereavement experiences. Omega, 003022282211117. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228221111726
• Or, M. B., & Garti, D. (2018). Art therapist’s perceptions of the role of the art medium in the treatment of bereaved clients in art therapy. Death Studies, 43(3), 193–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2018.1445138
• Stroebe, M. (2018). The Poetry of Grief: Beyond scientific portrayal. Omega, 78(1), 67–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222818792706
• Stuckey, H. L., & Nobel, J. (2010). The Connection Between art, Healing, and Public Health: A Review of Current literature. American Journal of Public Health, 100(2), 254–263. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2008.156497