Based on the success of a similar 2013 seminar, Eastern Mennonite University’s Counseling Center is again hosting a grief, loss and trauma-oriented seminar. “Gathering: The Language of Loss and Grief” will be Friday, Oct. 23, from 8:30-4:30 p.m. at Martin Chapel in the seminary.
“Understanding our voice, music, silence, words and ways we communicate in grief is paramount to effective helping skills and healing journeys,” says Pamela Reese Comer, director of the center. “Goals for this seminar are to focus on various expressions and languages of loss, to increase awareness of the importance of working with language with loss and grief and to enhance the caregiver’s skills in working with grief.”
Sessions and the presenters are:
- “All Things Considered: Grief Through the Context of Trauma,” with Randy Hook LCSW, director of counseling services at Bridgewater College, and an adjunct faculty member at James Madison University (JMU), Bridgewater College, Blue Ridge Community College, as well as EMU, teaching courses in marriage, counseling and human development.
- “Grieving in the Closet and Other Ways We Silence Our Grief,” with Teresa J. Haase, PhD, LPC, program director of the master’s in counseling program at EMU and an approved clinical supervisor through the National Board for Certified Counselors, with clinical, research and teaching interests in expressive arts, human development, adolescent development, grief and loss, and supervision.
- “Music: Expressing the Unspoken,” with Beth Eriksen, MA, MT-BC is a graduate of EMU master’s in counseling program and is completing her residency hours towards licensure at the JMU counseling center. She is a certified music therapist and worked with hospice for many years.
- “When Parents Die: Adult Orphan Language,” with Pam Comer, director of counseling and CoachLink services at EMU, who has served as adjunct faculty for the EMU master’s in counseling program and the JMU course on death and dying. Her clinical interests and experiences include providing consultation, education, supervision and therapeutic interventions with loss, grief and trauma issues.
The seminar is open to anyone interested in deepening their knowledge, including therapists, pastors, health care workers, social workers, graduate students, teachers and educators.
Cost is $85 for the general public and professionals, $50 for graduate students and EMU employees. For more information, email pam.comer@emu.edu or call 540-432-4314.