Bereavement Professional

​We just had a discussion with our team and brought up with questions that how other grief counselors at hospice bereavement department offer and use any therapeutic techniques or interventions? 

Many of grief counselors are could be LICSW, LMHC, or Marriage Counselors or Master in Counseling, or Chaplains, and they bring all sort of skills, talent, experiences and certified in specific interventions/ therapy techniques. However, our previous manager were saying "we don't do therapy" and we do make referrals to community professionals for specific therapy. Discussion was why we can't use the tools that each grief counselor already earned, trained and certified. And where is the line between the intervention and techniques such as part of MI or relaxation techniques. Some guiding relaxation techniques such as meditations, yoga, visualization etc are needed to be certified/licensed to practice, right?  Also, even though we were discouraged to use specific interventions, we are yet encouraged to earn those certifications/ trainings that often the purpose for CEU and keep professional license.

How you all use your therapeutic interventions in your grief counseling setting? And if so, how do you assess and address the intervention to your clients? Or are you also discouraged to offer the therapy and have to refer to the community professionals? Please tell me your idea, comment, experience, concerns, and questions.

thank you

​Hi -
This is a great question. Agencies differ in their philosophies about this. 
I would like to refer to you The NHCPO guidelines to bereavement care in hospice (2017 edition). In the section on Complicated Grief, it reinforces that the focus of hospice bereavement programs is to provide basic education and support. Hospice bereavement professionals should have appropriate education and experience to enable them to appropriate assess and respond with high risk factors for complicated grief reaction. 
I am aware of agencies with staff trained in and using EMDR, CBT, DBT, mindfulness, breathwork, Yoga, etc. as appropriate with some bereaved - many of these are for community clients.
Hope that helps,
Diane

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Diane Snyder Cowan, CHPCA,MA,MT-BC
Director of Bereavement Center
Hospice of the Western Reserve, Inc
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-21-2018 12:50
From: Masami Hutchins
Subject: Theraputic intervention for bereaved clients

​We just had a discussion with our team and brought up with questions that how other grief counselors at hospice bereavement department offer and use any therapeutic techniques or interventions?

Many of grief counselors are could be LICSW, LMHC, or Marriage Counselors or Master in Counseling, or Chaplains, and they bring all sort of skills, talent, experiences and certified in specific interventions/ therapy techniques. However, our previous manager were saying "we don't do therapy" and we do make referrals to community professionals for specific therapy. Discussion was why we can't use the tools that each grief counselor already earned, trained and certified. And where is the line between the intervention and techniques such as part of MI or relaxation techniques. Some guiding relaxation techniques such as meditations, yoga, visualization etc are needed to be certified/licensed to practice, right?  Also, even though we were discouraged to use specific interventions, we are yet encouraged to earn those certifications/ trainings that often the purpose for CEU and keep professional license.

How you all use your therapeutic interventions in your grief counseling setting? And if so, how do you assess and address the intervention to your clients? Or are you also discouraged to offer the therapy and have to refer to the community professionals? Please tell me your idea, comment, experience, concerns, and questions.

thank you

We do not treat mental health concerns other than grief (if we can call that a mental health concern).  The rationale is that our agency's license doesn't provide for us to do more than bereavement counseling and support.  But within the scope of bereavement counseling, we can use the tools that we have to help our clients.

Relaxation, guided imagery, journaling are all tools we use.  WE also sometimes use art therapy techniques because one of our staff has had training in them.. We do not call it art therapy, however, because it is used as a technique within our overall session.

My colleague and I are Master's level counselors by education and training.  If we would have a social work type need or a spiritual care type need, we would ask someone from those disciplines to assist.  I recently had a case in which the risk was deemed high, and social work, spiritual care and bereavement were all involved in the care of this bereaved.  She needed referral to community resources, and she made a good connection with one of our chaplains during the patient's care.  Each discipline used those techniques from their own discipline to provide care for this bereaved.

It helps that because of our training, we can recognize when someone might benefit from one:one therapy for issues that are beyond our scope of practice.

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Merrie MacHose, M.A.
Bereavement Coordinator
Heartland Home Care and Hospice
Allentown, PA 18109
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-21-2018 12:50
From: Masami Hutchins
Subject: Theraputic intervention for bereaved clients

​We just had a discussion with our team and brought up with questions that how other grief counselors at hospice bereavement department offer and use any therapeutic techniques or interventions?

Many of grief counselors are could be LICSW, LMHC, or Marriage Counselors or Master in Counseling, or Chaplains, and they bring all sort of skills, talent, experiences and certified in specific interventions/ therapy techniques. However, our previous manager were saying "we don't do therapy" and we do make referrals to community professionals for specific therapy. Discussion was why we can't use the tools that each grief counselor already earned, trained and certified. And where is the line between the intervention and techniques such as part of MI or relaxation techniques. Some guiding relaxation techniques such as meditations, yoga, visualization etc are needed to be certified/licensed to practice, right?  Also, even though we were discouraged to use specific interventions, we are yet encouraged to earn those certifications/ trainings that often the purpose for CEU and keep professional license.

How you all use your therapeutic interventions in your grief counseling setting? And if so, how do you assess and address the intervention to your clients? Or are you also discouraged to offer the therapy and have to refer to the community professionals? Please tell me your idea, comment, experience, concerns, and questions.

thank you