Center for Bereavement provides a range of services to support and enhance the skills of organizational staff and service providers dealing with the bereaved and their families in mourning—a time of potential disorientation, multiple stress, and personal vulnerability. These services include:
Educational and/or experiential workshops are developed and implemented by the Center for Bereavement for Employee Assistance Programs; Human Resource Staffs; School Administrators, Counselors and Teachers; Parent-Teacher Associations; Funeral Directors; Hospital, Palliative Care and Hospice Staffs; Clergy of Religious and Spiritual Communities; Social Service Agencies; Mental Health Associations; and other caregiver organizations.
Organizations may experience profound grief, confusion, and helplessness after the death (sudden or anticipated) of one of their members (or a close relative of). The loss of an employee or student, teacher or supervisor may overwhelm the work group and interfere with its vitality and effectiveness. Offering the individual(s) or the group the opportunity to identify and share intense feelings, valued memories, and effective coping strategies can aid in a constructive mourning process, thereby strengthening the cohesion of the work “family.”
Organizations and their support staffs may seek consultation, to explore effective interventions when coping with a loss of a member, especially if the death is sudden. For example, such traumatic losses as accidents, sudden or rapid progression of illness, suicide or other violent death, terrorism, and so forth may complicate and intensify the reactions of students, employees, and staff, which may interfere with their school or work functioning and their emotional and physical health.
Depending on the nature of the loss, and the proximity of the mourner to the death event, some individuals may also experience some degree of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), which may negatively impact memory, concentration, and work relationships. At such times, consultation to support staff and/or affected individuals may be helpful to assess the scope of the loss and to determine pragmatic and meaningful coping methods.
Individual and/or group supervision is available for mental health professionals who are in need of supervision for their clinical work with bereaved clients and patients. Due to the profound pain of significant loss and to the intensity of the mourner’s affects and longings, the clinician often needs to process the emotional impact of the work in order to remain open to the fullness of the mourner’s experience, which is often devastating and unpredictable.
Center for Bereavement’s counseling and therapy fees are reasonable. Bills can be submitted by the client to the insurance company for allowable out-of-network reimbursement. Workshops, consultations, crisis intervention and group debriefing, and supervision fees are industry average or less.