Dancing in the darkness: Creative approaches to working with grieving children and youth

Play, creativity and the arts have a unique capacity to respond to human suffering. They can offer experimental spaces for the exploration of ideas, feelings and questions around the experiences of death and grief.

This webinar emphasizes supporting participants with a theoretical foundation in children’s grief and bereavement. The goal is to help them build a toolkit and confidence in creatively engaging with grieving children and youth who are grieving a death.

During this experiential, day-long training, participants will explore play-based, arts-based, and other creative approaches to both psychoeducation and counseling/psychotherapy. Andrea and Lysa share ways to use these approaches to facilitate grief education and support in schools. As well as address methods for supporting grieving children and youth virtually. They will present many easy-to-use (and modify) creative techniques for working with grieving children and youth. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in safe, experiential activities to better understand the process of using creative approaches. No art experience is required.

Participants of this webinar will explore:

• Creative approaches to supporting children and youth who are grieving the dying or death of someone in their life
• Art and play-based strategies will enhance the toolbox of participants with a theoretical foundation in children’s grief and bereavement.
• Strategies for supporting grieving children and youth in school

Please note: This webinar is module 5 of the Children’s grief and bereavement certificate program. However, participants can also register for it as a stand-alone training to enhance their skills in supporting grieving children and families.