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, and offer experimental spaces for the exploration of ideas, feelings and questions around the experiences of death and grief.

The emphasis in this webinar will be on supporting participants who already have a theoretical foundation in children’s grief and bereavement to build their toolkit and confidence in creatively engaging with children and youth who are grieving a death.

Play-based, arts-based and other creative approaches to both psychoeducation and counseling/psychotherapy will be explored during this experiential, day-long training. Ways of using such approaches to facilitate grief education and support in schools will be shared, and ways of supporting grieving children and youth virtually will be addressed. Many easy to use (and modify) creative techniques in working with grieving children and youth will be shared, and 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 to add to the toolbox of participants who already have a theoretical foundation in children’s grief and bereavement
• Strategies for supporting grieving children and youth in school

This webinar is part of the Children’s grief and bereavement certificate program. Participants may register for any of the certificate program’s individual webinars as a stand-alone training.