This 90-minute training is an acknowledgment of a raw, essential truth about helping professions. Therapists are witnesses to pain, loss, and change, and those delicate moments can stir grief that feels as real as any personal bereavement. This session offers a compassionate space to name that grief, understand its impact, and learn practical, humane strategies to continue serving clients without sacrificing one’s own well-being. All helping professionals are invited to attend.
Upon completion of this training, participants will be able to
- Identify the therapist’s grief response to client loss
- Develop skills to process client loss through reflective and somatic practices
- Learn ways to strengthen peer support, supervision strategies, and action plans for sustainable practice
Syllabus:
Introduction: When we create room to grieve, we also create room to heal—and to practice with greater presence, clarity, and steadiness. Therapists recognize that client loss is a ubiquitous, inevitable experience in therapeutic work. Clients may terminate therapy after progress or remission, relapse into old patterns, relocate, or confront mortality, chronic illness, or ongoing trauma. Each of these endings carries its own ripple effects for the therapist: a mix of empathy, responsibility, and sometimes guilt or self-doubt. The emotional labor involved in bearing witness to another person’s suffering can accumulate as vicarious grief, a form of grief that is not about one’s own life events but about the emotional experiences of others. Acknowledging this reality is not a sign of weakness; it is a professional responsibility.
Objective #1: Identify the therapist’s grief response to client loss
- The universality of client loss
- Vicarious grief vs. pathology
Objective #2: Develop skills to process client loss through reflective and somatic practices
- Psychoeducation
- Somatic and reflective techniques
- Ethical presence
Objective #3: Learn ways to strengthen peer support, supervision strategies, and action plans for sustainable practice
- Supervision as a container
- Community resilience
- Boundary clarity
Summary/Q&A
Social workers completing this course receive 1.5 Clinical asynchronous continuing education credits.
For other board approvals, this course qualifies for 1.5 Clinical continuing education training.
Instructor: Ericka Cables, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, ACS
Recording Date: February 9, 2026
CEUS On-Demand, LLC, provider #2274, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 08/7/2026 - 08/6/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 1.5hrs Clinical continuing education credits.
CEUs On-Demand, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7091. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. CEUs On-Demand, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
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Request for Special Accommodations: Learners can request special accommodations by contacting the administrative team at admin@ceus-ondemand.com