This course is designed to prepare counsellors, psychotherapists, coaches and other professional care givers to respond sensitively and creatively to the psychological processes that people face at the end of life. It will provide the counsellor with helpful frameworks relative to the various stages people go through as they approach the final chapter of their lives.

Specific issues will be identified concerning the client’s emotional, physical, social, ethical and spiritual beings.  These will enable both counsellor and client alike to address anxieties and difficulties which are likely to be raised. Students will explore professional ethics and boundary issues relating to end of life and bereavement and gain increased confidence in their ability to support people through the process of dying.  An important and rewarding therapy which can be of great benefit to those supporting this crucial time at the close of life.

Lesson One

• Preparation for Working with the Dying
  • What is End of Life Therapy?
  • Assessing your Core Competencies
  • Recognition of Death Anxiety
  • Stages of Death and Dying

 Lesson Two

• Understanding the Theoretical and Philosophical Bases for the Practice of End of Life Therapy
  • Widening Horizons
  • Evidence-Based Practice
  • Working with Symbolic Reality
  • The Near Death Experience
  • Reflecting on Your Own Life Experience
  • Reconstructing Belief Systems about Death and Dying

 Lesson Three

• Stanislav Grof and the Psychology of Death and Dying
  • The Basic Perinatal Matrices

 Lesson Four

• Primal Regression Therapy
  • Introduction
  • Time and Space
  • Induction – Stage One
  • Induction – Stage Two
  • An Example in Practice
  • Integration Work

Lesson Five

• Primal Integration and Process Work
  • Change and Resistance to Change
  • Primary and Secondary Processes
  • Working at the Edge
  • Polarity
  • Channels of Awareness and Communication

 Lesson Six

• Living Family – Dying Member
  • Involving the Family
  • Celebrating the Dying Person’s Life
  • Being Creative
  • Seeking Equilibrium
  • Working with the Couple
  • Practical Guidance for Leading a Family Meeting

 Lesson Seven

• Finding Where We Belong
  • Client, Counsellor and Community
  • Mythology and Belonging
  • Motivation and Belonging
  • Philosophical Ethics v Professional Ethics
  • Ethics v Law
  • The Role of the Wider Community

 Lesson Eight

• Practical Preparations For Death
  • Making a Will
  • Family and Community Meetings
  • A Living Will
  • Money, Property and Possessions
  • Organ Donation
  • Creative Expression for the End of Life

 Lesson Nine

• Arranging the Funeral
  • An Appraisal of Funeral Culture
  • Working With a Partner or Executor
  • A Death Plan
  • Care of the Dead Body
  • Disposal of Body and Memorial
  • The Celebrant
  • Decisions the Counsellor Can Facilitate
  • Everything In Order

 Lesson Ten

• Creative Work with People in Comas and Near to Death
  • Tuning in to Your Own Awareness
  • Tuning in to Your Client’s Awareness
  • Working at the Edge
  • Living and Dying – Meta-Theory
  • Working With the Soul Beyond Physical Death
  • Next Steps

No practical training is required to complete this course.