This workshop Offers 3 Continuing Education Credits
This webinar is recorded and will not grant live credits.

We will all die. We know this. But both our culture in general, and our mental health profession in particular, suppress awareness of our mortality, and avoid talking about death, even in the face of Covid. Why such bias? denial?

This 3-part workshop addresses our perpetual oscillation between “slipping into that dreaded abyss, (and) insulating ourselves in protective omnipotent defenses “ (Shabad, 2016).  Via experiential groups, we’ll address how talking about death, to ourselves and to our patients, can enhance our experience of living our lives fully. We’ll write and talk through this protocol together.

Part I: history, literature review, vignette, frame how Freud, our culture, AND our profession avoid acknowledging the impact of our actual death.. 

Part II: divide into Small Groups, delve into how our own end of life perspective(s) might (unconsciously?) organize our psyches. 

Part III: return to Large Group to share views & discuss ‘existential orientation’ protocols that suggest how to talk with patients about their feelings, attitudes, beliefs about dying and their own inevitable death. Practical suggested protocols will be reviewed.

Woody Allen — 'I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.