This presentation will describe how to recognize and facilitate grief and mourning in individual psychotherapy on the basis of Worden’s (2018) model. Normal grief will be described, including the necessary tasks of mourning. Normal grief will be distinguished from complicated grief, including how to assess for more complicated grief. Principles for facilitating grief counseling in both normal and complicated grief and mourning, and common therapist barriers to addressing grief in counseling, will be discussed.
Dr. Melanie Wilcox, PhD, ABPP
Dr. Melanie Wilcox is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, Institute of Public and Preventive Health, and Department of Psychiatry at Augusta University. She is also a licensed psychologist and board certified in counseling psychology and works part-time in private practice providing both therapy and assessment via telehealth. Her clinical areas of expertise include culturally responsive and trauma-informed care as well as substance abuse and addiction. Her research focuses on culturally response and antiracist psychotherapy and training, racial and socioeconomic inequity in higher education, and racial and social justice more broadly. She is in her final year as a member of the American Psychological Association’s Board of Educational Affairs, which she chaired in 2020, and is currently President Elect-Elect of APA Division 17, the Society of Counseling Psychology.
