Understanding and Supporting Survivors of Traumatic Loss

This workshop will define and delve into traumatic loss including suicide, homicide, and accidents. Participants will examine special considerations relevant to working with survivors of traumatic loss and explore relevant concepts including trauma-informed principles, complicated grief, and Prolonged Grief Disorder. Case studies will be utilized and strategies and interventions will be shared to enhance participants’ competency in working with survivors of traumatic loss.

Participants of this workshop will:

· Differentiate complicated grief from common grief reactions.

· Apply trauma-informed principles to clinical work with clients.

· Define the four categories of social support.

· Identify strategies and interventions for effectively addressing the clinical needs of survivors of traumatic loss.

Instructor: Kristin L. Miller, MSW, LCSW

Kristin Miller is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who is committed to helping people heal, grow, and reach their full potential. She is extremely passionate about providing creative and culturally competent therapeutic services, as well as providing premier training and consulting services to mental health professionals, social service professionals, and education professionals. She earned her Masters in Social Work at Columbia University with a concentration in Advanced Clinical Practice with Children and Families. She has more than 20 years of experience providing individual, group, and family therapy to children, adolescents, and adults who are grieving various losses. These include non-death losses such as the incarceration of a loved one, involvement in foster care, being diagnosed with a life-changing illness, infertility, adjusting to a family member’s mental illness, substance use, or memory-related illness, estrangement from family members, as well as the ending of any significant relationship. Her work has also focused on helping clients cope with the death of others due to suicide, homicide, car accidents, cancer, heart attack, HIV/AIDS, drowning, drug overdose, miscarriage and stillbirth, and interpersonal partner violence (IPV). She has provided therapeutic services in a variety of settings including an intensive outpatient program, a partial hospitalization program, a non-profit organization serving survivors of IPV and sexual assault, private practice, as well as in families’ homes.

Ms. Miller believes in being a life-long learner and servant leader; she is committed to using her skills, training, and experiences to educate others. She is a professor in the Social Work Department at Seton Hall University where she created and teaches Trauma-Informed Social Work Practice and Ethics in Social Work Practice. She is the owner of Kristin L. Miller, LCSW LLC, which provides training and consulting services to social service agencies, schools, universities, organizations, and churches. She is also a volunteer trainer with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Ms. Miller is the co-founder of Mosaic Counseling & Consulting LLC, a group practice which provides individual, group, and family therapy, support groups, and workshops. She is one of the founders and a Board Member for the Anti-Racist Mental Health Alliance of NJ. Ms. Miller’s areas of expertise include: grief and loss, depression, suicide prevention, anxiety, trauma, racism and racial trauma, attachment and relationship issues, and faith-based counseling. She considers it a privilege to create safe spaces for clients, to be present with them in their suffering, pain, and despair, and to witness their hope, healing, resilience, and transformation.