Grief and loss can touch every part of a person’s life. Clients may seek support following the death of someone important to them, while facing a terminal or life-limiting illness, caring for someone they love, adjusting to the end of a relationship, or coping with the loss of health, independence, identity, security or an anticipated future.

This practical and compassionate CPD workshop has been created for solution-focused and integrative hypnotherapists who would like to feel more confident supporting clients through bereavement, anticipatory grief and significant life loss.

Grief does not follow a fixed timetable or a simple series of predictable stages. Each person’s experience is influenced by their relationship, circumstances, culture, beliefs, previous experiences, available support and the nature of the loss. This workshop will explore how therapists can respond sensitively without rushing the client, imposing meaning or suggesting that grief is something to be erased or “fixed”.

In England and Wales, demand for palliative care is expected to increase by between 25% and 47% by 2040. As more people live longer with cancer, dementia and other complex or life-limiting conditions, therapists may increasingly encounter clients affected by anticipatory grief, caring responsibilities, bereavement and profound changes to their lives.

During the workshop, we will explore:

• grief as an individual and non-linear experience;
• contemporary grief frameworks, including the limitations of stage-based models;
• the Dual Process Model, continuing bonds, meaning and growing around grief;
• anticipatory grief and the emotional impact of terminal or life-limiting illness;
• supporting clients living with cancer and other serious health conditions;
• grief experienced by partners, relatives and carers;
• relationship loss and other significant non-death losses;
• sensitive therapeutic conversations and compassionate client-centred questions;
• solution-focused and integrative approaches to therapeutic goal-setting;
• supporting emotional regulation, sleep, confidence, self-compassion and day-to-day coping;
• the appropriate use of hypnosis, imagery, metaphor, memory, rituals and therapeutic letter-writing;
• spiritual, cultural and existential considerations without making assumptions about the client’s beliefs;
• recognising trauma, depression, prolonged grief, suicide risk and needs that require specialist support;
• ethical boundaries, scope of practice, referral and collaborative working;
• supervision, therapist self-awareness and professional self-care.

The role of hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy cannot remove the significance of a loss, and its purpose is not to make someone forget, stop caring or achieve artificial “closure”.

Used sensitively and within professional scope, hypnotherapy may help clients:

• settle periods of emotional and physical overwhelm;
• develop resources for coping with difficult days, anniversaries and reminders;
• support sleep, rest and nervous-system regulation;
• work compassionately with unhelpful guilt, self-blame or fear where appropriate;
• reconnect with strengths, relationships and sources of support;
• preserve meaningful memories and continuing bonds;
• begin adapting to a life that has changed;
• experience moments of calm, hope and connection alongside their grief.

The workshop will place the therapeutic conversation first, with hypnosis used thoughtfully as part of an individualised and client-led approach.

Practical learning
The workshop will include therapeutic language, client examples, case discussion, step-by-step techniques and guidance on adapting hypnosis to the person in front of you.

You will receive:

• a pre-workshop reflective workbook;
• a comprehensive post-workshop resource pack;
• practical practitioner guidance;
• adaptable hypnotherapy scripts and metaphors;
• therapeutic exercises and client worksheets;
• initial enquiry, scope and referral guidance;
• recommended professional and bereavement resources;
• an accredited CPD certificate.

Who is this workshop for?
This workshop is suitable for qualified hypnotherapists, psychotherapists, counsellors and other appropriately trained talking-therapy practitioners who would like to develop their understanding of bereavement, anticipatory grief and significant life loss.

It does not qualify attendees as bereavement counsellors, palliative-care practitioners or specialist trauma therapists. The focus is on helping practitioners offer compassionate and professionally responsible support within their existing qualifications, competence and insurance.

About the Trainer:
Lisa Williams Edgar is a Clinical Integrative and Solution Focused Hypnotherapist, Trainer and Supervisor with 15 years’ experience in therapeutic practice.

During that time, Lisa has supported many people living with cancer, terminal and life-limiting illness, as well as relatives, carers, bereaved clients and people adapting to relationship loss and other profound changes in their lives.

Lisa brings a warm, practical and deeply compassionate approach to her teaching. Her focus is on helping therapists understand what they can appropriately offer, develop greater confidence in sensitive conversations, use hypnosis safely and purposefully, and recognise when additional or specialist support is needed.