Coping with Death & Dying in Therapy

Coping with Death & Dying in Therapy St. John’s University | 101 Astor Place | New York, NY 10003

May 19, 2018 9AM – 4PM

Sponsors

NSYPA’s Adult Development and Aging Division

• Nominal fee; $35.00 (CE credits extra); No charge for students

• Application for CE credits has been submitted (*denotes which applied)

• Light breakfast and lunch will be provided

• Registration is being done through NYSPA: http://www.nyspa.org/events/EventDetails. aspx?id=1069296

SCHEDULE 9AM – 9:45AM

REGISTRATION Introductions: Rafael Art. Javier, Ph.D., ABPP & Roy Aranda, Psy.D., J.D. *Roy Aranda, Psy.D., J.D. Death Anxiety This presentation will focus on the meaning of death anxiety and several subtypes, symptoms, assessment tools, and interventions. We will distinguish Necrophobia from Thanatophobia and discuss the differences among Predatory Death Anxiety, Predation Death Anxiety, and Existential Death Anxiety. There are many tests including the Death Anxiety Scale for adults and the Death Anxiety Scale for Children. There are many mental, physical, and emotional symptoms. Interventions to help cope with death anxiety will be reviewed. Herb Gingold, Ph.D. Facing Imminent Death Realizing and coping with the understanding that your life has been irrevocably shortened.

9:45AM – 11AM

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION *Sheldon Solomon, Ph.D. The Worm at the Core: The Role of Death in Life The uniquely human fear of death has a pervasive effect on human beings’ thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Humans manage the terror of death by adhering to culturally constructed beliefs about reality that provide a sense that one is a person of value in a world of meaning, and thus eligible for either literal or symbolic immortality. The quest for immortality underlies some of humankinds’ most noble achievements. It also, however, engenders some of our most ignominious affectations, including: hostility, and disdain for people with different beliefs; indifference to, or contempt for, the natural environment; and, the mindless pursuit for material possessions—which if unchecked, may render humans the first form of life responsible for their own extinction. I will present an overview of these ideas and empirical work that corroborates them, and then consider the implications of these notions for personal and interpersonal behavior, as well as for clinical practice.

11AM – 12PM PANEL 1

*Rochelle Balter, Ph.D., Esq. Psychologists as Disenfranchised Grievers The concept of disenfranchised grief was introduced into the bereavement literature in the 1980s (the AIDS era) by Kenneth Doka. It originally was applied to grief in unsanctioned relationships, especially with AIDS patients, and throw the patient’s partner out.... leaving them no way to say goodbye or participate in any rituals. In present times, disenfranchised grief is applied to people experiencing a loss, who are not first-degree relatives, or spouses of the deceased. This becomes important because with social media and peer relationships taking the place of traditional family, there are many disenfranchised grievers. Colleagues and co-workers, classmates, teachers professional friends, and treating professionals may not only be impacted, but may also grieve the loss of patients, colleagues, etc. This presentation will focus on losses experienced by psychologists in their practices and professional life and how the grievers needs can be met. It will also look at commonly asked questions, such as attending a funeral or receiving condolences. *Anne C. Kane, Ph.D. Grief Work In this presentation, a psychologist (trained by Kubler-Ross) who has worked with the dying and bereaved for more than 40 years gives a crash course on how to help the grieving patient. She attempts to de-mystify grief, defining it, exploring its characteristics, and describing the tasks of the griever. Different types of grief will be discussed. Participants will learn about right brain techniques which can calm the dysregulated nervous system. The presenter believes that we clinicians are in a unique position to explore the landscape of loss with our patients, witnesses to the pain and suffering, but also encouraging the discovery of meaning and growth. *Frank Corigliano, Ph.D. Life after Death & Living while Dying: Telepsychology Creates Connections for Rural New Yorkers Facing Death Telepsychology is disrupting outdated notions of who gets to benefit from psychological care. New York State faces a crisis of isolation, loss, and grief. Dr. Corigliano will review the basics of telepsychology and provide participants with models and resources specific to bringing psychological care to people who face death and dying every day.

12PM – 12:40PM LUNCH

12:40 – 2PM PANEL 2

*Phyllis Cohen, Ph.D., K. Mark Sossin, Ph.D. & Richard Ruth, Ph.D. Helping Children Cope with Death and Loss

*Phyllis Cohen, Ph.D. When Young Children Lose a Parent: Lessons Learned from the World Trade Center Project How might a parent provide scaffolding for her young child when she is grieving her own loss? Such was the case with the women who were pregnant on September 11, 2001 when they experienced profound emotional distress, including anxiety, depression, and rage. As a primary prevention and therapeutic intervention, the World Trade Center Project helped the mothers bond and promote a healthy attachment with their young children while also grieving the loss of a husband. This paper will address how the therapists in the WTC Project used play with the children and their mothers as a means of communication, helping them cope with the father’s death while transforming loss and trauma into a healing narrative, minimizing risk and promoting resilience. *K. Mark Sossin, Ph.D. Ambivalence as a Complicating Factor in Child/Adolescent Bereavement When psychological forces are reasonably confluent and anchoring, and familial support is steadfast, grief may be a slowly transformative (and ultimately freeing) process. However, when ambivalence about a loved one who has died (or is dying) permeates memory and internalized representations, the mourning process may be disrupted, and “resolution” impeded. Feeling alone with mixed feelings, children and adolescents are especially vulnerable in the wake of loss. This paper considers dilemmas in the diagnosis of complicated grief in children, as well as preventative and therapeutic approaches aimed at facilitating more restorative mourning processes. Maladaptive defenses may derail developmental pathways toward independence, confidence, trust, and esteem. Risk-taking becomes interwoven with wishes to undo, reconstruct, or protest in the wake of loss, posing particular challenges in both individual and family therapies. *Richard Ruth, Ph.D. Dreamers’ Ghosts: Clinical Intervention with Children and Adolescents More than a million children, adolescents, and young adults, who have named themselves Dreamers, have come to the US to escape persecution and danger in their home countries. Children as young as four years old often come unaccompanied, without legal protection. Headlines fail to mention that these young people typically come to the US after the deaths of parents, siblings, friends, and neighbors. This paper will discuss clinical experiences with Dreamers in an attempt to lessen the profoundly wounding impact of such losses on these children, adolescents, and young adults. This work both benefits from the insights and methods of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with other young people who have experienced major losses and brings new perspectives on how parent loss operates for young people.

2PM – 3PM PANEL 3

*Patricia A. O’Gorman, Ph.D. & Linda Ventura When Death Strikes at Home: Understanding the Impact on the Family and on the Therapist, of the Death of a Child due to Opioids The surge in opioid addiction is sadly claiming an increasing number of children. But often what is not counted in understanding the wide impact of this epidemic, is this toll on the family, and on those who the family turns to for treatment and support. *Shara Sand, Psy.D. All of My Patients Died This presentation will focus on working with people with HIV/AIDS and the immediate mortality of patients during the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis (1983-1998). Daniel Kaplin, Ph.D. Caring for the Terminally Ill: Balancing Jewish Traditions and Psychological Thought In this presentation, Dr. Kaplin will review prominent issues facing Orthodox clients and their families as they navigate end of life care from a halachic (Jewish Law) and psychological viewpoint. Afterwards, Dr. Kaplin will discuss how to facilitate decision making when faith and treatment conflict. Dr. Kaplin concludes by discussing the impact of religious coping, cultural brokers, and stages of grief will be explored when treating Orthodox patients.

3PM – 4PM

PANEL 4 & WRAP-UP *Ani Kalayjian, Ed.D. Engendering Inner Peace: Transforming Wounds of Grief to Wisdom; the 7-Step Integrative Healing Model The goal of this presentation is to share the value of positive and humanistic psychology to transform emotional wounds of grief from death and dying, especially due to post natural and human- made mass traumas. We have conducted research in over 46 countries around the globe, and 25 states in the United States, addressing the ultimate question in resolving emotional and psychological scars of grief. promoting meaning, healing, hope, reconciliation and trust: “What lessons have we learned from our past?” As Kalayjian (2006) so adeptly questions, “The only healthy and permanent means of resolution for grief is through spiritual connections, through love, forgiveness, empathy, Emotional Intelligence, and service to humanity.” This paper offers insight into the development of remedies for grief, focused on collective and individual needs that promote health, unity, and peace through mind, body, and eco spirit integration. The 7-step Integrative Healing Model will be shared to help transform the wounds of grief to positive lessons, and wisdom. The 7- steps are: 1) assess levels of grief or trauma, 2) encourage expression of feelings, 3) provide empathy and validation, 4) encourage discovery & expression of meaning, 5) provide information, 6) connect with Mother Earth, and 7) provide breathing and physical release exercises; and the use of integrative flower essences and Bach and other flower remedies. Instructions are given on how to use breath towards self-empowerment as well as to engender peace within, gratitude for the memories, faith, strength, and forgiveness. “When one helps another, BOTH become stronger.” *Sharon Brennan, Ph.D. The Emotional Impact of Violent Death on Survivors, Communities, and Treating Psychotherapists in the Wake of a Disaster As Ernest Becker, the cultural anthropologist, articulated in “The Denial of Death,” our fear of non-existence is so terrifying, we tend to expunge the thought from consciousness. Unless we are living with a terminal illness or experienced a potentially life perishing event, death is not something we spend time pondering. However, when someone is thrust into an existential crisis, such as a terror attack, mass shooting, or life-threatening natural disaster, the experience of being face to face with possible, imminent death can evoke significant feelings of annihilation anxiety. Not only are fear and anxiety evoked in survivors at the center of an attack, but they can also permeate those in the surrounding community and beyond. This presentation will explore the emotional impact of life eroding events on survivors and communities in the wake of a violent event, including psychologists and psychotherapists participating in the healing process. Evelyn Rappoport, Psy.D. Till Death Do Us Part “Death comes knocking” through shadows and ghosts, often hidden in plain sight. Anxieties about survival and mortality are part of the human condition and have been with us since the beginning of the human race and the expulsion from the Garden of Adam and Eve. These anxieties, often unknown yet felt, accompany the living, and, at times, actually mask aliveness. What can happen then when we meet death directly, e.g. when death is our patient? Dr. Rappoport will present two clinical treatment vignettes where she accompanied both life and death. She describes her work with a suicidal patient who attempted to draw her into a collusion to enact her toxic, psychotic mother who rejected her personhood from birth. In the second clinical case, she will present her work with a couple, married for over 40 years, where a spouse was suddenly diagnosed with stage four cancer and then died quickly. She demonstrates her shifting roles as she meets the dying and the living and highlights the power of love to dominate over death.

Questions? Contact me at: [email protected]

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Roy Aranda, Psy.D., J.D.