LIVE WEBINAR | The edge of forever: Extraordinary experiences at life's end

The edge of forever: Extraordinary experiences at life’s end

with Dr Kenneth Doka

Who should attend this webinar?
Anyone who works in a professional care role or supports people experiencing loss and grief. This webinar is relevant to counsellors, social workers, psychologists, health and mental health professionals, educators, chaplains, hospice and palliative care providers, volunteers, and others working with individuals, families and communities affected by loss.

Overview

A wide range of phenomena has been reported around the process of death and dying, throughout history and across cultures. This webinar explores the paranormal phenomena associated with dying and grief. The presentation considers a variety of experiences, including terminal lucidity, near death experiences, nearing death experiences, premonitions of death, transpersonal end-of-life experiences, and extraordinary experiences.

While respectful of such experiences, we discuss counselling implications and connections to current concepts such as continuing bonds, meaning making, and spirituality. Most importantly, the presentation offers participants opportunities to explore their own experiences and strategise approaches to beginning such conversations with clients.

We also consider strategies on ways to utilise and build on such experiences to facilitate coping with dying for individuals and their intimate networks, as well as those who are bereaved. The webinar discusses approaches such as reminiscence and life review, moral/ethical wills, living eulogies, life imprints, and therapeutic ritual that can assist both those who are attempting to incorporate such experiences within their life framework, as well as those who seek such experiences.

Key learning points

At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to:

• Describe phenomena around death and dying, including terminal lucidity, near death experiences, nearing death experiences, premonitions of death, transpersonal end-of-life experiences, and extraordinary experiences
• Discuss the ways that such phenomena may affect dying individuals, their families, and professional caregivers
• Describe how these phenomena may influence grief and loss
• Discuss ways in which counsellors should respond to such phenomena

About the presenter

Dr Kenneth J. Doka is one of the world’s leading authorities on grief, bereavement, and end‑of‑life care. He is Senior Vice President for Grief Programs at the Hospice Foundation of America and Professor Emeritus of Gerontology at The College of New Rochelle. Dr Doka is widely recognised for coining the term disenfranchised grief and for his extensive contributions to understanding diverse grieving styles.

A prolific author, Dr Doka has written or edited more than 40 books and over 100 scholarly articles and chapters, including Disenfranchised Grief: Recognizing Hidden Sorrow, Grieving Beyond Gender, and Grief Is a Journey. He is editor of Omega: Journal of Death and Dying and Journeys: A Newsletter to Help in Bereavement, and maintains an ongoing blog, Good Mourning, for Psychology Today.

Dr Doka is a past president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), a Fellow of ADEC and the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement, and a licensed mental health counselor in New York State. His lifetime contributions to the field have been recognised with numerous international awards, including ADEC’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

TO FIND OUT MORE AND BOOK: 

https://education.griefcentre.org.nz/course/extraodinary-experiences0926