Navigating Grief After Divorce - Continuing Education

Edinburg Course Information

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Registration Deadline:
September 9, 2025

Contact Hours:
12 Hours of CEUs

Dates:
September 11 & 12, 2025

Days/Time:
Thursday & Friday: 9 a.m - 4:30 p.m

Program Modality:
In-Person

Location:
Edinburg CESS Building
ECESS 1.709

Instructor:
Enedina (Nina) Enriquez, DSW, LCSW-S

Cost:
$ 349

Refund Deadline:
September 7, 2025

Notes:

Students requiring accommodation should contact our office pewd@utrgv.edu to learn about the process.

Navigating Grief After Divorce:
Addressing Complicated and Traumatic Grief in Family Systems

This comprehensive training program is tailored for professionals who support families undergoing separation or divorce. It aims to equip participants with essential tools, knowledge, and strategies to effectively assist children and adults in navigating grief and trauma.

Key Focus Areas:
• Understand the emotional and psychological impact of divorce-related trauma and learn strategies to foster healing.
• Gain practical insights to help individuals and families manage the challenges associated with separation or divorce.

Details:

• Educational Modules with key concepts and best practices.
• Case Discussions
• Coping Strategies
• Journaling Prompts
• Practical Assignments

1. Identify Complicated and Traumatic Grief Factors:

• Understand the specific grief responses associated with divorce and how they differ from other types of grief.
• Recognize signs of complicated and traumatic grief in clients.

2. Develop Effective Intervention Strategies:

• Learn and apply therapeutic techniques tailored to address grief after divorce with a focus on diverse populations.
• Implement family-centered approaches to support the entire family system.

3. Enhance Cultural Competence:

• Gain insights into how cultural factors influence grief and divorce.
• Apply culturally sensitive practices to support diverse clients navigating grief after divorce.

1. Understanding Complicated Grief

• Description: This module explores the nature of complicated grief, distinguishing it from normal grief. It covers symptoms, risk factors, and the impact on individuals and families. Additionally, it examines how divorce can act as a catalyst for complicated grief, affecting emotional stability and family dynamics.
• Key Topics: Diagnostic criteria, case studies, therapeutic approaches, and divorce-related grief.

2. Traumatic Grief and Its Impact

• Description: Focuses on the intersection of trauma and grief, examining how traumatic events can exacerbate grief responses. It includes strategies for identifying and addressing traumatic grief. This module also delves into the specific trauma associated with divorce, including feelings of abandonment, loss of identity, and the impact on children.
• Key Topics: Trauma-informed care, PTSD, grief interventions, and divorce trauma.

3. Family Dynamics and Grief

• Description: Investigates how grief affects family systems, including changes in roles, communication patterns, and relationships. It emphasizes the importance of family-centered approaches. The module highlights how divorce can disrupt family dynamics, leading to complex grief responses and necessitating targeted interventions.
• Key Topics: Systemic therapy, family resilience, support strategies, and divorce-related family changes.

4. Cultural Competence in Grief Counseling

• Description: Addresses the cultural dimensions of grief, highlighting how cultural beliefs and practices influence grieving processes. It provides tools for culturally sensitive interventions. This module includes a focus on how different cultures perceive and handle divorce, and the unique grief responses that may arise.
• Key Topics: Cross-cultural perspectives, cultural humility, inclusive practices, and cultural views on divorce.

5. Interventions for Complicated and Traumatic Grief

• Description: Offers practical techniques and interventions for managing complicated and traumatic grief. It includes evidence-based practices and emerging therapies. Special attention is given to interventions that address the specific grief and trauma associated with divorce, helping clients navigate their emotional landscape.
• Key Topics: Cognitive-behavioral therapy, Experiential therapy, narrative therapy, and divorce-related interventions.

6. Self-Care for Mental Health Professionals

• Description: Emphasizes the importance of self-care for professionals working with grief and trauma. It provides strategies for maintaining personal well-being and preventing burnout. This module also discusses the emotional toll of working with clients experiencing divorce-related trauma and grief, offering self-care techniques to manage this stress.
• Key Topics: Mindfulness, stress management, professional support networks, and managing divorce-related client trauma.

No prerequisites are required.

Enedina Enriquez, DSW, LCSW-S.

Enedina Enriquez, DSW, LCSW-S, holds a doctoral degree in social work from USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work in California. Dr. Enriquez is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Social Work. A graduate of the University of Texas Pan American, where she earned her bachelor and master's degrees in social work degree, she became a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in 2011 and in 2019, became a Texas State Board Approved Clinical Supervisor for licensed master level social workers and marriage and family therapy clinicians.
She has her own private practice, Kindred Spirit Latino Center for Grief and Loss, specializing in grief, loss, and traumatic bereavement services for Hispanic individuals suffering from a chronic/terminal illness, multiple losses, suicide loss and trauma. She also provides family grief therapy sessions, family grief workshops and support groups for grief and loss and for survivors of suicide loss. Dr. Enriquez serves as the Chapter President for the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention South Texas.

Submit a required written request via email three business days before the program start date. Weekends are not considered. Partial refunds are not allowed.