Skip to main content
Digital Seminar

Suicide Loss and Traumatic Grief

Tools to Treat the Emotional, Relational, and Existential Fallout in Survivors
Faculty:
Rita Schulte, LPC
Duration:
6 Hours 01 Minutes
Copyright:
20 Aug, 2026
Product Code:
POS150853
Media Type:
Digital Seminar
Access:
Never expires.
Choose a price item
Add to Cart

Description

Suicide loss isn’t like other losses.

Hundreds of thousands are left grieving each year.

You can help them. This training shows you how.

  • Interventions from narrative, experiential and meaning-making approaches
  • Techniques for guilt, self-blame and spiritual/existential crises
  • Skillfully address trauma, anxiety and co-occurring conditions
  • Techniques to help rebuild identify and connection
  • How to help clients navigate the stigma and isolation unique to suicide loss

 

Suicide loss isn’t like other losses.

Because these clients aren’t just carrying the grief. They’re wrestling with a unique blend of trauma, guilt and anger mixed with love …

… all while a powerful undercurrent of existential crisis and stigma threatens to keep them drowning in silence.

And here’s the truth. Working at this crossroads requires a clinical roadmap …

That’s why we built this training – to give you the approach you need to treat the complex emotional, relational, and existential fallout survivors face.

You’ll watch suicide loss specialist and author of Surviving Suicide Loss, Rita Schulte, LPC.

She’s spent her career working with survivors of suicide and traumatic grief. She’s also a suicide loss survivor.

She’ll give you the best narrative, experiential and meaning-centered interventions she’s found in over 3 decades of work so you can:

  • Help clients through guilt, self-blame, and spiritual/existential crisis
  • Address trauma responses that often accompany suicide loss
  • Rebuild meaning, identity, and connection after their world has been shattered
  • Confidently help clients navigate the stigma and isolation unique to suicide grief

Hundreds of thousands of people die by suicide in the world every year, leaving millions of their loved ones feeling like there’s just no way forward.

You can help them. This training shows you how.

Purchase now.

CPD

Faculty

Rita Schulte, LPC's Profile

Rita Schulte, LPC Related seminars and products

Rita Schulte is a licensed professional board-certified counselor. She received her B.S. in psychology and a master's degree in counseling from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Rita has a private practice in Fairfax where she specializes in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety/depressive disorders as well as grief, loss, and trauma. In April 2011, she launched Heartline Podcast where she talks with top leaders in the Christian counseling and literary world about cutting edge issues affecting the hearts and lives of people today. She also airs a 1-minute devotional spot Consider This coming to KLZ radio this fall. She is the author of several books: Shattered: Finding Hope and Healing through the losses of Life, Imposter, Think This not That and forthcoming in 2021, Surviving Suicide Loss: Making Your Way Beyond the Ruins (Moody Publishers). Rita is a speaker for PESI, ACA, AACC, and many other organizations.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Rita Schulte receives royalties as a published author. She receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Rita Schulte is a member of the American Association of Christian Counselor's and the American Counseling Association.

Additional Info

Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)

Access never expires for this product.

For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.


Objectives

  1. Compare traumatic and nontraumatic bereavement.
  2. Examine clinical implications of stigma on suicide bereavement.
  3. Identify best practices/models for grief interventions for individuals and family systems bereaved by suicide loss.
  4. Choose interventions for grief including narrative therapy, compassion exercises, and somatic resourcing.
  5. Examine how mindfulness practices can help clients with trauma symptoms and other difficulties associated with traumatic bereavement.
  6. Use research on the process of meaning making to support clients who have experienced traumatic loss.

Outline

The Unique Nature of Suicide Loss

  • The psychological impact of suicide on survivors
  • Distinctive features of suicide bereavement (e.g., shock, guilt, blame, trauma)
  • Stigma, silence, and societal misunderstanding
  • The crisis of belief & existential shattering
  • Making meaning and the importance of “why”
  • How suicide loss differs from other types of grief

Assess and Address Traumatic Grief Responses

  • The neurobiology of the traumatized brain
  • Symptoms of complicated and prolonged grief
  • Trauma-informed assessment tools and techniques
  • Dissociation, shame, and survivor’s guilt
  • Co-occurring disorders: depression, PTSD, anxiety, substance use

Therapeutic Frameworks for Working with Suicide Loss Survivors

  • Use a strengths-based approach to build resiliency
  • Integrate narrative and meaning-making models
  • Use somatic and experiential methods for trauma release
  • Strategies to help clients access and reclaim compassion
  • Mindful grief
  • Working with spiritual issues
  • Culturally responsive care in suicide bereavement
  • Research, risks and treatment limitations

Working with Family Systems and Group Dynamics

  • Grief roles within families and relational conflict after a suicide
  • Help parents, children, and siblings process differently
  • Support group facilitation: peer connection and collective healing
  • Intergenerational trauma and family history of suicide

Ethical, Legal, and Clinical Considerations

  • Manage risk in suicide loss survivors
  • Documentation and liability issues
  • Boundaries and therapist emotional regulation
  • Disclosures, confidentiality, and dual relationships

Postvention, Prevention and Professional Integration

  • The role of postvention in suicide prevention
  • Support communities, schools, and organizations after a suicide
  • Build a clinical niche and collaborating with advocacy groups
  • Vicarious trauma and therapist self-care

Target Audience

  • Social Workers
  • Counsellors
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Psychologists
  • Case Managers
  • Addiction Counsellors
  • Registered Psychotherapists
  • Other Mental Health Professionals
  • Physicians

Please wait ...

Back to Top