Speaker: Kris Ford

“Anyone old enough to love is old enough to grieve.” – Mr. Rogers

Kris Ford is a retired grief and trauma therapist with over 30 years of experience working with children and adults in grief counseling. Her passion for this work is fueled by her own experiences of loss as a child and as an adult. She believes in the transformative power of a healthy grief process.  She served as the Director of Programs for Bo’s Place, the children’s bereavement center in Houston, and founded “My Healing Place,” a child and family grief center in Austin, TX. She is currently developing “My Healing Place at St. Francis” in Cary.  Support groups for adults who have experienced the death of a loved one are presently meeting twice a month at St Francis UMC.  Children’s groups will start as soon as there are enough children to form a viable group.

Presentation Objectives:

• Gain a better understanding of children’s grief.
• Gain specific tools for working with the grieving child.

Topics of Discussion:

• Basic assumptions about grief.
• Unique aspects of children’s grief.
• Children’s grief from a developmental perspective.
• Children’s grief from a family dynamics perspective.
• 3 tasks of grieving for children.
• Therapeutic interventions for grieving children.

Questions will be allowed at the end of the presentation.