AEDP® Seminar November 6, 2026
Working with Grief and Trauma: Clinical Distinctions and Practical Experiential Interventions
Presented by Abigail Nathanson, LCSW, DSW, APHSW-C, ACS
Friday, November 6, 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM ET
Interactive Synchronous Distance Learning (Live Online)
3.75 Continuing Education Credits Available
Course Description
This seminar presents a research-informed approach to adult grief and trauma, integrating contemporary grief theory with AEDP’s attachment-based, experiential model of change. Participants will learn to differentiate normative grief, depression, Prolonged Grief Disorder, and PTSD using clear assessment frameworks, and to apply evidence-based models of bereavement within an AEDP framework.
Focus is placed on working effectively when grief and trauma
overlap, including sequencing interventions and supporting emotional processing without prematurely constraining grief. Losses related to illness and death, as well as symbolic, ambiguous and relational losses will be explored. Case examples, video and reflective exercises support the application of AEDP techniques to facilitate adaptive emotional processing in mourning.
Note: AEDP is applied as an integrative lens rather than the training’s primary skill focus.
Who should attend
Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Course Overview
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Differentiate normative grief, Prolonged Grief Disorder, and PTSD using established diagnostic and clinical assessment criteria.
- Apply contemporary, evidence-based models of mourning (e.g., Dual Process Model, Meaning Reconstruction) within an AEDP-informed framework to guide case conceptualization.
- Select and implement appropriate intervention strategies, including ego-supportive and experiential techniques, based on clinical presentation and the presence of co-occurring grief and trauma.
- Identify how therapist responses (e.g., attunement, regulation, or premature reassurance) can influence patients’ capacity for adaptive emotional processing in grief.
11:00 – 11:10 AM — Welcome (10 min)
- Goals, structure, and scope of the training
- Psychological safety and workshop parameters
11:10 – 11:55 AM — 1. Framing Grief in AEDP + Contemporary Models (45 min)
- Grief as an attachment-based, adaptive affective process of re-learning; research-driven common misconceptions; overview of kinds of losses
- Grief history beyond the Western canon & contemporary models
- Grief as a dynamic process & how it shows up
11:55 AM – 12:35 PM — 2. Differential Understanding (40 min)
- Grief vs. depression, PTSD vs. Prolonged Grief Disorder
- Pathogenic affect vs. grief; resilient/typical vs. prolonged grief
- Parallel tracks of grief and trauma, and how trauma disrupts grief
- Grief, sex & trauma
12:35 – 12:45 PM — Break (10 min)
12:45 – 1:25 PM — 3. Clinical Decision-Making (40 min)
- Identifying the primary clinical process, and sequencing care when both occur
- Ego-supportive vs therapeutic interventions
- The wider intervention landscape in grief work
- Group reflective activity
1:25 – 2:20 PM — 4. AEDP Interventions (55 min)
- Dyadic regulation and a pro-symptom approach to tracking adaptive grief without over-regulation
- Working with psychoeducation and guilt in grief, incorporating continuing bonds and meaning reconstruction
- The Triangle of Experience across the four states in grief
- Patient tape
2:20 – 2:45 PM — 5. Clinical Challenges & Therapist Positioning (25 min)
- Common pitfalls and cultural bias in working with what’s “normal”
- Therapist responses to grief: discomfort, fixing, distancing, saviorism, overregulation
- Group reflective activity on presence and attunement
2:45 – 3:00 PM — Q&A (15 min)
Open discussion and integration into practice
Course Content Level: Beginning
To receive credit, participants must pay the CE fee, attend the entire training, and complete the evaluation form. Partial credit is not available. CE certificates are issued after the evaluation is submitted.
Continuing education applications may be underway for various national and state-level boards and agencies. Please check back for updated approvals or email admin@aedpinstitute.org with questions.
Disclosure
All planners and presenters have disclosed that they have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies. There is no commercial support for this program nor are there any relationships between AEDP Institute, the presenter, program content, research, grants, or other funding that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest.
Continuing Education (CE) Approvals
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)
AEDP Institute provider #2307, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: October 31, 2025 – October 31, 2026. Social Workers completing the training will receive 3.75 continuing education credits.
PSYCHOLOGISTS:
American Psychological Association (APA): AEDP Institute, is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. AEDP Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
New York Psychologists
AEDP Works, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0256. AEDP Works, LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content. This training is approved for 3.75 continuing education credits
New York Social Workers (LMSWs and LCSWs)
AEDP Works, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0805. This training is approved for 3.75 continuing education credits
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)
AEDP Works, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7622. Counselors in all states except NY and MFTs in all states except NY and MA are eligible. This training is approved for 33 continuing NBCC credits.by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7622. AEDP Works, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Each session is being offered for 3.75 NBCC Credit Hours.
This program was developed for:
Licensed and pre-licensed mental health professionals who are practicing under the supervision of a qualified, licensed clinician. Participants typically hold (or are actively working toward) one of the following credentials:
Graduate students enrolled in accredited mental health training programs practicing under a licensed Supervisor
Psychologists (PhD, PsyD, EdD)
Psychiatrists (MD, DO)
Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW, LICSW, MSW)
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT)
Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC, LPCC, LCPC, etc.)
Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHC)
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners (PMHNP, APRN)
Registered Psychotherapists (as recognized regionally)
Occupational Therapists with training in mental health
Licensed or registered art, music, or dance/movement therapists
AEDP offers group discounts to practices, agencies, organizations, and institutions that register and pay for multiple clinicians together. Group discounts are not available for self-organized groups of individual registrants.
Discount Levels
- 3–5 registrants: 10% discount
- 6–10 registrants: 15% discount
- 11 or more registrants: 20% discount
How to Apply
To request a group discount, please contact Marilia at admin@aedpinstitute.org and provide:
- The name of your practice, organization, or institution
- The names of all registrants
- The course(s) or seminar(s) for which they are registering
Once approved, you will receive a registration code for your group.
Payment Options
Groups may pay in full or choose a payment plan consisting of a deposit followed by four installments.
Cancellation Policy
Group discounts are contingent upon maintaining the minimum number of registrants required for the applicable discount tier. If cancellations reduce enrollment below the required threshold, the discount will no longer apply. Remaining registrants will be responsible for the difference between the discounted and standard registration fee, plus a 10% administrative fee per registrant.
Meet The Presenter: Dr. Abigail Nathanson, LCSW, APHSW-C, ACS
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Abigail Nathanson has no financial relationships with ineligible organizations. She receives a speaking honorarium from AEDP Institute, AEDP Works, LLC.
Non-financial: Dr. Abigail Nathanson has no non-financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Dr. Abigail Nathanson (she/hers) is a trauma therapist with over 20 years of experience in healthcare and mental health, working with people who are seriously ill or dying, their caregivers, healthcare professionals, and those in mourning. Before training as a trauma therapist in AEDP, EMDR, and Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy, Abby worked across hospice, palliative care, skilled nursing facilities, major academic medical centers, and community non-profits, both on the front lines and in management and program development.
Abby holds national board certification in Palliative Care and is a Level III AEDP provider, and has written, taught, and researched in bereavement, caregiving, death anxiety, and coping with serious illness. She earned both her master’s and doctorate in social work from NYU, where she remains on faculty, teaching Grief, Loss and Bereavement in the MSW program and helping develop and run the post-master’s Advanced Clinical Seminars in Grief and Trauma, in the Palliative Studies program. Abby is co-editor of The Practice of Clinical Social Work in Healthcare (Springer Press) and consults and trains nationally.
Course Dates & Setting
Please check all dates and times closely for conflicts with local holidays, religious holidays, etc.
Please double check the meeting time in your local time zone by visiting here.
Dates
Friday, November 6, 2026
Times
11:00 AM – 3:00 PM ET
Setting
click here for the AEDP Live, Online Learning Requirements & FAQ’s
Registration, Fees & Scholarships
Member Registration
$134
Early Bird Rate $119 USD
(Members Only) Available through September 21, 2026
Non-Member Registration
$149
Join as a Member and Save
Scholarships
Limited scholarships are available. If you can attend with an extended payment plan instead of a scholarship, please email (Carolyn)
Eligibility Requirements
North America: Licensed mental health practitioners, as well as therapists practicing under the license of a supervising professional.
Important Note: Coaching licenses and other non-psychotherapy-specific licenses do not meet the eligibility requirements.
If you’re unsure about the relevance of this course for you, or your eligibility, please contact admin@aedpinstitute.org with your credentials before registering.
Attendance and Make up Policy
Institute Sponsored Courses Including Immersion, Essential Skills, Advanced Skill Modules, Seminars/Webinars and Institute Sponsored Core Trainings
The AEDP Institute does not offer make-ups for missed course days. In the rare case where someone joins a course late, or misses a session in the middle of a course, the hour(s) or day(s) that person misses cannot be made up. Why? Group dynamics developed during a course are essential to the course’s success; so someone coming into a course for a short period of time is – regardless of their best intentions – disruptive to other participants and the course’s overall success. The Institute will, however, provide handouts from missed hours or days but will not allow a person to make up the hours or days they miss in another course.
AEDP Level credit: if a participant attends 80% or more of a course, the Institute will apply the course towards AEDP Level advancement
Refunds and Cancellations
Click here for our refund and cancellation policy
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813-553-1294
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