ONLINE 4 Part WEBINAR: CFT for Loss and Grief (February 2026)

Registration

We will host this webinar via Zoom Meetings. This workshop will be recorded and recordings will be available for up to three months after the live broadcast for you to watch in your own time. This webinar awards delegates 8 hours toward CPD.

Level: Intermediate

Timings

All timings are according to UK GMT Time

Session 1, 5th February 2026 18.00 to 20.00

Session 2, 12th February 2026 18.00 to 20.00

Session 3, 19th February 2026 18.00 to 20.00

Session 4, 26th February 2026 18.00 to 20.00

Pricing

This workshop is priced at a flat rate of £135.00.

To pay in instalments or for those in difficult financial circumstances, who may struggle to afford this price, please contact finance@compassionatemind.co.uk

About this Workshop

Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) is of specific interest in situations of loss, grief, and bereavement due to the intensity of the work and the need to provide clients with a secure base from which they can begin the process of rebuilding their lives after a significant loss.

Compassion-based approaches are especially useful for loss experiences that have a protracted course, where individuals must live with ongoing loss and grief over a long time, and where there is no foreseeable end. These approaches are also beneficial to address grief that is accompanied by shame, disenfranchisement, and exhaustion.

The sessions will weave together current research and practice related to loss and grief with the principles and practice of CFT, including material that will explore personal as well as collective experiences and responses to loss. An emphasis will be on differentiating a model of companioning grief versus an interventionist model of treating pathology, and the role of therapist self-practice as a way to cultivate the compassionate base that forms the heart of grief therapy.

Week One: Overview of Grief

· What is grief? How is it different from depression, anxiety, and PTSD?

· Explore current thinking and research on grief

· The assumptive world and grief

· Assessing grief

Week Two: Application of CFT to Grief

· The therapist’s compassionate stance

· Compassionate Mind Training and sustainability

· Practice of presence

· Challenges in grief therapy practice that can be readily addressed with CFT

Week Three: Challenges in Grief Therapy Practice

· The social context of compassion and grief

· Approaching unique scenarios of grief

· Compassion and disenfranchised grief

· When grief goes awry—identifying Prolonged Grief Disorder and its implications

Week Four: Integrating Compassion-Based Practices in Grief Therapy

· Addressing shame and guilt with compassion

· Applying the flows of compassion to situations of loss and grief

· Compassion-based practices with grieving clients

· Use of energy and imagery

· Summary and discussion

The sessions will utilize power point slides, case studies, interactive work with participants, and reflective practice to create a combined didactic and experientially-based training for participants. Handouts with information from slides, examples, and further resources will also be provided to attendees.

Key Learning objectives

1. Define different types of loss experiences and the unique grief that accompanies them.

2. Identify current research, theory, and practice related to grief support, grief therapy, and assessment of grief.

3. Describe the impact of the social context on loss and grief, identifying aspects of loss that are felt personally as well as collectively.

4. Integrate self-practice through compassion training into working with clients who experience significant losses in their lives.

5. Differentiate between grief, depression, anxiety, PTSD, and chronic sorrow.

6. Demonstrate an understanding of the role of compassion training to cultivate a sustainable way of companioning grief.

7. Explore specific compassion-based practices that can be helpful to clients experiencing grief after non-death losses.

8. Describe how a compassionate stance can enhance sustainability in situations where grief is chronic, intense, and/or exceptionally difficult.

Key References

Harris, D. L. (2023). An exploration of compassion focused therapy for grieving individuals. OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine, 8(4), 1-31.

Harris, D.L. (2021). Compassion-focused grief therapy. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 49(6), 780-790.

Harris, D.L., & Ho, A.Y. (Eds.) (2023) Compassion-based approaches to loss and grief. Routledge.

Harris, D., & Milman, J. (in press). Principles and practice of grief counseling (4th Ed). Springer.

Harris, D. (2020). Non-death loss and grief: Context and clinical implications. Routledge.

Workshop Leader

Darcy L. Harris, R.N., R.S.W., M.Ed. (Couns.), Ph.D., FT, is a Professor of Thanatology at King’s University College in London, Canada, where she has also maintained a private clinical practice for over 25 years specializing in issues related to change, loss, and transition. In addition, she is a faculty member of the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, dedicated to training in grief therapy leading toward Certification in Meaning Reconstruction in Loss.

She has served on the board of directors of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and is a current member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement.

She is co-editor for Routledge Publishing Company’s Death, Dying, and Bereavement Series and she is an internationally recognized speaker and author.

Her publications include Counting our Losses: Reflecting on Change, Loss, and Transition in Everyday Life (Routledge), Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society: Bridging Research and Practice (Routledge), Principles and Practice of Grief Counseling (Springer), The Handbook of Social Justice in Loss and Grief: Exploring Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Routledge) and Non-Death Loss and Grief: Context and Clinical Implications (Routledge), and Compassion-Based Approaches to Loss and Grief (Routledge).7