August 16, 2021

What the Grief Just Happened?

36 minutes

An interview with Sonya Lott, Ph.D, on how COVID has impacted our experience of grief. Curt and Katie talk with Sonya about the types of grief people are experiencing and how people have been coping thus far. We explore what prolonged grief is and the risk factors that contribute to it as well as tips to support clients. We also talk about the need for therapists to be informed on grief processes and the importance of meeting clients where they are.

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

Interview with Sonya Lott, Ph.D, Founder of CEMPSYCH, LLC

Sonya Lott has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Temple University. She been licensed as a psychologist in PA since 1991. Since 2020, she has been licensed to provide telepsychology in more than 16 states through the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Board’s (ASPPB) PSYPACT program. She maintains a private online practice devoted to helping individuals transform their experiences of traumatic and prolonged grief. She is trained in Complicated Grief Therapy (CGT), an evidence-based treatment for prolonged grief and is also a certified brainspotting practitioner. She is also the founder of CEMPSYCH, LLC, which offers continuing education in multicultural psychology to mental health professionals. CEMPSYCH, LLC is approved as a sponsor by the APA to provide continuing education to psychologists.

In this episode we talk about:

Who Sonya Lott is and what she puts out in the world.

Looking at how COVID has impacted our experience of grief (i.e., death and non-death losses).

How the uncertainty COVID created has added to our difficulty in acknowledging losses in our lives.

Discussion of how clinicians can help their clients (and themselves) recognize and process their grief.

Examining how losses to previous COVID, attachment styles, and other risk factors have influenced the way people manage their grief.

Defining prolonged grief and recognizing when it is a problem, while making cultural considerations.

Factors that have contributed to people developing prolonged grief (e.g., isolation, previous mental health challenges, etc).

What clinicians can expect to see from clients as we move into the next phase of our lives.

The need for clinicians to be able to differentiate from grief, prolonged grief, and major depression and address each accordingly.

Recognizing that the grief people are experiencing is inherently traumatic and integrating this into treatment.

Tips for clinicians to help clients who are stuck.

Being a grief informed therapist (knowing there are no stages to grief).

The importance of meeting people where they at to help them process their grief.

Resources mentioned:

We’ve pulled together resources mentioned in this episode and put together some handy-dandy links. Please note that some of the links below may be affiliate links, so if you purchase after clicking below, we may get a little bit of cash in our pockets. We thank you in advance!

Dr. Sonya Lott Website

CEMPSYCH LLC

Relevant Episodes:

Death, Dying, and Grief

Compassion Fatigue

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By Curt Widhalm, LMFT and Katie Vernoy, LMFT

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