Top bereavement expert to lead UF workshop on family recovery, resilience after loss
Walsh
Froma Walsh, an internationally recognized researcher and author on death-related coping, resilience and grief over the death of a family member, will lead an all-day workshop on Tuesday, April 17, in Gainesville on “Living Beyond Loss: Facilitating Family Recovery and Resilience.”
The free workshop, sponsored by the University of Florida College of Education, is open to any UF faculty members, students and staff, and to clinical practitioners in the community. The event will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the UF Hilton Hotel and Conference Center at 1714 SW 34th Street.
CEUs will be offered to licensed practitioners for a nominal fee of $25. Seating is limited and advance reservations are required. The workshop is the second installment of the college’s revived Arthur G. Peterson Death Education Lecture Series, scheduled for each spring over the next few years.
In Walsh, the college has lined up one of the top experts in the field of family bereavement and resilience. A licensed psychologist, Walsh is the Mose and Sylvia Firestone Professor Emerita in the School of Social Service Administration, and the Department of Psychiatry in the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. She also co-directs the university-affiliated Chicago Center for Family Health. She is a past president of the American Family Therapy Academy and has received numerous professional honors from that and other national organizations.
Walsh has developed a research-based “family resilience framework” for intervention and prevention efforts to strengthen families in crisis and under prolonged adversity. Her approach devotes special attention to the role of religion and spirituality in the bereavement process.
At the UF workshop, Walsh will demonstrate her counseling approach that is designed to strengthen families in crisis and under prolonged adversity. She will focus on key processes that clinicians
can apply to reduce the risks of traumatic loss, strengthen vital bonds, and foster personal and relational healing and positive growth. She will present practical guidelines, video and case illustrations, highlighting the power of meaning-making, hope, transcendence and spirituality.
With over 80 publications to her credit, Walsh’s books include: Strengthening Family Resilience (2nd ed. 2006); Spiritual Resources in Family Therapy (1999; 2nd ed. in press); and Living Beyond Loss: Death in the Family (with McGoldrick, 2nd ed. 2004). She is past editor of the Journal of Marital & Family Therapy.
Refreshments will be provided and workshop participants will have a lunch break on their own. A reception will follow the workshop. On the following day, Friday, April 18, Walsh will hold conversations with UF education graduate students and faculty from 9 to 10:30 a.m. in Norman Hall, Room 158.
To make reservations, R.S.V.P. no later than April 7 by email to: rwarner@coe.ufl.edu. For more information, contact Ana Puig in the College of Education Office of Educational Research at anapuig@coe.ufl.edu, or 392-2315, ext. 235.
The Death Education lecture series at UF was originally funded in 1977 through a gift from the late Arthur G. Peterson, then a retired Harvard University professor. The initial lectures were coordinated by Hannelore Wass, then a faculty member in education psychology and a pioneer in the field of death studies. Peterson’s gift was prompted by his friendship with Wass.
Contacts
Larry Lansford, llansford@coe.ufl.edu, 352-392-0726, ext. 266
Ana Puig, anapuig@coe.ufl.edu, 352-392-2315, ext. 235
