How clinicians can support healthy grieving from pandemic deaths

Interview-style, with Elizabeth Irias, LMFT

  • Course Description

    The loss of life caused by COVID-19 has devastated families across the world, and concerns about the contagion of COVID-19 has significantly impacted the traditional processes associated with death and grieving, from cultural processes like funerals to opportunities to say goodbye or give a loved one a last hug. This course discusses the grief process for clients (and others) who have had a loved one die from COVID-19. Topics include trauma of the loss itself and why that is different with COVID-19 than with other causes of death, secondary trauma from the influence of media and as a result of illness-related issues for the primary griever, and how the grief process and recovery can be addressed with the special population.

  • Learning Objectives

    Upon completing this course, participants will be able to: Discuss why knowledge of the dying process is essential to working in grief with COVID deaths, where to find the information, and how to use it for your client’s grief process; Describe potential trauma caused by a loved one dying an unwitnessed death; Describe two or more methods for coping with losses in mass death months based upon prior events and research about survivors


    Target Audience and Instructional Level
    This course is intended for psychologists, therapists, social workers, clinical counselors, and addiction counselors. Instructional level: Introductory & Intermediate

  • How To Take This Course

    In order to receive a certificate of completion reflecting the associated CE credit hour, you must:
    #1: Have an active paid Clearly Clinical membership
    #2: Listen to the corresponding course podcast
    #3: Achieve a passing grade on the post-presentation test (the test has up to ten questions and you must earn a score of at least 80%; users can re-test up to three times. After three attempts, users are advised to re-listen to the audio course in its entirety and then subsequently re-test. Psychologists who are seeking CE credit may not be awarded credit if they attempt to pass the post-test more than three times.)
    #4: Complete the requested course evaluation.

    Course elements (including the course audio, post-test, and requested course evaluation) can be completed on a computer or mobile device via your Clearly Clinical account.

  • Course Format

    This high-quality and interesting course contains a one-hour, non-interactive audio podcast presentation which is available for free via all major public podcast providers. You can also listen to and download the file via our course player.

  • Commercial Support

    There is no known commercial support or conflict of interest for this CE program, content, sponsor, or instructor. Jill is the author of grief-related books and articles, which she mentions as a potential resource during this course.

  • Certificate Access Details

    Once you've completed the course, your certificate will automatically populate in the 'Certificate' section of your account; it will also be emailed to you. Access to completion certificate will expire 365 days after issuance. Course certificates will be on file for ten (10) years from date of course completion.

  • Accommodations

    If you have special needs or need an accommodation, please email us at [email protected] and we will do our best to assist you.

Expert Interviewee and Interviewer

Jill Johnson-Young, LCSW

Grief Specialist

Jill Johnson-Young, LCSW, is the CEO and Clinical Director of Central Counseling Services in Riverside. She is a certified Grief Recovery Facilitator, and specializes in grief and loss, dementia, trauma, and adoption issues. She has more than a decade of experience with hospice and trains therapists and social workers in areas that include correctly treating childhood trauma, grief and loss, and dementia care. She holds a BA from UC Riverside, and her MSW from the University of South Florida. Jill is the creator of Your Path Through Grief, which is a year-long, comprehensive grief support program, and the author of the soon to be published books “Don’t Grieve like that! How to grieve your way from a rebellious widow” and the children’s book “Someone is sick- how do I say goodbye?” She is a member of the Purple Cities coalition in Riverside and facilitates a dementia support group monthly.

Elizabeth 'Beth' Irias, MS, LMFT

Interviewer & Clearly Clinical Founder

Elizabeth 'Beth' Irias (she/her) is a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and the Founder and President of Clearly Clinical. She has specializations in Clinical Documentation, Best Practice, and Utilization Review, and works closely with clinical teams across the US as a trainer and national conference presenter; Beth was formerly an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University in the Graduate Psychology and Education department. Licensed in California and Oregon, she provides therapy via her private practice to young adult and adult clients, members of the LGBTQ population, and those with addictive disorders. She has two young children, a super cool spouse who helps out with Clearly Clinical's tech, and a rescue dog.

See why we're the country's premier CE provider

  • CONVENIENT: All courses are 1-hour podcast episodes, available on all public podcast platforms

  • AFFORDABLE: We offer quality CE courses through a reasonably-priced membership

  • SOCIALLY-RESPONSIBLE: We donate to The Trevor Project for LGBTQIA+ youth suicide prevention

  • WOMEN-OWNED: We are founded and run by Elizabeth Irias, LMFT

  • DIVERSE: We highlight expert presenters from historically-marginalized communities

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