NAPO-WDC Chapter Meeting: Recognizing, Supporting & Responding to Grief and Loss With Confidence and Compassion

Recognizing, Supporting & Responding to Grief and Loss with Confidence and Compassion

Speaker Info: Laura Kellison Wallace

In this seminar, grief and loss coach/counselor, Laura Wallace, MSW, will help participants with a basic understanding of grief and specifically, anticipating and managing the emotions and behaviors when loss; loneliness; unwanted changes; and/or other life transitions are potentially complicating the “job” at hand. 

Objectives include to:

• Present the obvious, and not so obvious, ways grief and loss can manifest in behavior, emotions & actions.
• Share strategies to anticipate, acknowledge and address uncomfortable expressions of sadness, fear, grief, loneliness and frustration with compassion, skill, and confidence. 
• Develop realistic communication tools for managing expectations, deep emotions and the understandable, but “inefficient” time grabs.
• Discuss the real-world challenges to develop and maintain healthy boundaries professionally, while still demonstrating genuine compassion and kindness personally.

Laura Kellison Wallace graduated from Smith College in 1988 and received her Master’s degree in Social Work from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1995. She is a social worker, trainer, coach, counselor and consultant with multiple certifications on topics including Work-life Balance; Conflict and Communication; Grief Counseling; Stress and Balance; Mediation; facilitation and many others. The common denominator is that she gets great satisfaction helping individuals, groups and businesses with the thorny issues that are non-intuitive and complicate all aspects of adult lives. She has developed over 80 original personal and professional curriculum, seminars, and groups and, considers herself a life-long learner - completing well-over 300 hours of post-graduate formal training of her own.

Laura was the Work/Family Program Manager at UNC-Chapel Hill, and then the Senior Manager of Work/Life and Employee Assistance Programs at SAS (HQ in Cary, NC for 14 years until 2013. For the last 11 years, she has worked as a small business consultant, trainer and coach as well as in her private practice. She loves leading workshops and coaching individuals and groups. She lives in Chapel Hill with her husband.

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