COACHING THROUGH AMBIGUOUS LOSS

and Monday, April 4, 2022

by

Craig Maier, PhD, PCC

CCEs: 3.0 (1.5 core/ 1.5 resource)
(Must attend both sessions to receive cces)
(One registration covers both sessions)

Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally altered the way we live. Many of us have lost loved ones and became sick ourselves. But even if we avoided the virus, we encountered loss in other ways: the business that closed, the job offer that never came, the friendship we never made, the school we could not attend, the marriage that floundered, and so on.

Marriage and family therapist Pauline Boss calls these losses “ambiguous losses.” These events can have invisible but profound effects on the people we coach. Over the two sessions, we will examine her book on the pandemic, The Myth of Closure, in light of the ICF core competencies. In the process, we will deepen our coaching practice during this time of change.

Text:   Boss, Pauline. (2021). The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN: 978-1324016816

Format: The course will unfold over two, 90-minute Zoom sessions. The sessions will be interactive discussions facilitated by the instructor.

Session 1 (March 21) will focus on Part One of The Myth of Closure, which explores ambiguous loss in several contexts, including the unresolved loss of racism. During these sessions, participants will:

• Understand the construct of ambiguous loss and the role it plays in the context of coaching.
• Appreciate how ambiguous loss—especially losses that arise from social conditions like racism, classicism, and sexism—shapes clients’ context, identity, environment, experiences, values, and beliefs.
• Understand how ambiguous loss may affect clients’ capacity for growth.

Sessions 2 (April 4) will examine Part Two, which explores Boss’s research on responses to ambiguous loss. During these sessions, participants will:

• Develop approaches to create empathy, trust, and safety in conversations around ambiguous loss.
• Help clients integrate awareness, insight or learning about ambiguous loss into their worldview and behaviors.
• Help clients explore how to move forward in ambiguous loss, including resources, support and potential barriers

In this webinar participants will:

1. Understand the construct of ambiguous loss and the role it plays in the context of coaching.
2. Appreciate how ambiguous loss—especially losses that arise from social conditions like racism, classicism, and sexism—shapes clients’ context, identity, environment, experiences, values, and beliefs.
3. Understand how ambiguous loss may affect clients’ capacity for growth.

Participants will be able to:

1. Develop approaches to create empathy, trust, and safety in conversations around ambiguous loss.
2. Help clients integrate awareness, insight or learning about ambiguous loss into their worldview and behaviors.
3. Help clients explore how to move forward in ambiguous loss, including resources, support and potential barriers

Speaker:

Craig Maier, PhD, PCC coaches leaders serving communities in crisis so they can help others heal and thrive. The author of two books and 25 essays on leadership communication, he is interested in how individuals and communities process trauma and grief. Prior to launching his coaching practice, he taught communication at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and worked for 13 years as a communication professional in the nonprofit sector.