Course Overview: This course is part of the   Doctorate Degree Program in Thanatology at the School of Grief Education at AITU.

It is a 6-hour semester course that must be completed within 6 weeks.

The goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of major concerns and issues relevant to working with terminally ill clients and clients dealing with a debilitating illnesses or serious diagnoses. Topics will include working with clients who live with serious illness, counseling clients through a difficult diagnosis, and counseling clients who are approaching the terminal phase of their lives, and addressing terminal illness within the family system.

Course Assignments: There are 14 assignments for which the student has one mandatory book and one video as materials. The student may make use of the materials from the complete program and what they seem appropriate and relevant material located elsewhere in the public domain.

Course Objectives: The aim is to learn about the numerous elements relating to grief and loss that people with a terminal illness, and their loved ones, maybe confronted with. To learn how to recognize the signals indicating possible symptoms exacerbating the deteriorating condition of the terminally ill person, as well as learn-ing appropriate interventions that can be used to prevent and/or alleviate the risk of those problems.