grief and loss consulting
PIONEERING MINDFUL PHOTOGRAPHY PRACTICES AND PROGRAMS FOR EXPLORING GRIEF
Consulting & Teaching
Dr. Jessica Thomas PH.D LMFT, serves both professionals and organizations within the death industry and therapy community in multiple ways. Click below to jump to what you’re most interested in.
Community Workshops
Grief has a unique way of pulling us away from the present moment. It transports us into the past, where memories flood our minds, mingling with reflections on what could have been different. Simultaneously, it propels us into the future, where we anticipate how life will unfold without the presence of our loved ones.
If you’re interested in gaining insights from Dr. Thomas’s expertise and methodologies, she offers conversation, workshops, and continuing education on the following:
- Death and Dying
- Grief and loss
- Anticipatory grief
- Therapeutic Mindful Photography
- Spirituality and meaning-making
Past examples of her workshops can be found here.
Program Development
For professionals in the grief and death industry (including counselors, hospice organizations, therapists, social workers, art therapists, organization advocates, skilled nursing facilities, or volunteers) who are seeking to integrate creative practices like Within and Without™ Mindful Photography programs into their work. You can expand your toolkit for supporting clients in grief and loss.
Dr. Jessica will help you develop a death, grief, and loss-focused program for your businesses and organizations that utilize mindful photography practices to aid in processing grief and loss for those you support. Using photography as therapy, mindful photography integrates a method from within and without.
Within and Without™ Mindful photography groups can be created specific to your business or organization’s unique needs, location, and demographics. The program can be integrated into your staff, residents, caregivers, and nurses to implement with the supervision of Dr. Jessica.
Dr. Jessica has created Within and Without™ Mindful Photography Programs for but not limited to:
- The Dougy Center
- San Diego Alzheimers Association
- Grossmont Healthcare
- Catholic Community Foster Care Programs
- Assisted Living Facilities
Individual & Group Clinical Supervision
Dr. Jessica Thomas is an AAMFT-trained and certified approved clinical supervisor offering post-graduate clinical supervision, mentorship, and professional consultation to MFTs and LPCs. Individual & group therapy supervision is a space to receive new knowledge, expertise, support, and growth.
As a supervisee, you will discover how these three components work synergistically to create the transformative therapeutic process. Furthermore, supervision will shape you as a clinician by promoting self-care, decreasing burnout, and inspiring personal growth.
Please note: Requests for supervision will be accommodated when possible with Dr. Jessica’s availability.
Professional Development
For those who value professional development, lifelong learning, and innovative approaches to grief counseling and education, Dr. Jessica provides professional and academic consultation on the following:
- Death, dying, and loss
- Clinical supervision
- Mindful phototherapy
- Phenomenology
- Art based phenomenology
- Self-of-the-therapist
- Psycho-spiritual development
- Transpersonal psychology and philosophy
- Buddhist psychology
- Aesthetic Interventions
As a grief consultant, Dr. Jessica also creates and teaches graduate courses on death and grief, integrating psycho-spirituality into therapy.
Frequently Asked Questions
In most cases, Dr. Jessica will spend 3 months on program development and suggests you book program development 3 months in advance.
Dr. Jessica can create workshops uniquely tailored to the needs of the organization. Workshops can be a half day, one full day, 2-days, or broken up over two weekends.
Dr. Jessica does both online and in-person workshops.
It varies depending on the need. This could be a one-time consult or a series of meetings based on a particular need throughout 1-6 months.
For professionals in the grief and death industry including counselors, hospice organizations, school programs, therapists, social workers, art therapists, organization advocates, skilled nursing facilities, volunteers, etc.
Yes! You can inquire about therapy sessions at my practice – Reflective Therapy.
Unlike conventional approaches to photography, mindful photography sees beyond what is “looked” at. The focus is clear seeing and personal resonance. Photography, when practiced mindfully, can facilitate an aesthetic experience wherein one learns to temporarily overcome the subject-and-object dichotomy and disconnection. The process of mindful photography involves the acts of receiving, letting go, and learning to wait. You let go of thinking, judging, self-evaluation, clinging, and rejecting and accepting whatever comes, good or bad. When photography is practiced mindfully, it can be therapeutic and increase awareness and the capacity to create meaning through our experiences.
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