Not all grief follows a death or receives recognition, ritual, or support. Ambiguous loss can leave a person without certainty or a clear ending, while disenfranchised grief occurs when a loss, relationship, or griever is minimized or excluded by social expectations. These experiences may overlap but call for careful clinical discernment rather than a one-size-fits-all grief model. In this interactive webinar, participants will examine how unrecognized grief may appear across diverse identities and losses, including estrangement, dementia, relationship endings, pregnancy or infertility, pet loss, chronic illness, migration, and changes in role or identity.

Through reflection, polling, a continuing case vignette, and applied practice, participants will learn assessment questions and interventions that validate grief, explore what remains unresolved, support meaning and connection, and expand coping without forcing closure. Attention will be given to cultural humility, client language, differential assessment, and the clinician’s own assumptions about whose grief counts.

Upon completion of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• Differentiate ambiguous loss from disenfranchised grief.
• Identify cultural, relational, and systemic factors that shape whether grief is recognized and supported.
• Use assessment questions to explore uncertainty, meaning, support, and the impact of loss without pathologizing grief.
• Apply culturally responsive interventions that validate grief and support meaning, connection, and choice.