Description

The Complex Contexts of Infant Loss Scenario Series

When a client comes to you after losing a baby, their grief is rarely simple. It is often tied up with who they are, how their brain works, how they were treated by doctors, or the intense terror of trying for another baby.

To help you feel completely confident in these complex and anxiety-inducing situations, the Foundation for Infant Loss is running an innovative, two-day online training event next year: The Complex Contexts of Infant Loss Scenario Series.

This is a fully interactive training session. There are no long lectures or awkward roleplays. Instead, we will work together in small groups, analyze pre-recorded audio-visual case files, and actively network with other passionate counsellors and perinatal professionals to share wisdom and build clinical connections.

We are offering two distinct training days. While each day stands completely on its own, we highly encourage you to attend both to build a complete, end-to-end framework for your private practice.

Case Study Files Shared in Advance

Before each training day, you will receive short video case studies. Each file introduces a realistic client scenario using audio-visual profiles allowing us to examine the exact situations that cause practitioners the most clinical anxiety before the live events begin.

Here is what we will be covering across this advanced, two-day training series:

Scenario Day 1: The Complex Contexts of Loss: Monday 25 January 2027 (10am – 4pm)

Focusing on the hidden identities, intersectional traumas, and systemic forces that rewrite standard grief protocols.

• Example Case Study — Imani: You will look into the profile of Imani, a 32-year-old Black, autistic mother who suffered a sudden stillbirth at 38 weeks. Her flat, masked processing was tragically misread by hospital staff as “not caring,” and her complaints of severe physical pain were minimized by triage staff until it was too late…
• Autism and ADHD (The Fear of Missing Hidden Distress): How to spot intense emotional implosion when a client is masking their feelings through a hyper-clinical, flat lens.
• Systemic Bias & Obstetric Harm (The Fear of Managing Justified Rage): How to safely validate a mother’s trauma from hospital racism and gaslighting without getting defensive or trying to “fix” a broken medical system.
• Same-Sex and Trans Parents (The Fear of Saying the Wrong Thing): How to confidently use inclusive, affirming language to help partners whose secondary grief is completely ignored by society and the medical system.
• IVF Finality (The Fear of Sitting with No Hope): How to hold space for the absolute finality of a loss when a couple’s life savings are gone, their final embryo has failed, and their reproductive window has slammed shut.

Scenario Day 2: Subsequent Pregnancies & Post-Loss Triggers: Thursday 4 March 2027 (10am – 4pm)

Focusing on subsequent pregnancies, relationship strains, and the high-anxiety phase when clients must re-enter society or try again.

• Example Case Study — Taron: You will dissect the profile of Taron, a 35-year-old mother who is now 14 weeks pregnant after losing her first baby to a sudden cord accident last year. Taron is trapped in acute trauma; she has rented a private medical ultrasound machine for her home, is obsessively checking the fetal heartbeat six times a day, and experiences severe physical panic attacks and flashbacks every time she has to enter a clinic…
• The Hyper-Vigilant Subsequent Pregnancy: How to support a parent through an agonizing new pregnancy when they are tracking vitals at home and experiencing intense hospital flashbacks.
• Medical Team Distrust: Managing a client’s absolute terror and panic when returning to clinical environments or care teams they feel were responsible for their previous loss.
• The Phantom Loss Milestones: Unpacking the acute anticipatory trauma and physical panic attacks that peak as the new pregnancy reaches the exact gestation week of the previous tragedy.
• Gender Disappointment & Guilt: How to safely hold space for taboo emotions, emotional detachment, and the intense shame of feeling like a new baby is merely a “replacement.”
• The Workplace Return & Corporate Gaslighting: How to help a client navigate employment pressures and insensitive colleagues without crossing the line into acting as a legal advocate.
• The “Strong Partner” Relationship Collapse: How to treat delayed, suppressed grief when the partner who acted as “the rock” suddenly collapses into severe depression, anger, or addiction months later.
• Multi-Generational Family Interference: How to empower an exhausted client to assert massive boundaries against well-meaning but toxic family systems and cultural pressures that block their right to grieve.

What You Will Gain from These Days

This series is designed to give you the practical skills, emotional confidence, and professional community you need for your practice. From both sessions, you will walk away with:

• Complete Clinical Confidence: Learn exactly what to look out for, including hidden cultural pressures, physical trauma signs, and communication styles that change how people grieve.
• A Ready-to-Use Script: Know exactly what to say, including gentle opening phrases, words to actively avoid, and how to fix things if you accidentally say the wrong thing.
• A Strong Professional Network: Connect deeply with other qualified therapists and experts in small, collaborative breakout spaces to share best practices and build referral networks.
• Energy Protection Tools: Learn how to sit with heavy, complex stories and intense secondary emotions like rage or terror without burning out or carrying the client’s trauma home with you.

The Interactive Agenda for Both Days (10:00 – 16:00)

• 10:00 – 10:30 | Welcome & Connecting: Setting up a safe space and an interactive introduction to your peers.
• 10:30 – 11:15 | Masterclass Lecture: Understanding how context and next steps fundamentally change grief.
• 11:15 – 11:30 | Morning Break
• 11:30 – 12:15 | Interactive Discussion Block 1: Case File Analysis & Peer Brainstorm.
• 12:15 – 13:00 | Interactive Discussion Block 2: Case File Analysis & Peer Brainstorm.
• 13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch Break & Open Networking Room: Time to step away, or join our optional open-mic room to chat casually with other attendees.
• 14:00 – 14:45 | Interactive Discussion Block 3: Case File Analysis & Peer Brainstorm.
• 14:45 – 15:30 | Interactive Discussion Block 4: Case File Analysis & Peer Brainstorm.
• 15:30 – 15:45 | Group Roundup & Network Reflection: Combining our best ideas into a master list of useful phrases.
• 15:45 – 16:00 | Grounding & Closing: Safe closing exercise and final connections.

Your Post Session Toolkit

You won’t leave empty-handed. After each event, we will combine all the best phrases, boundaries, and strategies discussed during the day into a handy “What to Say & Consider Guide” and email it directly to you to use in your private practice.

We are strictly limiting each event to 40 people so that everyone has a voice, can participate fully, and can connect properly with fellow professionals.