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Trauma, Grief & Renewal
Trauma, Grief and Renewal Certificate Program
Program Description
This certificate program combines experiential, introspective, and expressive approaches for a deeper understanding in the areas of trauma, grief, and death and dying. Understanding the natural process of death and dying, as well as grief and loss, can help people honor transitions, lessen fears, support others, and live more consciously and fully. Personal growth can be found in times of grief and loss.
This program is designed to shed light on the human journey of emotional healing from loss. Grief can be acknowledged, honored, supported, and integrated into the wholeness of life. Decreasing trauma can help reduce delayed grief and allow the transformational journey to be discovered and celebrated. A conscious death and dying process can allow an individual the opportunity to complete life in a preferred way. Loved ones, providers, and community can reach a deeper understanding and ability to support the dying process and participate in the grief process.
This program emphasizes the therapeutic skills for care of the dying, grief and trauma counseling, and the potential for transformational growth from loss. Cultural and spiritual competencies will be explored from a universal and individualized view. Ethics, self-care, and renewal from grief and trauma counseling will be explored. Students’ own experiences with loss, death, and trauma will be an avenue for personal growth and understanding to help support others in their transformative process.
Students and community members pursuing a certificate through the New Earth Institute must complete all classes required for the Certificate within six (6) years of taking the first class. All of the classes in this program are offered in a distance format with a virtual classroom on a weekend.
| 96-HOUR CERTIFICATE | |
|---|---|
| Requirements | Offered Fully Online Completed with any 6 courses |
| Tuition |
$375 per course |
*Southwestern College students may take these courses at the Continuing Education (CE) price unless they are using the course to meet graduate program degree requirements.
Course Catalog
- Counseling Skills for Trauma and Grief
- Dying to Know: Issues of Death & Dying for the Professional
- The Art of Healing Grief and Trauma
- Theories of the Grief Process
- Ethics, Self-Compassion and Professional Issues
Additional courses may be listed in quarterly schedules.
Click Here to See Upcoming classes in this Certificate.
Click Here to See the Frequently Asked Questions page.
Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Upon completion, students will be able to:
PLO 1: Examine the core characteristics and symptoms of trauma and
grief, including intergenerational grief and trauma, in order to provide
personal and professional support for individuals and groups in the area of
trauma, grief and renewal.
PLO 2: Explore issues of death and dying in the micro and macrocosm of
individual and collective psychology with a culturally informed perspective
that honors personal and systemic beliefs
PLO 3: Apply traditional, alternative, and emerging theories on grief and
trauma in the implementation of assessment, diagnoses, and treatment of
individuals, groups and families experiencing grief, trauma, death or any
type of loss in ethical and culturally sustaining practice.
PLO 4: Examine and appraise the role of the counselor/therapist within
a framework of cultural context, utilizing reflective practice to develop
an embodied, heart-centered, authentic, transformational approach to
treatment
Where you might use these skills:
- Personal Support and Growth
- Hospitals/Medical Facilities
- Hospice
- Private practice
- First Responder Organizations
- Religious/Spiritual Settings
- Private Practice
- Education (All levels)
- Recovery Centers
- Home Health Services
- Crisis Response Team
Interim Director
Kate Latimerreceived her B.A.in Social Science from Humboldt State University in 1998, blending her love of Psychology, Sociology and Native American Studies. After several years working in the non-profit and public education sectors, as well as spending two years teaching at a K-12 international school in Morocco, Kate moved to Santa Fe, NM to complete a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Southwestern College, graduating in 2007.
Kate began her counseling career at Solace Crisis Treatment Center (then the Santa Fe Rape Crisis and Trauma Treatment Center) where she developed expertise treating Post-Traumatic Stress and other stress related disorders resulting from sexual trauma, domestic violence, childhood abuse, military combat, and violent crime. Kate also worked closely with the NM National Guard on post-deployment reintegration, earning a certificate of “Outstanding Support” for her contribution to the Yellow Ribbon Program in 2010. Over the years, Kate has collaborated with various New Mexico law enforcement and first responder agencies to provide training on stress management and PTSD prevention.
Transitioning into higher education as a college counselor and adjunct faculty member at Santa Fe Community College in 2013, Kate integrates her training in evidence-based crisis stabilization and trauma treatment approaches with somatic awareness, spiritual practices, and creative modalities designed to facilitate inner awareness and alignment. She encourages her clients to connect to their higher power, let go of limiting beliefs, practice gratitude and forgiveness, choose love over fear, and seek meaning and purpose in every experience.
Kate believes it is a sacred act to witness the transformative process unfolding with her clients and her students. She brings curiosity, compassion, and humor to the process of transformational dialog as a teacher and a counselor. She believes that personal responsibility and individual healing are paramount, but also recognizes the need for social change in our communities to support overall well-being. At a time when gender equality seems to be at the forefront of the current human evolutionary process, Kate fees a strong call to assist in the balancing of masculine and feminine energies in the collective. To this end, Kate participates in social justice and diversity movements such as V-day/One Billion Rising, Santa Fe Pride, and the Women’s March to raise the collective consciousness concerning gender violence and inequality. With her involvement in these social organizations and political movements, Kate seeks opportunities to honor the awakening of the sacred feminine by supporting interpersonal connectivity empowerment through dance, dialog, and peaceful civil disobedience.
In addition to her counseling work, Kate teaches Nia and other mind-body fitness classes in Santa Fe. She has studied and taught yoga for over 20 years, and is a black belt Nia™ and Nia FreeDance™ teacher, which provide additional tools and skills Kate uses to guide and inform her counseling work and avoid compassion fatigue. She holds that physical fitness and movement meditation are foundational to emotional, mental and spiritual health.
Southwestern College & New Earth Institute is approved by the New Mexico Counseling and Therapy Practice Board (#CEU2025065) and the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC ACEP No. 7520) as a Continuing Education Provider. If you are not licensed as a mental health professional in New Mexico, please check with your state’s licensing board to see if they will accept approved CEs from these two accrediting bodies.