CEU: Bearing Witness to Ẹkún (Tears) With Love: Grief, Meaning, and the Inner Life of the Social Worker
- Alumni
- Community/Public
- Current Adult & Continuing Studies Students
- Current Graduate Students
- Current Undergraduate Students
Social workers and therapists routinely accompany others through loss, trauma, and suffering, yet are rarely invited to reflect on how their own experiences of grief shape professional presence, ethical judgment, and clinical care. Drawing on contemporary grief theory, culturally responsive social work practice, and the work of bell hooks—particularly her articulation of a love ethic and the connection between love, loss, and meaning—this workshop invites practitioners to examine grief not as impairment, but as an unavoidable dimension of caring work.
bell hooks reminds us that “to be loving is to be open to grief,” challenging professionals to reconsider dominant expectations of emotional neutrality and closure‑oriented models of mourning. Through this lens, participants will explore grief as a culturally situated, meaning‑making process that informs ethical practice rather than undermines it.
The session is organized around four interconnected themes: (I) Bearing witness as an ethical and professional stance; (II) grief, culture, and meaning beyond closure; (III) clinical and ethical implications when the helper grieves; and (IV) integration of grief‑informed insight into sustainable practice. Emphasis is placed on reflective engagement, cultural humility, and application to real‑world social work and therapeutic settings.
This workshop is reflective and educational in nature and is designed to deepen ethical awareness, cultural responsiveness, and professional sustainability.
Event Details:
- Open to: All students, faculty, staff, community
- When: October 27, 6:00-8:00 pm
- Where: Online
- Registration: Registering is the only way to receive CEUs. If you would like to attend but do not need CEUs, you may attend for free! Advance registration is required for all attendees. Registration closes the day before the event. (Widener SW Alumni: please contact socialwork@widener.edu for discount coupon code).
CEU events and CEUs are free for current Widener students, faculty, and field instructors. Widener alumni need to pay $10; everyone else, $25. After the event, you will be emailed your certificate.
After registering, you should receive a confirmation email within 2 business days.
Questions? Reach out! socialwork@widener.edu
About the presenter:
Dr. Richard M. Cooper, Ph.D., MSW, has been a member of the Social Work faculty for over 28 years at Widener University, where he also serves as the co-coordinator of African American Studies. He brings an interdisciplinary and culturally grounded lens to his teaching, scholarship, and practice, and most importantly, to his life, family and community.
With a professional background spanning academic, medical, school social work, trauma-informed care, and community-based mental health practice, Dr. Cooper’s work centers on relational ethics, cultural humility, African-centered approaches, and the transformative power of human connection. Over the course of his career, he has guided students and practitioners to engage deeply with the cultural, emotional, and ethical complexities of clinical social work across diverse settings and socio-political eras.
At this stage of his life and professional journey, Dr. Cooper brings not only extensive experience, but also the wisdom that emerges from lived encounters. In recent years, he has walked closely with grief in its many forms—experiencing profound loss, cumulative transitions, and the quiet moments that ask one to pause, listen inwardly, and just cry. He has come to recognize the threshold where personal and professional worlds meet—where grief is no longer distant, but present, shaping awareness, deepening insight, and calling for reflection and engagement.
Today, Dr. Cooper has chosen to examine grief as both a human being and social work professional exploring its meanings, its cultural expressions, and its ethical implications for those in helping professions. Drawing on African-centered perspectives, contemporary grief theory, and the work of bell hooks, he invites practitioners to enter the room fully—bringing their whole selves, their histories of love and loss, and their capacity for reflection into the work and experience of caring. He encourages social workers to consider how grief can inform a more grounded, compassionate, and sustainable practice of awareness and healing.