Supportive Supervision and Leadership for Helping Clinicians Heal After Client Suicide

Description

The loss of a client to suicide can be a life-altering event for any clinician—an experience marked by deep grief, self-doubt, and professional vulnerability. Yet despite its prevalence, many mental health professionals are left to navigate the aftermath alone, without structured support or a roadmap for healing.

This course offers mental health professionals, supervisors, and organizational leaders a powerful opportunity to explore the emotional, ethical, and practical dimensions of client suicide and to discover how supportive leadership can make all the difference.

Led by Khara Croswaite Brindle, MA, LPC, ACS, CFT-I, a suicide loss survivor, author, and seasoned suicide assessment trainer, this course draws from both lived experience and professional expertise. Khara provides a compassionate, evidence-informed framework for healing, resilience, and post-traumatic growth in the wake of client suicide.

With a clear, research-supported approach, Khara guides participants through effective supervision strategies, trauma-informed leadership principles, and healing practices that empower clinicians to remain in the field while honoring their loss.

Topics covered include the psychological impact of client suicide on clinicians, the PERMS (Physical, Emotional, Relational, Mental, Spiritual) framework, the LEAN model for personal healing, hurtful vs. helpful responses, the eight traits of impactful leadership, and tools for fostering meaning-making and clinician retention in the aftermath of loss.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand the true toll: Gain insight into the profound emotional and psychological effects of client suicide on clinicians.

• Promote clinician healing: Learn practical strategies for supporting therapists through grief, trauma, and eventual post-traumatic growth.

• Lead with impact: Develop the leadership tools necessary to foster trust, resilience, and retention in your organization or supervision practice.

Why This Course?

• Critical and timely content: Clinician suicide loss is more common than we acknowledge—this course helps break the silence with tools that truly support healing.

• Expert-led instruction: Instructor Khara Croswaite Brindle offers not only deep expertise but also the authenticity of lived experience and nationally recognized training credentials.

• Mission-aligned learning: Offered by the Telehealth Certification Institute, this course reflects a commitment to excellence, growth, and compassion in continuing education.

Learning Objectives:

• Explore the physical and psychological impact each client's death by suicide has on a clinician.

• Identify healing strategies for clinicians experiencing a client suicide.

• Develop supportive leadership for mental health professionals to remain in the field after a client's suicide.

Whether you're a therapist seeking healing or a supervisor ready to lead with empathy, this course provides you with the insights and tools to move forward with strength.

Enroll now in this vital training and enhance your impact as a behavioral health professional.

Format and Access

This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Instruction consists of 1 hour of video instruction and a post-test.

Course Details

Availability: 

From the time of registration, you have six months to access the coursework.

Who Should Attend: 

This course is intended for clinicians who provide behavioral health services.

Teaching Methods: 

This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Teaching methods for this course include recorded lectures, videos, a post-test, and a course evaluation.

How to Attend: 

Course access and completion instructions.

Instructor and Disclosures

Instructor

About Khara Croswaite Brindle, MA, LPC, ACS, CFT-I

Khara Croswaite Brindle is passionate about turning pain points into possibilities for mental health professionals and Financial Therapists. She is a TEDx Speaker, Consultant, Licensed Mental Health Therapist, Professor, and Financial Therapist in Colorado. Her mission is to provide quality products and services to mental health professionals that spark curiosity and possibilities in alignment with professional growth and work-life balance. Khara values giving back to the next generation of therapists through teaching, consultation, and clinical supervision. She has served her community as a dedicated suicide assessment trainer and speaker both nationally and internationally since 2017. Khara’s passion for suicide prevention includes training hundreds of mental health professionals on suicide assessment and safety planning, creating the CACS Suicide Risk Tool for helping professionals, as well as founding Catalively, a nonprofit that focused on reducing youth suicide in Colorado.

She is the author of the book “Moving from ALERT to Acceptance: Helping Clinicians Heal from Suicide”, which covers suicide assessment and safety planning in measurable and empowering ways that take away some of the fear of asking about suicide when working with clients of diverse backgrounds. Experience a modern, compassionate take on suicide assessment in this book through client stories, and explore how you can adopt the ALERT suicide assessment framework into your own client work. With a predicted 1 in 4 mental health professionals, including clinical supervisors, therapists, and social workers losing a client to suicide sometime in their career, this book also serves to explore this life-altering event, including an in-depth look at the personal and professional impact on clinicians through therapist stories, the mental health leadership and support needed to heal, and tools that encourage a purposeful transition from crippling anxiety and grief towards post-traumatic growth and meaning.

Disclosure Statement: 

The instructor(s) for this course receive compensation for their services. There are no reported conflicts of interest to disclose.

CE Hours

Credit Hours:

This course consists of 1 continuing education hour of credit.

Counselors:

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No, 6693.  Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified.  Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. 

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Mental Health Counselors. #MHC-0048.

Marriage and Family Therapists: 

Many MFT licensing boards accept our courses or one of the approvals which we have from professional associations.  You can check with your board to determine if your licensing board would accept this course.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0135, effective May 8, 2025.

Social Workers:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, #1609, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 05/02/2024 – 05/02/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 1 continuing education credit.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Social Workers #SW-0435.

Addiction Professionals:

This course has been approved by Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #193104, Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is responsible for all aspects of the programming.

Psychologists:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Telehealth Certification Institute LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychologists #PSY-0128.

Art Therapists: 

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Creative Arts Therapists #CAT-0093.

Other Professionals:

This course qualifies for 60 minutes of instructional content as required by many national, state and local licensing boards and professional organizations.  Retain your certificate of completion and contact your board or organization for specific filing requirements.

This is a non-interactive, self-study course.

Accommodations and Policies

Close Captioning is available for live webinars and recorded video presentations.

You can click on the following links to view our policies:

• Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities.
• Cancellation Policy
• Grievance Policy
• Support Options
• Disclosure Statement