August 2026 CE Webinar | Holding Death in a Dying World: Secondary Trauma, Receptive-Affective Capacity, and Collective Resistance

Date & Time: Thursday, August 13, 2026 12:00pm PT/ 3:00pm ET - 1:00pm PT / 4:00pm ET

Presented by: Abigail Nathanson, DSW, MSW, APHSW-C, ACS

As repeated exposure to death and systemic distress challenges emotional and relational capacity, the task is not to harden but to remain permeable without breaking. Through a polyvagal lens, secondary trauma is understood as an intrapsychic and embodied disruption of attunement rather than a failure of coping, reframing presence as distinct from productivity. Receptive-affective capacity is reconsidered as a practice that can restore relational presence and nourish palliative social work clinicians amid ongoing exposure to death, trauma and grief.

 

Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze how repeated exposure to death, grief, and moral distress affects emotional regulation, clinical judgment, and relational presence in palliative social work practice.

2. Differentiate between signs of grounded engagement, emotional over-activation, and shutdown in oneself and colleagues when working with seriously ill and dying patients.

3. Apply concrete, in-the-moment strategies to restore steadiness and maintain compassionate presence during difficult clinical encounters.

    

About the Speaker:

Dr. Abigail Nathanson, LCSW, APHSW-C, ACS, received both her master's and doctoral degrees in social work from NYU, where she is currently on faculty. She is a trauma therapist and palliative social worker, and helped to create the Advanced Clinical Seminars on Grief and Trauma training program at NYU. Dr. Nathanson is trained in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, EMDR and Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy.