Certificate of Grief Counselling

Unit 1 – Foundations of Grief and Loss

• Foundations of grief and loss
• Grief, bereavement, and loss
• Types of loss
• Grief theories, models and frameworks
• Freud’s Psychoanalytic perspective
• Kübler-Ross Five Stages Model
• Attachment Theory
• The Four Phases of Grief
• Worden’s Four Tasks
• The Dual Process Model
• Meaning-Making approaches
• Understanding normal grief
• Understanding complicated grief

Unit 2 – Developmental perspectives

• Developmental perspectives
• Grief across the lifespan
• Understanding childhood grief
• Interventions for children
• Understanding adolescent grief
• Interventions for adolescents
• Understanding grief in adulthood
• Understanding grief in older adulthood
• Family dynamics and sibling grief

Unit 3 – Cultural, Spiritual, and Societal Contexts

• Cultural, spiritual, and societal contexts
• Beliefs about death and afterlife
• Mourning rituals and practices
• Cross-cultural communication styles
• Spiritual beliefs and existential questions
• Grief, stigma and identity
• Grief and cultural safety

Unit 4 – Identifying and Responding to Complicated Grief

• Identifying and responding to complicated grief
• Trauma, sudden death and multiple losses
• Prolonged Grief Disorder
• Screening tools and assessments
• Intervention strategies

Unit 5 – Communication and Counselling Skills

• Communication and counselling skills
• Active listening
• Developing empathy
• Rapport building
• Holding space vs fixing grief
• Working with children and adolescents
• Group facilitation, peer support and family sessions
• Ethical boundaries and self care

Unit 6 – Practical Support and Rituals

• Practical support and rituals
• Ceremonies, memorials, and life celebrations
• Art therapy techniques
• Narrative theory and storytelling
• Legacy projects
• Daily coping strategies
• Community resources

Unit 7 – Preparing for Anticipatory Grief

• Preparing for anticipatory grief
• Facing anticipatory grief
• Preparing families
• Children and anticipatory grief
• Hospices and palliative care

Unit 8 – Long-Term Coping Strategies

• Long-term coping strategies
• The impact of chronic grief
• Support groups
• Referring clients
• Counsellor wellbeing