COURSE AGC

Advanced Grief Coaching

Grief is a normal and necessary process that is fundamentally a journey of the heart and soul” ~Dr. Alan D. Wolfelt

Take your grief coaching to a new level. This course offers opportunities for students to practice skills with peers, probono clients, and instructor and receive feedback on peer and probono grief coaching sessions. Classes will include discussions on sessions with feedback from peers and instructor, discussions on challenges that arose in the grief coaching sessions, and “sharing” time to discuss best practices. Individualized instructor sessions will be conducted with students to discuss areas of growth and development. Students are encouraged to present “real life” situations in class for feedback, support, and suggestions. Students will utilize a variety of coaching strategies that can help grieving clients find hope and healing, tap into their strengths, visualize their new future and reality, and embrace possibilities to survive, and ultimately thrive.

Case studies, peer coaching sessions, observations by the instructor and peers, and probono coaching sessions will be implemented in this course.

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Illustrate confidence in coaching clients experiencing grief.
• Apply techniques to a grief coaching session.
• Use the 11 tenets of the companioning the bereaved in a grief coaching session.
• Demonstrate a grief coaching session from beginning to end.
• Practice direct conversation with clients who may be at-risk for suicide.
• Sketch a coaching plan that will help clients attain goals.
• Employ effective and healthy ways of caring for self while caring for clients.
• Link clients to other resources and services.

Required Textbooks:

• Companioning the Bereaved: A Soulful Guide for Counselors & Caregivers by Alan Wolfelt
• The Handbook for Companioning the Mourner: Eleven Essential Principles by Alan Wolfelt

Course Prerequisites

You must have completed:

Grief Coaching AND one of the following

• 20 hours of prior coach training
• Experience as a Grief Coach along with instructor permission