Professional Training

The Grief Center provides training for our Bereavement Facilitator Volunteers and more. Mental Health Professionals, Educators, First Responders, Medical Professionals, Chaplains and Funeral Professionals have all found this information helpful in their professional settings.

The Grief Center will issue any refunds requested in full up to 10 days prior to the date of the training. Any refunds requested after this timeframe will be forfeited to the agency.

Thank you for your interest in taking our training to become a volunteer or for the Continuing Education credits. Please click here to register.

August 2 & 3, 2025

The first day of this two-part training will be offered via Zoom for CEU-takers AND in-person for Bereavement Facilitators.

Option 1: CEU’s only (not volunteering)
The cost is $162 for those attending for CEUs and/or to become more grief informed:
-This training is offered on Saturday, August 2nd on Zoom only.
-7.5 CEUs (1 of which is a Cultural CEU)
-Overview of Major Grief Theories
-Exploration of Personal Experience with Loss
-Cultural Panel
-Self-care

Option 2 – Volunteer Facilitators
The cost is $50 (cost pays for background check) for those committing to 1 year of service:
-This training is two days at the Center for Hope & Healing, in-person.
-7.5 CEUs (1 of which is a Cultural CEU)
-Overview of Major Grief Theories
-Exploration of Personal Experience with Loss
-Cultural Panel
-Self-care
-Role of the Support Group Facilitator
-Support group activities that facilitate sharing (Kid Fun!)
-Experiential Activities
-Alumni Panel (hear what works and what doesn’t work from former GC families)

This training was created for our mighty Volunteer Bereavement Facilitators but is also available to the public. It is accredited by the National Association of Social Workers. The training is offered every year in January and August. With supervision and support, compassionate listeners from all walks of life serve as bereavement facilitators. Volunteer Support Group Facilitators are the backbone of our program. As one of our volunteers wrote, “This is the most rewarding thing I do.”

This is an excellent training. As a “Zoom” attendee, I especially appreciated your quick response to “chat” questions and the care you took to be sure we could both see and hear the speakers. Thanks too for staying on schedule ~ especially appreciated on a Saturday. – January 2024 Trainee

“The best education I’ve received in childhood bereavement has been through The Grief Center.” – LMSW in Albuquerque

Contact Us with questions.

1 Hour Presentation for school staff.

Schools are impacted by grief in many ways. What do you do when a student experiences the death of a family member, or a close friend or a classroom experiences the terminal illness or sudden death of a fellow student, or faculty member? The training includes:

  1. Understanding how children grieve differently than adults.
  2. Identifying some of the key differences between bereaved youth at different developmental stages; distinguishing between elementary, middle, and high school-aged students, to create effective interventions.
  3. Understanding our typical cultural responses to grief (i.e. fear of explicitly discussing the death and obscuring the facts with euphemisms, offering platitudes, ignoring the death) are not helpful. Learn how to replace typical responses with more helpful responses and compassionate companionship.
  4. Exploring ideas for supporting students immediately following a death and throughout the school year.

GC staff have resources and information to help schools address grief and loss and promote healing. Contact Us for pricing and information on how we can come speak to your school or organization. 

Click here for a “What to Say, What Not to Say to a Grieving Student” Handout

Vicarious Trauma: Working With a Traumatized Population

Since 2001, the staff and volunteers at the Grief Center have supported community members through their grief journeys. Along the way, we have learned how important it is to tend to our own hearts, so we may be fully present to others.

This special, in-depth training (1-2 hours in length) can be customized for your organization, to address your staff’s needs.  Cost begins at $350.00 per hour of presentation time.

Contact Us for pricing and information on how we can come speak to your group or organization.

Our Notification of Death class is for Medical Professionals, First Responders and Chaplains who are on scene with families when a death has occurred and focuses on what to say when children are present to help them understand what has happened.

Contact Us for pricing and information on how we can come speak to your group or organization. 

This presentation dives into the 4 Tasks of Children’s Grief, and how children grieve differently than adults. This information is appropriate for adult family members and friends of bereaved youth, as well as professional working with them in a school, medical or clinical setting.

Contact Us for pricing and information on how we can come speak to your group or organization.