Professional Training

The Grief Center (GC) provides training for its Bereavement Facilitator volunteers and others. Mental health professionals, educators, first responders, medical professionals, chaplains, and after-death professionals all have found this information helpful in their respective environments.

The Grief Center will issue a full refund when the request is made up to 10 days prior to the training start date. After that timeframe, payments will not be refunded, and your contribution will instead be considered a donation in support of GC’s free programs. We will be happy to issue a donation receipt in that case.

Thank you for your interest in taking this training to become a volunteer and/or to learn about grief-informed practices. As one training participant reported, “The best education I’ve received in childhood bereavement has been through The Grief Center.” – Licensed Master Social Worker in Albuquerque

January 2027 – Details TBA


The cost to attend this training is $50.00. The following will be included:

-Overview of major grief theories.
-Exploration of personal experience with loss.
-Cultural panel.
-Self-care practices.
-Role of the support group facilitator. GC volunteer Bereavement Facilitators (BF’s) commit to 1 year of service with our organization.
-Support group activities that facilitate sharing.
-Experiential activities.
-Alumni Panel – hear from former GC families about what does and does not work.

This training was created for The Grief Center’s volunteer Bereavement Facilitators (BF’s) and is also available to the public. Bereavement Facilitation training is offered each year in January and August.

With supervision and support, compassionate listeners from all walks of life come to The GC to facilitate grief support groups. BF’s are the backbone of The Grief Center’s programs. As one of our volunteers said: “This is the most rewarding thing I do.”

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.