The Grief-Confident Therapist

The seven-week prerecorded online program

Week 1: Understanding Grief: The Full Landscape

Expand your definition of grief well beyond loss to death. You'll explore why grieving is non-linear, examine how cultural context shapes how loss is held and expressed, and learn to identify when ordinary grief transitions into clinical trauma.

Grief is vast, deeply personal, and operates on its own timeline. Our role isn't to fix it, but to witness it with steady, unconditional compassion.

Week 2: The Grieving Body & Nervous System

Develop somatic awareness for both yourself and your clients. Learn how to apply the window of tolerance to keep sessions grounded, clearly articulate somatic grief responses, and use both bottom-up and top-down techniques to soothe an activated nervous system.

Navigating grief isn't just cognitive; it's a whole-body experience. Meet your clients in their somatic reality, and guide them to listen to their bodies with care.

Week 3: Trauma, Loss, & The Therapy Room

Learn to recognize trauma responses in grieving clients, including signs of dissociation. Assess client triggers with confidence, understand common defense mechanisms, and gain gentle strategies for supporting clients who tend to suppress or avoid emotional pain.

Understanding how the mind and body protect against painful grief isn't an obstacle to healing; it's the map. Learn to read it with gentle curiosity.

Week 4: The SHIFT Framework

Explore all five phases of the SHIFT Framework, complete with practical session scripts and client-ready language. Practice effective opening, mid-session, and closing prompts, and learn how to track a client's progress seamlessly from initial intake through termination.

S: Safety and Stabilization

Establishing emotional safety and grounding before processing begins. "What does feeling safe look, feel, and sound like for you right now?"

H: Honor the Story

Holding space and witnessing without rushing to fix things. "What needs space to be expressed today that hasn't felt fully heard yet?"

I: Identify Patterns & Internal Experiences

Noticing recurring themes and exploring internal parts. "What patterns do you notice surfacing as you navigate this loss?"

F: Foster Regulation & Forward Movement

Cultivating emotional flexibility, values, and forward motion. "What might it look like to gently move forward while continuing to honor your grief?"

T: Transformation and Integration

Integrating loss meaningfully into an evolving life story. "How has this journey, in all its pain, begun to reshape your perspective?"

The SHIFT Framework serves as a helpful clinical compass rather than a rigid set of rules, keeping you oriented while preserving presence and flexibility.

Week 5: Communication, Validation, & What Not to Say

Master language that helps clients feel deeply validated and understood. Learn to retire common phrases that accidentally minimize pain, and gain tools to support both the client and their family system, even when grief is difficult to put into words.

The words we choose in grief work carry quiet power. Speaking with warmth, clarity, and genuine presence helps grieving clients feel less alone in their pain.

Week 6: Grief Across the Lifespan & Trauma-Informed Modalities

Explore how grief manifests across different developmental stages, from childhood into adulthood, and how a client's relationship to loss evolves over time. Learn to identify survival guilt and leave with a broad overview of complementary trauma-informed modalities to explore in your ongoing training.

Every client's experience of loss is uniquely shaped by their stage of life, personal history, and what they have survived.

Week 7: The Therapist's Inner Life: Sustaining Yourself in Grief Work

Learn to recognize and navigate countertransference, spot early signs of compassion fatigue or vicarious trauma, and build sustainable self-care practices. You'll discover how your own self-awareness can become a powerful clinical asset rather than an obstacle.

Sustaining meaningful grief work starts with caring for yourself, honoring your personal limits, nurturing your well-being, and staying grounded.