Grief Support

Program details

Basic Level: For Those Supporting People in Communities

Target audience: Veteran support workers, educators, healthcare professionals, chaplains, HR managers, veterans, and anyone seeking to strengthen their understanding of grief and loss in order to support people within their communities, organizations, or teams.

Course duration: 24 hours of theory and practice + 4 hours of group work

Course focus: Foundational understanding of the grief process; the ethics of presence when accompanying a person in grief; the impact of grief on the family system; non-death-related losses; disenfranchised grief; integrating grief into life; understanding complex loss; and developing skills to facilitate peer support groups and strengthen community-based support.

Professional Level: Advanced Training for Mental Health Practitioners

Target audience: Psychologists, counsellors, and psychotherapists providing psychological support and counselling to individuals who have experienced loss due to war, captivity, occupation, suicide, illness, accidents, or other causes, and who wish to deepen their professional competence in grief and bereavement support.

Course duration: 36 hours of theory and practice + 16 hours of supervision

Course focus: A solid theoretical foundation combined with practical skill development focused on addressing the psychological impact of war. Topics include models of grief and bereavement; concepts of death; grieving as a unique, transformative process; the ethics of accompanying a person in grief; family dynamics of loss; disenfranchised grief; suicide bereavement; complicated grief; non-death-related losses; grief integration and meaning reconstruction; the role of community and support groups; and professional support and guidance during supervision sessions.

Children Grief and Bereavement Support

Target audience: Child psychologists, counsellors, and psychotherapists providing psychological support and counselling to children and families who have experienced loss due to war, captivity, occupation, suicide, illness, accidents, or other causes, and who wish to deepen their professional competence in grief and bereavement support.

Course duration: 12 hours of theory and practice + 6 hours of supervision

Course focus: This training provides a practical and theory-informed framework for professionals working with children who have experienced loss, particularly in the context of war and forced displacement. Participants begin by establishing principles of psychological safety and creating a supportive space for grief work. The program then introduces both classical and contemporary models of grief, with special attention to traumatic grief in children. The training examines developmental aspects of children’s grief, including how children understand death at different ages and how grief may appear through behavior and somatic reactions. Special focus is placed on children’s core needs during grief, practical for both individual and group work with children.