Humanizing Grief Counseling and Treatment for Our Clients and Ourselves
Train with a world-renowned grief expert and learn to provide skilled grief services!
Begins March 4th • The ONLY Cohort Scheduled for 2024
An Invitation from Megan Devine…
I'm excited to announce that enrollment is now open for my 6-month online certificate program!
When I first published my book, It's OK that You're Not OK, I had no idea how profoundly it would change the grief landscape. With hundreds of thousands of copies sold in 17 languages, it's viewed as required reading by clinicians throughout the world.
And today, with grief so ingrained in every aspect of your clients' lives, the right training is essential to ensure you can meet the needs of this rapidly growing population.
That's why I developed this online course to show you how you can provide quality care to clients grieving any kind of loss.
This is your special invitation to join me in this exclusive class…
…so you can bring the human-centered approach that I've pioneered into your practice, raise your profile by studying closely with an internationally recognized expert, and provide skilled grief care and support for your clients.
I can't wait to meet you.
This is the only cohort scheduled for 2024 so don't wait, register today!
Sincerely,
Megan Devine, LPC
P.S. When you study with me you'll get a FREE MARKETING PACK complete with a digital badge so you can let clients and colleagues know you're ready to provide quality grief care.
Megan Devine's Grief Care Professional Certificate Program
This unique training is grounded in the teachings of one of the world's most recognized authorities on grief…
…so you can support clients using the same non-pathologizing approaches that have made her one of the most respected and recognized names in the field.
When you register, you'll join Megan for a 6-month multifaceted learning experience, incorporating both RECORDED VIDEO TRAINING and LIVE Q&A components that will have you feeling ready to work with all types of losses, from deaths down to the stressors of everyday life.
In this course, you will learn:
How to identify normal, healthy, typical grief
How to utilize non-pathologizing clinical interventions
Trauma-informed grief care approaches
How to work with the grief of racism, misogyny, bigotry, and hate
Ways to live with your losses while holding space for others
How to improve support for clients after non-death losses
How to bring a humanized view of grief to your workplaces, communities, and beyond!
Tools for specific scenarios including grief following gun violence, natural disasters, baby loss, overdose, suicide, and more
As you move through the training, Megan will also bring you incredible conversations with specialists, reflection guides to help you fully absorb each session, and opportunities for group discussion so you can better understand the perspectives and experiences of the clients you work with each day.
We've made it simple and convenient to train with one of the biggest names in grief work.
10 easy-to-digest PRE-RECORDED training modules, each released every few weeks over 6 months, give you the keys to offering high-quality grief services on a schedule that works with your life.
Watch the videos as they become available, complete any self-reflection exercises, and connect with classmates in the forum to discuss and network.
With unlimited access to the course recordings, you can revisit them as many times as you like.
PLUS, you'll join Megan for 4 LIVE Q&A sessions throughout the course so you can get answers to your biggest questions and go even deeper into what you've learned.
These Q&A sessions aren't mandatory to receive CE hours, but we strongly encourage you to attend these sessions to get the full benefits of the course.
As an added gift from Megan, you'll get full access to BONUSES in your course portal including PDF downloads with tools, interventions, and promotional material you can use to market your new skills.
Best of all, at the end of the course, you'll be able to download your displayable Certificate of Completion, letting clients and colleagues know you've learned to provide skilled grief services from a top expert recognized by clients across the globe.
WHAT YOU'LL GET
Your registration includes:
all_inclusiveUnlimited access to all 10 recorded modules (over 13 total hours of training)
folder_open An Online Student Portal full of additional resources
question_mark4 live Q&A sessions to get ongoing support and guidance from Megan (6 total hours of Q&A opportunities)
description Comprehensive training materials
picture_as_pdfPDFs of tools and interventions
printPrintables for use with clients
Plus, you'll get a BONUS MARKETING PACK you can use to promote your practice and let clients and colleagues know you've studied with an internationally recognized expert…
sim_card_downloadDownloadable Certificate of completion (all registrants)
starsDigital Badge for your website or social media (all registrants)
list_altListing in the provider referral list (licensed professionals only)
Megan Devine's Grief Care Professional Certificate Program
Module 1 | Implications of Treating Grief Like a Disease or Personal Failing
We've spent decades treating grief as a problem to be solved. But pathologizing grief isn't giving us the outcomes we want, clinically or culturally. Before we can talk about better approaches to grief, we have to understand the systems we've inherited. In this session, you'll join Megan for an in-depth look at how historical and gendered ideas of grief create cascading problems for clients, do a self-evaluation on your own beliefs, blind spots and biases about grief, and explore the beginnings of a non-pathologizing approach to grief work.
Recording Available March 4, 2024
Outline
Historical approaches to grief and why they matter today
How gendered ideas of grief create cascading problems (for everyone)
Why it's more important to know what you believe about grief than it is to have an overstocked "grief toolbox"
Objectives
Analyze how historical trends to pathologize grief disproportionally affect women and lead to overdiagnosis of bereavement-related disorders and clinical depression when compared to men.
Evaluate yourself for beliefs, blind spots, and internalized biases about grief that can negatively impact your ability to differentiate "normal grief" from unhealthy grief processes in clients.
Apply a non-pathologizing approach to grief work to avoid over-diagnoses, over-medication, and shame in clients.
Module 2 | How to Identify Normal, Healthy, Typical Grief
Because most of what's taught in graduate programs and shown in popular media focuses on grief as a pathology, many people don't know what healthy, normal grief looks like. In this session, you'll explore the many forms grief takes so you can normalize grief for clients, discover inclusive and supportive approaches that assure clients that they are not grieving "wrong" and distinguish normal grief from more complicated manifestations that might require intervention.
Recording Available March 18, 2024
Outline
Consumer-generated grief experiences: what people tell us when they're allowed to tell the truth
What do you support and what do you fix? Understanding the difference between pain and suffering
Cognitive, relational, and physical aspects of grief
Why clients might believe they're "doing it wrong"
Objectives
Develop psychoeducational approaches to normalize the grief process by providing clients with an understanding of the range of physical, relational, emotional, and cognitive impacts of grief.
Differentiate normal "uncomplicated" grief from more complicated manifestations in order to make decisions about whether or not to intervene clinically.
Use inclusive and supportive approaches with clients that allow you to account for and appropriately respond to the ways culture, class, gender, and internalized messaging impact their expressions of grief.
Module 3 | Grief Interventions: Building a Toolbox for Effective and Non-Pathologizing Clinical Work
Now that we understand what normal grief looks like, what are we supposed to DO with it? This module focuses on tangible, actionable interventions and tools to use with clients. Megan will teach you when you should be offering solutions and when you should be offering support. She'll share the clinical tools she's used to make the biggest impact in her work, including creative responses and imaginative therapies you can use for effective non-pathologizing treatment.
Recording Available April 1, 2024
Outline
What clients have to say about therapy: what they need, what they wish their clinicians knew, and what really makes a difference
The right tools at the right moment: knowing when to offer a solution and when to offer support
Developing your own collection of tools (for yourself and your clients)
How to use creative therapies and interventions strategically and effectively
Objectives
Develop human-centered objectives to ensure effective and non-pathologizing clinical grief work.
Utilize grief-informed interventions to provide support to grieving clients and treatment when appropriate.
Understand the limits and applications of creative responses to grief (including art therapy, sand tray, and other imaginative interventions).
LIVE Q&A and Discussion Call
Monday, April 22, 2024 · 12:00pm-1:30pm CDT
Module 4 | Trauma-Informed Grief Care: Support and Treatment for Clients Who've Experienced Traumatic Losses
It's a given. You will encounter trauma and traumatic loss in your work, both with clients and with colleagues. But many of our clinical tools simply don't apply. In this session, we'll take a deeper dive into what constitutes traumatic loss, how trauma-informed tools can be used to address traumatic losses, and how you can better work with specific situations you'll see in your work including losses involving domestic violence, military personnel and their families, accidents, and more.
Recording Available April 22, 2024
Outline
The differences between "trauma" and "traumatic loss" and why semantics matter
Anxiety, PTSD, and changes in worldview: what tools actually help
What exactly is "trauma-informed care" as it relates to grief?
Special topics in loss, part one: domestic violence, military veterans, accidental deaths involving typical daily activities (e.g. vehicle-pedestrian deaths)
Objectives
Assess why typical or mainstream interventions are often contraindicated in traumatic loss.
Determine the clinical implications of previous trauma on clients who've experienced new losses.
Use clinical tools to address anxiety and other hallmarks of traumatic or atypical loss.
Module 5 | Communication Skills, Verbal Boundaries and Scripting: Managing Interpersonal Challenges Inside Grief
The number one challenge inside grief — after the loss event itself — is friction between the grieving person and the outside world. From friends and family who don't know how to help, to the endless logistical details involved with death or major illness, grieving people face an uphill battle in finding the support and connection they actually need. In this session, we'll take a look at the major friction points for grieving people, help them respond and set boundaries in relationships where there is poor support or insensitivity, and discover interventions that help your clients find the true community they need.
Recording Available May 6, 2024
Outline
Friction points for grieving people (especially in the first weeks and months)
Why people are so bad at giving the support they most want to give
Boundaries and negotiations - helping clients decide which relationships are worth the effort, and which need impenetrable boundaries
How to help clients find true community, and why it's the only thing that really helps
Objectives
Evaluate the ways internalized pathology-based ideas around grief impact the quality of support clients experience.
Assess clients' interpersonal strengths, relationships, and stressors to help them find ways to create better support systems.
Develop an initial catalog of script responses grieving clients can use to help them manage common communication barriers and conflicts.
Module 6 | Racism, Misogyny, Bigotry, and Hate: Grief and Social Justice
Grief and loss don't take place in a vacuum. Becoming informed about the ways social, political, and cultural systems both impact and create grief is necessary for our work with clients and in the world. In this session, we'll explore the systems at play in each loss and explore how changing the ways we understand grief as clinicians can improve outcomes for our clients and make lasting social changes for everyone.
Recording Available May 27, 2024
Outline
Racism and grief: a wholly inadequate overview
Understanding the systems at play in each loss, whether directly or indirectly
All grief work is political when policies create grief
Who gets to grieve? Economic and social/family responsibilities and the expression of grief
The bigger picture: how changing the ways we understand grief makes lasting social change for everyone
Objectives
Analyze complications to the grief and mourning processes that can occur as members of historically marginalized communities navigate systems-based injustices.
Evaluate the impacts of inequalities in race, gender, sexual orientation, and age on counseling, treatment, and support practices for grief and loss.
Develop methods of inquiring about and addressing racial, cultural, economic, and social issues with grieving clients.
LIVE Q&A and Discussion Call
Monday, June 3, 2024 · 12:00pm-1:30pm CDT
Module 7 | Special Populations in Grief: Gun Violence, Natural Disaster, Baby Loss, Overdose, and More
While every loss is unique, some losses are more stigmatizing and difficult for clients to integrate. These same losses tend to make clinicians panic: how are you supposed to help someone whose child overdosed? Or help someone who lost their home in a wildfire? But these losses happen all the time and so many people facing them will need your help. In this session, Megan will show you what you need to know about atypical losses and how you can skillfully help clients navigate the impacts and grief in healthy ways.
Recording Available June 17, 2024
Outline
What are "atypical" losses, and how do they differ from everyday grief?
Stigmatized and sensationalized losses: grieving in the public (and unkind) eye
Helping clients navigate the impact of "random chance" losses
The intersection of bias and belief in working with stigmatized or misunderstood losses
Objectives
Analyze the clinical concerns of working with clients facing the emotional and relational impacts of sensationalized losses.
Create treatment plans that include survivor communities to activate social support to buffer the effects of negative social attitudes faced by survivors of violent, stigmatized, and atypical losses.
Utilize interventions that treat survivors' social and emotional withdrawal and create the possibility for meaning-making.
Module 8 | Grief on the Job: Setting Boundaries, Managing Your Personal Grief and Holding Space for Others
The last several years have brought more pain and suffering to our practices than ever before, at a time when many providers feel burned out, overwhelmed, and under-supported. In this session, Megan will give you the tools you need to manage the impacts of emotional overwhelm, set healthy boundaries, and handle your own grief on the job and the grief you experience because of your job.
Recording Available July 1, 2024
Outline
Repeated exposure to loss: dealing with overwhelm, repetition, and frustration
Creating and maintaining boundaries on the job and because of the job
Systemic failure and the limits of infrastructure: doing emotional work within systems that don't allow for clinicians' human needs
Friction with the outside world: finding support with people who don't get it
The ethics of self-disclosure
Objectives
Investigate the ethical aspects and potential positive and negative clinical impacts of self-disclosure.
Develop an action plan for managing the impact of emotional overwhelm and repetition as a clinician.
Determine personal and professional boundaries that help the clinician navigate personal and professional losses.
Module 9 | Non-Death Losses: How the Grief We Don't Call Grief Applies to Every Client
Most people think grief only relates to death. As such, so many people discount and judge their loss experiences as "no big deal." But now more than ever, clinicians are discovering that the grief inherent in daily life has a huge impact on our clients, regardless of why they're seeking support or treatment. In this session, Megan will show you how to recognize grief unrelated to death, change the culture about how we view these non-death losses, and give you clinical solutions for improving support and connection.
Recording Available July 15, 2024
Outline
Grief beyond death: recognizing grief unrelated to death
Moral distress, chronic illness, everyday stressors, and more
Changing the culture: how all clinical issues are grief issues
Clinical responses to non-death losses, interactions, and experiences
Objectives
Differentiate the features and corresponding clinical impacts of grief that occurs in non-death losses from the grief that occurs in death-related losses.
Develop a case conceptualization that accounts for the impacts of everyday stressors and non-death losses.
Apply interventions for grief support in non-death loss scenarios.
LIVE Q&A and Discussion Call
Monday, July 22, 2024 · 12:00pm-1:30pm CDT
Module 10 | Moving a Humanized Approach to Grief Work into the World: Culture Change in Your Workplace, Community and Beyond
Doing the work to make our practices kind, supportive, and effective isn't enough. If we want to rehumanize grief, we have to change the world. In this session, join Megan and get the strategies you need to overcome resistance to a humanized view of grief and be an agent of change in your workplaces, communities, and beyond!
Recording Available August 5, 2024
Outline
Encountering hostility: resistance to change at work and in the world
Why all providers are practitioners of social change
Tools and tactics for dealing with resistance (or hostility)
Creating a grief-inclusive workplace culture
The change we see coming
Objectives
Analyze the challenges inherent in a paradigm shift away from a pathologizing model of grief currently prevalent in clinical and medical practice.
Differentiate between honoring different approaches to grief and hostility to human-centered approaches.
Develop an action plan to educate and support clients, your workplace, and wider professional circles of influence on a human-centered approach to grief.
LIVE Closing, Q&A and Discussion Call
Monday, August 19, 2024 · 12:00pm-1:30pm CDT
Megan Devine's Grief Care Professional Certificate Program
Megan Devine, LPC, is an acclaimed grief expert, psychotherapist, and author of the best-selling book It’s OK That You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand, considered required reading by grieving people and professionals around the world. With over 20 years in the field, her pioneering work provides a professional, inclusive, and realistic approach to grief, one that goes beyond pathology-based, reductive models.
A sought-after expert when grief erupts in the public sphere, Megan’s work is featured widely in the media including the New York Times, NPR, Washington Post, GQ, Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, the PBS documentary Speaking Grief, and more.
Megan is the founder of Refuge in Grief, a hub of grief education and outreach where she leads people through some of the most devastating times of their lives. Her latest book is How to Carry What Can’t Be Fixed. Learn more at www.refugeingrief.com.
As one of the most insightful and influential voices in grief, Megan's unique and original approach to therapy has created a global phenomenon. As a practicing therapist, thought leader and one of the successful authors on grief, Megan takes you on a learning journey that will reshape how you think about grief and treat your clients. You'll be able to take away an approach that supports clients through diverse and unique types of grief in a human-centered and non-pathologizing way.
No problem! The live sessions are recorded and you'll have unlimited access to go back to again and again.
You'll have access to the first training module on March 4th, 2024. On a bi-weekly schedule you get access to each of the following modules — with live Q&A calls with Megan throughout your education experience!
No, this course is a hybrid bringing you the benefits of both recorded video and live components. Since training LIVE with a world-renowned expert for over 20 hours could cost thousands of dollars, this format allows you to join Megan at a price that's accessible. The modules labelled 1 through 10 are pre-recorded video trainings where you'll learn not only from Megan's teachings, but also the questions and shared discussions of other professionals. PLUS, you'll have access to 4 LIVE Q&A sessions where you can join Megan and your classmates LIVE to ask questions and go deeper into the work. See schedule for video availability schedule and LIVE Q&A session dates.
All registrants will receive a displayable certificate of completion and a digital badge upon completion of course and post-test. If you are a licensed professional, you're also eligible to be included in Megan's clinical provider directory at her website for free for one year. Please note that the displayable certificate of completion indicates that you have finished the training; it does not verify your level of expertise, competency, or proficiency in the subject matter.
No. A certificate is a document issued upon the completion of a training program. It signifies that you have trained on specific skills, have knowledge in a particular subject, or as in this case, have trained with a particular individual. Certification on the other hand is a formal recognition of your expertise and competence. Certification often requires you to meet specific standards, pass rigorous exams, and many even include additional practice, consultation, supervision, and evaluations. While you will need to pass an exam, this course does not include many of these elements, nor a personal assessment of your abilities by Megan Devine — making this a "certificate" program. So while there are a lot of "certifications" out there — including some that are not endorsed by an actual certifying body — you need to be the judge of what adds value to your work and your ability to help your clients. This certificate does distinguish you as one of the small number of grief professionals who've trained extensively with Megan Devine…and it's an acknowledgment that can set you apart in the eyes of clients and peers.
100% Satisfaction Guarantee*
Register for this intensive training course without risk. If you're not completely satisfied, give us a call at 800-844-8260.
We’re that confident you'll find this learning experience to be all that's promised and more than you expected.
Megan Devine's Grief Care Professional Certificate Program
