Enhance Your Grief Practice: Become a My Grief Journey® Specialist
Tailored to fulfill your specific objectives, whether for yourself or your team. We offer onsite training for your whole organization or the option to join us in Orange, California.
Personalized Grief Training and Mentoring for Therapists, Counselors and Coaches
Taught
Anne-Marie Lockmyer & Ron Gray, LMFT
Grief &Trauma Healing Network
authors, speakers and grief experts
Creators of MyGriefCare.com, the Your Grief Guides YouTube channel, the MyGriefJourney® Healing Program, MyGriefJourney® Specialist Training, the Next Chapter Healing Retreat for Widows, and the Equipping the Church for Grief & Trauma Workshop.
We will expand and deepen
your perspective on grief.
The key benefits of attending our grief training program are:
- Personalized training tailored to your specific needs and goals.
- Expertise from professionals who have personal and professional experience with grief and loss.
- A comprehensive understanding of grief and it’s impact on clients’ lives.
- Effective tools and resources for supporting grieving clients.
- Mentorship and practicum sessions to help you implement what you’ve learned and excel in your practice.
- Certificate as a My Grief Journey® Specialist and inclusion on the Grief & Trauma Healing Network, LLC website.
This Intensive Grief Training Program Has Two Tracks:
- Therapists & Counselors
- Life Coaches
The two tracks exist to address the unique requirements of each professional group:
- Therapists and Counselors: This track is designed for licensed mental health professionals, who have specific training and ethical guidelines to follow.
- Life Coaches: This track is for individuals who are not licensed mental health professionals, but still want to provide effective grief support.
Our grief training program offers essential insights, tools, and resources that empower you to assist grieving clients at any point in their journey—whether they have experienced a recent loss or have been stuck in their grief for years. Our comprehensive model and approach enable you to customize your support to meet each client’s unique needs.
The program offers resources, tools, client worksheets, and handouts included in your comprehensive printed training manual, as well as digital versions of each worksheet and handout.
What Makes Our Grief Training Different?
1. We Understand Grief!
Having navigated our journeys of losing a spouse, we have spent years leveraging both our experiences and insights gleaned from hundreds of grieving clients to develop the most effective and transformative grief healing program available.
We know it’s effective because we have witnessed the results firsthand. Check out our testimonials.
Our mission has always been to help as many hurting hearts as possible. We cannot keep up with the requests to work with us, continually turning people away and having nowhere to send them. That is why we aim to share our techniques and resources with a wide range of professionals, enabling them to facilitate the same healing process. As a therapist, Ron is the first to say that his training did not adequately prepare him to work with grieving people.
We aim to train individuals who are genuinely eager to support the grieving. This program isn’t suited for you if you’re merely seeking a credential. We intend to mentor and equip you to become an exceptional grief specialist, which will take an investment on your part and ours.
2. We Personalize Your Training!
Every training session includes our foundational content, but we tailor each session to align with your objectives and intended application in your individual or group practice. We separate the therapist and life coach training because they have unique needs.
- Are you looking to work solely with individuals, with groups, conduct retreats, or engage in all three options?
- Are you working in-person or video conferencing?
- Do you wish to support all grieving individuals or focus on specific types of loss, such as suicide, the death of a child, or the passing of a spouse?
- Are you interested in providing two-day grief intensives?
- Would you prefer to accompany clients throughout their entire grief journey or focus only on newly grieving or seasoned grievers feeling stuck in their grief?
- Are we training an individual or many individuals from one organization?
During your phone consultation, we will design a personalized grief training program based on your goals and practice.
3. Our Training is Live And in Person, At Your Location Or Ours, At a Time That Works Best For You!
Come to Orange, California, or bring us to your group or organization site.
4. We Not Only Teach You The Process. We Take You Through It.
Our methods address both death and non-death losses. We guide our training participants through the process, allowing them to experience it firsthand and connect with the emotions and fears their clients may encounter. We understand that teaching is more effective when one has personal experience. In addition to gaining better insights into the process, training participants frequently undergo their own healing journey.
5. We Provide Mentorship.
As you begin implementing what we’ve taught, questions will inevitably arise. Our training offers six months of practicum sessions to debrief you on your client experiences and potential improvements. We aim to help you excel, so we feel confident referring clients to you.
6. We Provide a Regularly Updated, Robust List of Grief Resources and Organizations You Can Access to Share With Your Clients.
Knowing the available resources that could help your clients succeed is important. You don’t have to worry about that because we keep that list for you, and you can access it anytime.
Our Unique Grief Training Program Offers 2 Paths:
1. Therapy and counselor training and
2. Life coach training. Although much of the content overlaps, we separate these training tracks to address their unique requirements. Each track consists of:
- 2-3 days (depending on your needs) of live in-person instruction in Orange, California, or at your location (schedule a phone consultation with us to get a personalized plan).
- Reflection and training in our Mastery Guided Grief Healing Exercises.
- In-depth training manual.
- PDFs containing tools, interventions, and worksheets.
- Printable materials for client use.
- Digital badge for display on your website or social media.
- MyGriefJourney™ Specialist Certificate of Completion from Grief & Trauma Healing Network, LLC.
- Inclusion on our website as a MyGriefJourney® Specialist (upon completion and approval of your practicum).
- 6 months of practicum and support tailored to enhance your skillset and practice.
Overview of Training Content:
Specific topics covered in the grief training program include:
- How grief and loss impact a client’s world
- Stages and phases of grief
- What bereaved clients need from a counselor
- Non-death losses
- Client connection
- Intake and assessment of the bereaved client
- Early focus, prioritization, and interventions/exercises
- Creating a support plan
- Processing the pain of grief (5 sequential steps)
- Transitioning the client’s focus from loss to living
- Access to resources
More Details: Topic Breakdown
How Grief and Loss Impact a Client’s World
Losing a very important person impacts many, if not all, of a client’s life domains. We’ll begin by exploring the importance of understanding the client’s experience and how loss manifests and discuss examples of unhelpful beliefs clients often hold.
Stages and Phases of Grief
Grief following loss is a much-studied phenomenon, yet it is often underrepresented in training and a generally misunderstood condition. We’ll provide a 50,000-foot overview of the grief experience and the course of mourning, including some of the classic academic theories in the field.
What Bereaved Clients Need from a Counselor
Reaction to deeply impactful loss is not in itself pathological. However, grieving clients often report symptoms that mimic pathology. Discover how and why a “therapist as counselor and coach” approach is best and promotes connection, trust and client movement.
Our Model
An overview of our coaching and counseling strategies including specific approaches, interventions/exercises and resources available to the therapist and client.
Non-Death Losses
Non-death losses often impact clients and how grief experiences can have a cumulative impact – especially when not effectively addressed.
Client Connection
As all coaches, counselors, and therapists know, the relational connection with the client greatly contributes to a successful outcome. Learn how to build intentional relational rapport, promote a safe environment, and reaffirm confidentiality.
Intake and Assessment of the Bereaved Client
Through personal experience, we’ve found that gathering information about a grieving client is crucial to determining planning, timing, order, etc. We will provide participants with tools and approaches and conduct brief group discussions in response to some typical vignettes. We will also touch on typical outside referrals that may be important during early treatment and suggest a universal screening for loss with all new clients.
Early Focus, Prioritization, and Interventions/Exercises
Beyond intake, assessment, rapport building, early education, interventions, and timing issues can significantly impact the direction, progress, and ultimate success of coaching and counseling. We will give some general guidance and specific suggestions, including the order of focus, determining timing, and resources, including the client’s family orientation to grief, trauma issues, addressing unhealthy coping, and barriers to healing.
Creating a Support Plan
We will explore the support needs of some grieving clients in greater depth, discussing this dynamic and providing helpful tools to discover and address the client’s most significant support deficits, which may stall or defeat successful treatment outcomes.
Processing the Pain of Grief (5 sequential steps)
This training portion will encompass the primary strategies and interventions to help the client take programmed steps that promote healing. These steps cannot occur until the client accepts the reality of their loss(es), identifies unprocessed emotions/cognitions, and then actively processes and expresses them. We will introduce these interventions/exercises and help attendees to practice them with peers under our supervision.
We refer to these exercises as heart-mending because they focus primarily on the heart rather than the head. We will provide examples and promote interactions between attendees. This portion of the program will be divided into five specific steps, each requiring its own instructional session.
Transitioning the Client’s Focus from Loss to Living
For some grieving clients, e.g. widowed persons who have lost a partner or a spouse, they have not only suffered the excruciating loss of an important person in their life, but their life (due to many secondary losses) has turned upside down. It will require a host of adaptations that are frightening and overwhelming. The tendency of such bereaved persons is to get stuck in life. This section will provide some helpful ideas and tools designed to help guide the client to transition their primary focus from their loss to living again.
Access to Resources
As a wrap-up, this section introduces some fantastic additional resources for working with clients with unique needs and challenges. You will leave with an excellent toolkit to use as needed.
About Your Presenters
Anne-Marie Lockmyer and Ron Gray,LMFT are professional grief specialists who lost their beloved spouses. Anne-Marie lost her husband to a sudden brain aneurysm while out of the country. Ron lost his wife after a 4-year battle with cancer and was her caregiver.
They know the pain and devastation that grief and loss cause and are dedicated to promoting active, healthy healing of bereaved people.
They are sought-after speakers on grief and loss. They are passionate about advocating for grievers and being educational catalysts for society regarding grief.
Anne-Marie is a grief coach, certified in critical incident stress debriefing, a certified trauma-integrative practitioner, and an eight-time award-winning author on grief. Ron is a master-trained marriage and family therapist specializing in grief and related trauma.
Together, they manage the Grief & Trauma Healing Network, LLC and offer life-changing grief support through:
Individual, Group & Weekend Intensive Grief Healing Programs
∙ The Next Chapter Grief Retreat for Widows
∙ Grief Training for Therapists, Counselors and Coaches
∙ Grief Crisis Response for Businesses and Organizations
∙ MyGriefCare.com – a no-cost grief support and grief resource website
∙ Equipping the Church for Grief and Trauma Workshop
Anne-Marie is the author of the
8-Time Award-Winning Book
“I wish everyone could read this book so they will be prepared to support loved ones when a tragedy strikes. Excellent resource with practical steps to help a grieving friend.”
– Mindy Daffron
Crisis Team Manager,
Trauma Intervention Program
Who is the ideal participant for this grief training program?
- Our training is tailored for therapists, counselors, social workers, and life coaches seeking a deeper understanding of grief. Participants will learn how to support their grieving clients at every stage of the grief process and gain a comprehensive toolkit filled with resources and exercises, including impactful and transformative healing steps.
- We avoid conducting large group trainings where participants are unfamiliar with one another. We aim to provide the best support in assisting grieving clients, so we exclusively offer individual training and mentoring. However, we accommodate group or organization training when members from the same group are interested in receiving it.
- We enjoy training practices with multiple therapists or counselors in attendance from the same group or organization. These are powerful experiences.
We tailor each training to the needs of the individual or group, so that is why we offer a consultation call to determine your needs. Then, we can give you an outline and quote for training.
Why do we do it this way instead of having one generic training for many people?
We aim for your success and that of your clients, and we want to confidently refer others to you based on your training and expertise. We aren’t looking for lots of people to take this training. We are looking for the right people. You are investing in us, and we are investing in you!
OFFERINGS:
Here are our core training packages. In our consultation call, we will verify suitability and discuss potential adjustments to better fit your needs. If your group exceeds six participants or you desire extra content, we can develop a tailored training plan and provide you with a quote.
We provide two distinct training options: counselor and life coach, both at the same cost. Counselors and coaches are trained separately.
INDIVIDUAL Training Program Includes:
$3950 per individual (your 2-day training and practicum sessions may include up to 1-3 other professionals)
$7995 per individual (for private one-on-one 2-day training with both Ron and Anne-Marie)
- In-depth consultation to confirm your desired goals and outcomes
- Pre-training exercises and reading
- 2 days of in-person private training in Orange, California
- Training in Our Mastery Guided Grief Healing Exercises
- In-depth training manual
- PDFs containing tools, interventions, and worksheets
- Printable materials for client use
- Digital badge for display on your website or social media
- MyGriefJourney™ Specialist Certificate of Completion from Grief & Trauma Healing Network, LLC
- Inclusion on our website as a MyGriefJourney® Specialist (upon completion of your practicum and approval )
- 6 Private Practicum Zoom sessions (one per month) tailored to enhance your skillset for your practice
- Unlimited email mentoring for 6 months
GROUP Training Program Includes: (up to 6 people*)
- In-depth consultation to confirm your desired goals and outcomes for the group
- Pre-training exercises and reading
- 2 1/2 days of in-person training in Orange, California OR at your location (travel expenses are extra) What other grief training program comes to your team location and designs the training just for you?
- Training in Our Mastery Guided Grief Healing Exercises
- In-depth training manual
- PDFs containing tools, interventions, and worksheets
- Printable materials for client use
- Digital badge for display on your website or social media
- MyGriefJourney™ Specialist Certificate of Completion from Grief & Trauma Healing Network, LLC
- Inclusion on our website as a MyGriefJourney® Specialist (upon completion and approval of your practicum)
- 6 Group Practicum Zoom sessions (one per month) tailored to enhance each member’s skillset for their practice
- Unlimited email mentoring for 6 months
$15,000
***If your organization has more than 6 people, please contact us for a quote.
Frequently Asked Questions
What sets this training apart from others?
- Understanding Grief: Trainers possess personal experiences of grief and loss, crafting a program rooted in their journeys and interactions with clients.
- Personalized Training: The program is customized to address the unique needs and aspirations of each participant.
- Live and In-Person Training: This format fosters a deeper and more impactful experience compared to online options.
- Experiential Learning: Participants are led through the grief process, enhancing their understanding and connection to the emotions their clients may face.
- Mentorship and Support: The curriculum incorporates practicum sessions and email guidance, assisting participants in applying their training in real situations.
- Resource Access: Participants are provided with an updated list of grief resources and organizations regularly.
Can I do the training online?
No. We intentionally do not provide online training because in-person interactions enable us to deliver a richer and more meaningful experience. Remember that we aim to make you an exceptional grief specialist, so every decision we make aligns with that objective.
Does the training qualify for continuing education credits?
Currently, we don’t offer continuing education credits. We understand this may deter some from participating in our training, but if you aspire to excel as a grief specialist, we assure you it is worthwhile.
Do you take credit card payments?
Yes.
