Institute of Professional Grief Coaching (IOPGC)
Being a member of the From Grief to Gratitude Community means being part of a professional group of passionate, empowering, and successful team members. Work through your own grief while learning to help others. If you feel our grief coach certification program is the right fit for you, I would be honored to have you join our team!
Dora Carpenter, CPC | Founder
Institute of Professional Grief Coaching (IOPGC)
"Unlike group therapy, peer-led groups are not managed by a mental health professional. Instead, they’re led by people who have faced challenges the group members are also experiencing.
After her mother died many years ago, Barri Leiner Grant, 56, a certified grief coach in Chicago, played host to a group event for motherless daughters. “I realized that we don’t ‘get over’ grief; we learn to live with the loss,” Grant says. Recognizing the need for more support, Grant was inspired to start “the Memory Circle,” a grief group for anyone coping with loss."
The Washington Post
July 2, 2022
The Washington Post
July 2, 2022
"With therapists in short supply, group counseling offers alternative."
"With therapists in short supply, group counseling offers alternative."
"A Premier and ICF-Accredited Grief Coach Certification Program"
"A Premier and ICF-Accredited Grief Coach Certification Program"
Classes are held via Zoom on Tuesdays from 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. EST
Class size is limited and spaces are filled on a first-to-register basis.
This program from grief to gratitude took me from Zero knowledge about grieving to being confident of sharing and discussing grieving to the public in my culture which still find this topic a taboo and no one should talk about. Dora is knowledgeable, experienced and very supportive. Thank you, I’m so grateful! I can’t wait to share my knowledge with my community to raise awareness of understanding all types of grieving.
Sharifah, Kuwait
Sharifah, Kuwait
"Each of us at some point has been directly or indirectly touched by loss and may unconsciously hold within us blocks of unresolved grief. Imagine being as free as you can be to be able to move beyond this limitation and be more sensitive and tuned fully into your clients." Sheila Paxton, Author and Master Coach
Our Promise to You: As a From Grief to Gratitude Certified Coach, you will have the knowledge, skills, resources, and confidence to coach clients through the transformative process of handling the painful emotions of losing a loved one, getting on top of their grief, and moving forward in life with meaning and purpose in the shortest time possible.
- Broaden your program offerings to serve a unique and underserved market
- Reduce program interruption and client dropout rate
- Identify and process any personal unresolved grief
- Achieve emotional and financial rewards while reaching a global audience
- Promote your expert status with a proven 5-step recipe that gets life-changing results
- Practical tools and techniques that you can use with your clients immediately
- Increase client retention and referrals by being the go-to grief coach in your community
- Tap into a niche market with unlimited prospects
- Enhance your coaching skills utilizing the International Coach Federation's (ICF) core coaching competencies
- Associate with a proven, successful, and well-recognized brand
There is great satisfaction as a coach to get real results for your clients. The unique inclusion of a life coaching element takes your client not only through the grieving process, but extends through embracing a life of joy, fulfillment, and gratitude. Your clients will experience growth through their grief and find gratitude in who they are becoming. You will help them pull from their inner strength with powerful, effective coaching tools and exercises to reduce the grief-related pain, fear, stress, and anxiety and propel them forward to a fulfilled life of meaning and purpose. You won’t try to fix them… They are not broken. You won’t try to heal them… They are not sick. You won’t judge them… They are not to be judged. You won’t tell them what to do… You will help them take forward-moving action. You won’t push them… You will challenge them. Your services as a grief coach will never go unappreciated.
- Understand the grief process and be able to acknowledge the normal and natural responses to loss
- Accept the fragility of life and the reality of death. Be able to honor the life and continue the legacy of your loved one.
- Begin blending old routines, habits, and traditions with newer ones to create a renewed awareness of self.
- Accept the continuance of your own life and take action to embrace your future.
- Move forward beyond the grief and create and enjoy a fulfilled life of love and gratitude.
Giving Yourself Permission to Grieve. Just as each of us was born with our unique DNA, so is the grief experience unique to each of us. There is no Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), rulebook, or one size fits all approach to handling grief. There is no right or wrong way to grieve and no one can tell you how to grieve; however, it is necessary to validate the uniqueness of the grief experience.
Remembering to Honor the Life and Legacy. Recognizing and accepting that the physical body is no longer with us, we now move to focus on the essence of who our loved one was, values instilled, accomplishments gained, lessons learned, gifts shared, memories treasured… the legacy left.
Incorporating New Traditions into Old Traditions. It is essential to your overall well-being to express and release your feelings. Staying stuck in only the past and harboring even a small percentage of unresolved grief can affect every other area of your life. Recognizing the "F" Factor: Fear, Forgiveness, and Faith is essential as you release painful emotions and begin to transition your grief and move into your new reality.
Embracing Meaning and Purpose Going Forward. You have been extended membership in a club that you never asked to join, and your life will never be the same again; however, your life can be meaningful. Seeing change as the natural flow of life and building confidence in handling it paves the way to begin creating your own legacy.
Finding Gratitude in the Gift of Now. You began the program giving yourself permission to grieve and now it is time to give yourself permission to move beyond your grief. This does not mean forgetting that hole in your heart. Treasured memories will always reside there. This should elicit a sense of peace, comfort, and even excitement as you forge ahead with the next chapter of your “new” life going forward.
The From Grief to Gratitude Coach Certification Program is supported on a state-of-the-art online program platform where you have 24/7 private access. Your certification program includes:
- Flexibility in scheduling and no travel required
- Live interactive training calls for each program module
- Recordings of training calls available for playback
- Tools and resources to assist you when coaching clients
- Intern-While-You-Learn Program where you work with a pro-bono client during training
- Access to online course portal for 60 days following final live class
Please understand that the From Grief to Gratitude Coach Certification Program is not based on a theological, philosophical, or conceptual framework for healing or fixing grief. It has been developed from and infers a personalized compassionate, heart-centered approach to empathetically journey with clients through their unique grieving process and does not imply, offer, or provide professional counseling or therapy.
The 8-week From Grief to Gratitude Coach Certification Program has eight live interactive training modules where we focus on program-specific content and methodology, International Coach Federation (ICF) core competencies, and coaching activities and assignments. Here is a look at the modules:
Module 1 - Foundations of Coaching Someone through Grief
This orientation module focuses on the prerequisites for successfully coaching your clients, understanding the ICF core competencies, the program format, delivery, expectations, and requirements for certification.
Module 2 – Giving Clients Permission to Grieve
You will have the knowledge, skills and resources to coach clients through the grieving process and help them understand and acknowledge their emotions. Here is part of what we will cover:
- Recognizing the many faces of grief
- Knowing the myths and avoiding the pitfalls
- Validating the uniqueness of the grief experience
Module 3 – Supporting Clients to Remember to Honor the Life and Legacy
This is where you will help your clients to accept the death and begin the transition from focusing on the death to remembering and honoring the life. Some of the highlights are:
- Confronting the reality of the death
- Creating rituals for remembrance
- Getting through the first year of grief
- Integrating loss into life
Module 4 – Guiding Clients to Incorporate New Traditions into Old Traditions
You will be able to coach your clients through creating renewed attitudes, behaviors, and perspectives resulting in transformative awareness and actions. Key elements include:
- Recognizing the "F" Factor: Fear, Forgiveness, and Faith
- Creating new routines and activities
- Taking responsibility for a renewed life
- Completing the Wheel of Life Project
Module 5 – Encouraging Clients to Embrace Meaning and Purpose Going Forward
Here you will encourage and support clients to embrace a renewed purpose as they complete assignments focusing on “what’s next” activities. Here are a few of the activities you will help them create:
- The P.E.T. Project
- The Create Your Legacy Project
- The Future You Project
Module 6 – Championing Clients to Find Gratitude in the Gift of Now
Your clients are now ready to forge ahead and you will proficiently coach them through developing the blueprint for a successful journey to a place of fulfillment, happiness, and gratitude. A few highlights are:
- Giving yourself permission to move beyond grief
- Saying Yes! to it all
- The Personal Power Plan Project
- Evaluating your support system
Module 7 - Understanding the Impact of Grief in the Workplace (content only)*
Understand how the normal, although challenging, impacts of grief affect the workplace. Become aware of the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual grief-related emotions affect job performance, morale, and loss of grief-related company revenue.
Module 8 - Providing Support for the Grieving Employee and Balancing Productivity (content only)*
Understand the significance of loss and how to reduce the impact on productivity. Learn the benefits and tools to ensure a compassionate, grief-informed, and grief-friendly workplace culture.
The Intern-While-You-Learn Program gives you the opportunity to build your confidence and competence while working with a pro-bono coaching client during the program.
All Classes Are Held on Tuesdays Via Zoom
Class Time is 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. EST
All Classes Are Held on Tuesdays Via Zoom
Class Time is 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. EST
Training and certification program cost is $2,497. Pay in full and pay only $2,197 ($300 off program cost) or pay in three (3) monthly installments of $832 each.
A $200 discount is offered to ICF-credentialed coaches (ACC, PCC, MCC) and military personnel. Certification will be verified.