How To Become A Grief Counselor

Have you ever lost a loved one? If you have, you know that coping with the loss can be overwhelming. It’s common to have these feelings when we go through any kind of significant loss, including relationships, home, and jobs. 

As distressing as these periods can be, grief is a normal process that all of us will experience in our lives. A grief and bereavement counselor is a specialist counselor that works with clients who have experienced loss. 

If you have good people skills and empathy, and are comfortable with death and dying, perhaps you want to help others going through difficult periods in their lives. Completing a certification as a grief and bereavement counselor will help you guide others through times of darkness and learn to accept tragic losses in their lives. 

Why do an online counseling course?

Whether it’s personal or professional interest, learning the basics is important to ensure you have a solid foundation at the start of your journey. An online counseling course will give you comprehensive, accessible information that you can use to develop and improve your career options. 

Online learning is easier than a traditional academic situation where you might be reading textbooks on grief! All your materials are included online to establish your own study schedule that is flexible and interactive. 

Do I need to do an online course to become a grief counselor?

The educational requirements for different grief counseling careers can vary depending on your location and where you intend to work. Local career guides can give you advice on choosing from a variety of certificate programs in grief counseling to begin your professional training.  

Becoming a professionally certified grief counselor may give you more career options, especially in health professions, and a grief counseling certification or accreditation will allow you to provide more services.  

The American Academy of Grief Counseling certifies counselors and can provide specialized training. Their Fellowship programs even offer Fellowship status to skilled individuals who meet professional criteria as career counselors. 

Working in school psychology, or becoming a licensed clinical counselor generally requires more advanced degrees and supervised practice experience, but doing a short online course allows you to try something new or complement the skills in your current profession without investing a huge amount of time or money. 

What careers are available to me after I’ve done an online counseling course?

Counselor careers can vary greatly and these skills can be applied in a number of different workplaces. A licensed grief counselor may work in different places, including hospitals, funeral homes, emergency services, churches, or school counseling programs. You can get started in social work careers by volunteering in hospices or aged-care facilities and getting started in family counseling. 

Military or police operations, or health care professionals may also require the expertise of mental health counselors to help families going through difficult circumstances. School counselors may assist with adolescent grief for students going through divorce. 

Some social workers will work from their own private practices, while others may also make house calls, allowing their clients to get support in the comfort of their own homes. Individual or group sessions can also be valuable, especially in the context of marriage and family therapy. Non-licensed counselors often work in funeral homes and provide support to families following the death of their loved ones. 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean salary for a professional in mental health counseling is around $42,000 per year. 

Grief and bereavement counseling online certificate course

The Grief and Bereavement Counseling Online Certificate course from Courses for Success will teach you how to deal with a sense of loss, intense grief, and depression. It will examine how grief can be both overwhelming as well as an emotional refuge. 

Working with the bereaved is a significant aspect of counseling. You may often work with people who have lost a family member, a friend, a relationship, a job, or even pet loss. The feeling of loss, grief, and depression often necessitates the need for counseling to help console this person and allow them to return to daily functioning. 

What you’ll learn?

The online grief and bereavement counselor certificate course covers 6 units of work that provide a comprehensive foundation for dealing with and working through mental distress and pain after losing a loved one. 

• In the first module: Learn about the different stages of grief and what the purpose of bereavement counseling is.
• In the second module: Understand the different reactions to grief and the different types of grief that people experience.
• In the third module: Learn about normal responses that often accompany grief, such as anger and guilt.
• In the fourth module: Look specifically at how bereavement affects the male client.
• In the fifth module: Examine child development and how children handle grief at different ages, and how to tackle the topic of death with them.
• In the sixth module: Examine adjustment to sudden or violent death and how to adapt support and coping strategies in these circumstances.

How will you learn it?

Like other featured programs at Courses for Success, the Grief and Bereavement Counseling Online Certificate course is structured for easy comprehension. The course materials are available online 24/7 for you to access at your leisure and allow you study online anywhere, anytime. 

Once you complete the course, you’ll still have access to all of the course materials, so you can come back and review content or refresh your memory at any time. 

What will you get out of it?

As a counselor, you can provide support to individuals or groups and make the grieving process easier and shorter. While death and loss can be tragic, you will gain strong emotional fulfilment from helping others and teaching them how to cope with grief to move towards acceptance. 

Completing this short and affordable online course will also give you a headstart in any further study you decide to pursue. You’ll also have access to all of the content resources for future reference. 

Why Courses for Success? 

All of our courses are structured specifically for easy comprehension and can be accessed 24/7 using any device, so you can work towards your certifications at a pace that suits you. 

Courses for Success offers over 10,000 online courses, all of which aim to help you in your personal development and career progression. Not only that, but you can also study them anywhere and at any time, and take them at your own pace, too.

You don’t need career diplomas or specific experience to get started. Every course we offer is created to be as accessible as possible. You can be sure that all of them, from our coding courses and trading courses to design courses and developer courses, will help to boost your prospects, no matter who you are.

Beyond just the education itself, students will be issued with a certificate online after successful completion of each of the learning courses they do. Our grief and bereavement counseling courses are no exception. Our online counseling certificates are recognized by industry leaders. You could really make a name for yourself in the counseling sector by signing up for a Courses for Success short course today.