Various types of grief counselor training exist, ranging from certification and continuing education programs for mental health and nursing professionals to hospice training for volunteer laypeople. Courses and workshops are offered both online and in person. Some schools combine grief counselor training with courses in thanatology (death studies), such as Breyer State University and Canyon College, both in California.
The American Academy of Grief Counseling offers fellowship status for completing a certification program. Applicants must complete seven continuing education courses within two years and achieve a score of at least 70 percent on each examination. The American Institute of Health Care Professionals sponsors the program.
Subjects covered in grief counselor training can include the psychosocial aspects of death and dying, stages of loss, the mourning process for children, various cultural and religious views of death, helping bereaved persons readjust after loss, the manifestations of normal and complicated grief, family systems, intervention approaches, counseling ethics and how to process your own unresolved grief. For hospice program volunteers, training topics can include emergency procedures, theory of death and dying, providing comfort to patients and their families and understanding end-of-life spiritual and emotional needs.
The Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) offers an annual conference scholarship and one-year membership to undergraduate and graduate thanatology students. The ADEC also awards a cash prize and certificate of recognition for winning essays by undergraduate and graduate students on the topics of death, dying, bereavement or cross-cultural perspectives of death and dying.
If you are an ordained minister or licensed funeral director, some certification requirements might be waived, according to the American Institute of Health Care Professionals. Present evidence of your status as a minister or funeral director to qualify for special training considerations as a grief counselor.