Learn how bereavement counsellors comfort those who have lost loved ones in this free online grief counselling course.

People who have lost a loved one often require grief counselling to help them cope and move on. Do you know that grief is an unavoidable part of loss and can affect people’s mental health? Before examining the scope and stages of the counselling process, this course defines the functions of a therapist and their significance and then debunks common myths about counselling. We examine the ideas of grief and bereavement and highlight the importance of attachment theory and the numerous factors that influence a grieving experience.

The course then identifies the moments in which grief can begin and discusses the task of the grief process. We go through the stages of grieving and examine their associated symptoms. We study common reactions of bereaved adults and who experience difficulties interacting with their surroundings following an unexpected death. We examine the challenges you may encounter when grieving the loss of a spouse, parent, sibling, friend or pet. The course describes the mental health problems caused by bereavement and explains how to identify the factors that define ‘complicated grief’, in which the intensity of emotion doesn’t subside.

We then study various reactions to complicated grief, the process of grief therapy and the strategies counsellors should follow in counselling sessions. We evaluate several losses after which grief resolution is difficult to implement before focusing on the effects of trauma, murder, AIDs and perinatal or neonatal loss. The course provides intervention tools you can use to help a grieving child and describe the circumstances that require professional assistance. Finally, we examine examples of questions you should ask in pre-counselling assessment. Grief therapists and bereavement counsellors play an important role in helping people recover from the effects of loss and trauma. Sign up to learn how to make a positive difference in people’s lives.