Course info

ONLINE Grief Support Specialist Program

The Grief Support Specialist Program is a non-credit, online certificate program offered through Continuing Education and Workforce Development at Northern Michigan University. Throughout the program, participants will learn the principles and many practical tools and techniques to enhance their professional and personal life related to grief. Topics include: grief counseling theories and strategies, assessments, recovery tools and intervention, attachment styles and grief, children and youth coping with grief, different age coping skills, grief groups for children, vicarious grief, disenfranchised grief, complicated grief coping with dying, legal issues & end of life decisions, spiritual, ethical, and culture issues, group therapy, self-care and career enhancement.

The course is open to anyone and everyone.

This program is completely online and asynchronous, allowing you to learn at your own pace. The course involves detailed lectures/instruction, illustrative case studies, and client stories. Throughout the program, the assignments and forum discussions are integral to your learning and will provide opportunities for interaction and application of concepts. 

Instructor office hours are available for guidance and support. 

*Participants have 6 months to complete all portions of the online program. Extensions may be granted if 

"Grief is an experience we all have to carry with us. Our task is to figure out how to carry that grief as survivors rather than as victims. The goal of this course is to help all of us (and those who look to us for assistance) become such survivors. We will never cure that terrible wound of grief, but we can find some healing in the midst of it, and that is what makes us survivors." - Douglas C. Smith M.Div., MA, MS | Grief Support Specialist Program Developer.