The Grief Recovery Institute has been around for 40 years. We've been doing the certification training for about 30 years. There is more competition now than ever in terms of certifications with grief, which is a good thing. 

Our goal way back when, before me, was to push grief into the conversation, normalize it, and make sure grieving people knew it was a normal and natural process. Through that, we've developed an excellent method that we think is the best in the world. Nonetheless, it's great that other people in this space want to help people with grief. There are a couple of questions that we get when people are considering our work versus others. 

I want to quickly note where I think we differ and the benefits you'll find with our certification. Of course, I will not focus on other people's work. I believe there are people out there doing good stuff. 

Will you get support after the training? 

The first thing I think is essential for you when looking at certification is after the certification, whether that is a video they send you, an online seminar you go to, or an in-person event. If you want to get certified in the world of grief, you want to ensure that you have support after the fact. Many people can do cool, exciting, meaningful, and interesting things in a seminar where you learn great stuff. But putting that stuff into practice, when you're working with fellow human beings at sometimes the most painful time of their life, you're going to have some questions. You're going to want some support. What about this question? What about this circumstance? There will be questions. 

Make sure that the certification and organization you align with have the support you need. We take a lot of pride in the unlimited support that we give you: one-to-one video calls, monthly and weekly webinars, and a login area.

What are their results? 

Secondly, make sure that you check out the organization's results. We all have cool-looking fancy websites, or we try to. We all have cool color schemes and stuff like that, but what are the actual results that people are getting with the process or the grief certification? One of the things we're proud of is the Grief Recovery Method ultimately cares about the results. Our method helps grievers heal, and we're proud of that. 

You can spend literally hours of your day reading thousands of reviews. We put those up there; we update them regularly to show you what this method does for people, and you will be a huge part of that as their facilitator. We want you to hear about what this method does from the grievers you're working with. That's really important. When you look at other sites next to ours, do they show any results? 

Are grievers talking about how the process has been for them? 

What is their process? 

What is their method? 

Do they have one? 

You can say fascinating things and educate in some ways during these different online seminars, but moving forward, when that event is done for you, what tools do you have to help them? 

Believe it or not, with some of these other certifications, we get feedback when people experience others and then come to us. They say, "You mean you guys have a concrete plan to help people?" Yeah. I don't know how else you would do it, honestly. 

Research the framework in which you're going to help people. Saying positive affirmations to them or just being there as a companion and comforting them is great, but if we're going to bill or promote ourselves as professionals, we have to do more. We have to help them move forward happily and joyously. 

What do they teach about grief?

Be wary of grief professionals who say you're going to be sad as long as the person's going to be deceased. We can do way better than that. Be careful if that's the answer and the results someone is promising. When will I feel better? Well, how, how long is the person going to be deceased? It breaks my heart that that's out there.  

What steps are involved in getting a grief certification?

When analyzing the framework, what steps are involved? What are the actions involved? Be careful if there isn't a tangible thing that's lasted or proven through time. I understand that not all of these certifications are financially the same regarding your investment. Still, you're going to have questions coming out of any certification. You're going to want support, and you are going to want to lean on some framework as you get better and better. Those are our strengths, so keep that in mind as you look at us. 

Does the company focus on the topic of grief only: I would ensure that the person's certification specializes in one topic and they're well versed and good at it. There are also some places you may call certification mills, where you can go to their website and find a billion different certifications. I would be wary of that. If your expertise, or claimed expertise, is in 5,000 things, you may not be on the top of your game at helping people with all of those topics. 

I genuinely believe that having grief in the conversation more and more is a good thing, whether it's with other people or us, unless you're just a certification mill and your goal is to make a buck on giving someone a certification in a billion different things. 

Please comment below if you are certified in the Grief Recovery Method or a grief recovery specialist. What are the other strengths that you think the Grief Recovery Method has? Again, please don't mention any other programs. This isn't anything other than keeping a positive light on how we help people with the Grief Recovery Method. This isn't an us versus them statement. 

Thank you for all your support. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and again, thanks for considering us when you're looking at ways to help your fellow human being!