A Welcome from the Global Grief Network
Grief lives in the whole person. People who have lost someone often describe it first in physical terms: a weight on the chest, a hollow stomach, legs that will not carry them up the stairs, sleep that will not come. Long before grief finds words, it shows up in breath, posture, appetite, and energy.
The Global Grief Network (GGN) was founded by Tony Lynch to make sure no one grieves alone. Through the GGN app, the Memory Wall, our streaming and broadcasting channels, Grief Talk Magazine, the Grief First Aid course, and the GGN Practitioner Directory, we connect grieving people with community, information, and care. This certification adds one more piece to that ecosystem: a rigorous, trauma-informed training for people who want to support the bereaved with steady, body-aware presence.
This handbook is your companion for the full program. It contains the lessons, guided practice scripts, case vignettes, reflection prompts, and quizzes for every module, along with the practicum requirements, assessment rubric, code of ethics, scope of practice, and referral guide that define what it means to carry the GGN credential.
Thank you for choosing to do this work. The people you will sit with deserve someone who is grounded, humble, well trained, and clear about their limits. That is who this program is designed to help you become.
Program Overview
Program name
GGN Certified Somatic Grief Support Practitioner (credential abbreviation: GGN-CSGSP)
About the name
This program teaches body-based, somatic approaches to grief support. We deliberately do not use any word in its title that suggests clinical care or mental health treatment. In most jurisdictions, words for licensed mental health treatment and the titles of licensed professionals describe regulated professional activities, and using them in a title can imply a license the holder does not have. Several established somatic methods are also protected trademarks owned by other organizations. The word "support" keeps the credential honest about what graduates do: they offer non-clinical, trauma-informed, body-aware companionship and skills to grieving adults, and they refer to licensed professionals when more is needed.
What this program is
A structured training of approximately 90 hours that prepares participants to:
- Understand grief as a whole-body experience, drawing on current research and long-standing human traditions of mourning.
- Offer original GGN somatic practices (Grounding, Looking Around, Gathering Supports, gentle breath and movement, and paced body awareness) in a way that is invitational, consent-based, and trauma-informed.
- Recognize when a person needs more than grief support, and connect them to licensed clinical, medical, or crisis care quickly and respectfully.
- Hold clear professional boundaries and sustain their own wellbeing while working with loss.
What this program is not
- It is not a license, and it does not authorize the practice of mental health treatment, counseling, social work, medicine, nursing, massage, or bodywork.
- It does not teach diagnosis, assessment for mental disorders, or treatment of any condition.
- It does not teach hands-on touch. GGN somatic support is touch-free by design. Practitioners who hold a separate license that includes touch (for example, licensed massage professionals) follow their own license and training, not this program, for any touch-based work.
- It does not teach or license any trademarked or proprietary method belonging to another organization.
The GGN approach in one sentence
Presence first, body second, story when the person is ready, and referral whenever needed.
The GGN approach rests on five commitments, which you will see throughout the handbook:
- Safety and choice. Every practice is an invitation. The grieving person decides what, when, how much, and whether.
- Slow is respectful. We work in small doses and leave room to stop.
- Grief is not a disorder. Most grief is a natural response to loss. We do not try to fix it, speed it up, or make it disappear.
- Culture and meaning matter. We follow the person's own beliefs, rituals, and ways of honoring the dead.
- Know the edge of your role. We refer early and without embarrassment.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the program, a certified practitioner will be able to:
- Describe common physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and spiritual responses to bereavement, and explain why grief is usually a normal, adaptive process rather than an illness.
- Explain, in plain language, the stress response using the shared GGN words alarm, heavy brake, and the Settled Middle, use the GGN Grief Weather with clients, and state where the supporting evidence is strong and where it is still developing.
- Apply the GGN Steady Ground Promise and the five Steady Ground Habits (Predict, Ask, Pace, Respect, Connect) to every part of a grief support session.
- Obtain, document, and continually renew informed consent, including for each individual somatic practice.
- Lead the GGN core practices (Arrival, Five Anchors Grounding, Look Around the Room, the Support Map, Visit and Return, Paced Breath, Memory Hands, and the Closing Settle) safely and adaptably, in person and online.
- Pace a session using the GGN pacing tools Small Sips, Visit and Return, and the Steady Ending, so that a grieving person can touch difficult material without becoming overwhelmed.
- Recognize indicators that a person may be experiencing traumatic grief, prolonged and impairing grief, a mental health crisis, or a medical concern, and refer appropriately without diagnosing.
- Respond to suicide risk using a clear, practiced protocol, including connecting people in the United States to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and people elsewhere to local emergency and crisis services.
- Practice culturally humble, inclusive support across differences in faith, culture, identity, ability, and type of loss.
- Uphold the GGN Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice, maintain appropriate records, and engage in ongoing supervision and self-care.
Audience and Prerequisites
Who this program is for
- Grief support group facilitators, peer supporters, and volunteers.
- Hospice and palliative care staff and volunteers, chaplains, and spiritual care providers.
- Death doulas and end-of-life companions.
- Funeral service professionals who want deeper skills in supporting families.
- Coaches, yoga and movement teachers, and wellness practitioners who encounter grief in their work.
- Licensed clinicians (counselors, social workers, psychologists, marriage and family clinicians, nurses) who want a structured, body-aware grief framework to integrate within their own license.
Prerequisites
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Age | 18 years or older. |
| GGN Grief First Aid | Completion of the GGN Grief First Aid course is required before Module 1. It provides the shared foundation of listening skills, grief literacy, and crisis basics that this program builds on. |
| Personal readiness | Applicants who have experienced a significant loss within the past 12 months are asked to discuss their readiness with a GGN admissions advisor. This is not a barrier; it is a care conversation. Personal grief can deepen this work, and it also needs room of its own. |
| Background | No degree is required. Applicants must submit a short statement of intent and agree to the GGN Code of Ethics. |
| Technology | A reliable internet connection, a camera and microphone for live sessions, and access to the GGN app. |
A note for licensed clinicians
If you hold a license to provide mental health treatment, counseling, social work, psychology, nursing, medicine, or another health profession, you may use what you learn here within the scope of that license, according to the standards of your licensing board, your professional association's ethics code, and your employer's policies. The GGN credential does not expand, replace, or limit your license. When you use GGN practices inside licensed clinical work, your license, not this certificate, governs what you may do.
Format, Hours, and Schedule
The program is delivered in a blended format: self-paced lessons in the GGN learning portal and app, weekly live online sessions for practice and discussion, and a supervised practicum. Cohorts typically complete the program in 16 to 20 weeks.
Module list and hours
| # | Module | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Foundations: Grief, the Body, and the GGN Approach | 5 |
| 2 | Scope of Practice, Ethics, and the Legal Frame | 6 |
| 3 | The Nervous System in Grief: Alarm, Heavy Brake, and the Settled Middle | 6 |
| 4 | Trauma-Informed and Culturally Humble Grief Support | 6 |
| 5 | Consent, Choice, and the Safe Container | 5 |
| 6 | Inner Listening: Noticing Grief from the Inside | 5 |
| 7 | Grounding, Looking Around, and Gathering Supports | 5 |
| 8 | Pacing the Work: Small Sips, Visit and Return, and a Steady Ending | 5 |
| 9 | Breath, Movement, and Voice: Touch-Free Somatic Practice | 5 |
| 10 | When Grief Is Complicated: Traumatic, Unclear, Unseen, and Stuck Grief | 6 |
| 11 | Crisis, Risk, and Referral | 6 |
| 12 | Ritual, Legacy, Sustainability, and the GGN Ecosystem | 6 |
| Module subtotal | 66 | |
| P | Practicum: logged practice, group supervision, and individual consultation | 20 |
| C | Capstone: final written exam, observed practice assessment, and reflective portfolio | 4 |
| Total program hours | 90 |
Tuition and fees
Program tuition and any certification, retake, and renewal fees are listed at enrollment and checkout. Payment terms, payment plans (if offered), and the cancellation and refund policy are shown at checkout and in the GGN Somatic Certification Student Enrollment Agreement (L06) and the GGN Refund and Cancellation Policy (L13), both in the GGN Legal and Policies set.
How module hours are spent
Each module's hours combine reading and video lessons (about 40 percent), live online practice labs (about 35 percent), and reflection, quiz, and peer discussion (about 25 percent). Live labs are recorded for participants in other time zones, but at least 75 percent of live labs must be attended in real time, because practice with real people cannot be replaced by watching.
How to use this handbook
Each module contains:
- Objectives: what you will be able to do by the end of the module.
- Lesson: the core teaching content.
- Guided practices: scripts written to be read aloud slowly. Pauses are marked (pause). Read every script first as a participant, then practice it as a guide.
- Case vignettes: fictional stories, clearly labeled, used to practice judgment. Any resemblance to real people is coincidental.
- Reflection prompts: questions for your journal or peer group.
- Quiz: a short knowledge check. An answer key with brief rationales appears in Appendix A.