Supporting Grief Well: The Grief Map Approach
Practical training for better conversations with people experiencing grief and loss
Grief can affect how someone thinks, feels, behaves and manages everyday life. This course helps you understand those effects and use what you learn in conversations with the people you support.
You’ll work through the online learning at your own pace, receive a physical Grief Map to use in your work, and join a live tutor-led session to explore the learning and ask questions.
£60 · CPD-accredited · Physical Grief Map included · Self-paced learning and a live tutor session
What are the five stages of grief – and do they happen in order?
This is one of the most frequently Googled searches. It makes sense – when you are feeling lost and overwhelmed, you want a map, a guidebook to help you navigate.
The Five Stages seem to give that: a neat, predictable route through grief. But grief is not a journey through five compulsory stages (and the model was never intended to describe how every bereaved person will grieve).
Some people may recognise some of these experiences in their own grief. Others may recognise all of them, none of them or something quite different. They do not need to happen in a particular order, and acceptance is not a finishing line.
The problem is not that these experiences have been named. The problem begins when we turn them into instructions and expect an individual person’s grief to fit the model.
What is the Grief Map?
We’d like to offer you a different kind of map.
Supporting Grief Well: The Grief Map Approach is designed to give you both a strong understanding of grief and practical ways to use that understanding when supporting another person.
The course looks at the conversation from both sides: what the supporter needs to understand and do, and what may be happening for the person who is grieving.
You will explore:
- How grief can affect thoughts, emotions, the body and behaviour
- What neuroscience tells us about the grieving brain
- Why having continuing bonds with the person who has died is healthy
- Grief models like the Dual Process, which normalises the movement between loss and restoration work (this is covered in the free taster module you can access below)
- Intrusive thoughts and helpful or unhelpful rumination
- Practical needs and self-care during grief
- Trauma responses and the Window of Tolerance
What does the training include?
Your enrolment includes:
A physical Grief Map posted to you
Self-paced online learning
Videos, written resources and practical guidance
Reflective activities and knowledge checks
Continued access to the course materials
A 60–90-minute tutor-led online session after the self-paced learning
A CPD certificate following completion
The course is designed to help you build your understanding gradually, with materials you can revisit when you need them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is this grief training course for?
The course is suitable for anyone whose work or volunteering brings them into contact with grief, bereavement or significant loss, including:
Counsellors and psychotherapists
Mental health professionals
Funeral professionals
Healthcare and care staff
Bereavement volunteers and peer supporters
Financial services professionals
Managers, HR teams and workplace wellbeing leads
Charity and community workers
You do not need to work in a specialist bereavement role. Grief appears in all kinds of professional conversations, often without announcing itself first.
Can you buy the Grief Map without taking the course?
Yes. The physical Grief Map is available as a standalone resource.
You can keep it close at hand as a visual prompt for reflection and conversations about grief. It may be useful if you already understand the approach, want an additional copy or need more maps for your work.
The standalone map does not include the teaching, practical guidance or tutor-led session provided by the complete course.
Who teaches the Grief Map course?
The course is taught by Martin Roddis and Trudie Bamford.
Martin has created and delivered grief education for organisations across healthcare, blue-light services, financial services, charities and community support.
Trudie is a trainer and therapist with particular experience in traumatic grief, including bereavement following suicide and drug-related death, as well as neurodivergence and grief.
Together, they connect established grief theory with the reality of supporting actual people.
Can you provide Grief Map training for teams and organisations?
Yes. The Grief Map Approach can be delivered or adapted for your team or organisation.
We provide live workshops, webinars, digital learning and supporting resources shaped around the situations your people encounter. Tell us who the training is for, what they are facing and what you would like them to feel more confident understanding or doing.
Discuss Grief Map training for your organisation