April 4th, 2025. 
Grief Educator Certification – Week 1
This week marked the start of an enriching new chapter: my journey with the Grief Educator Certification program, led by the renowned expert David Kessler.
Grief has been part of my exploration for many years, through my training as an end-of-life doula and as a volunteer in palliative care, my personal studies, and working closely with a grief support organization in Switzerland. I’m also regularly immersed in experiences of loss during my facilitation of Death Cafés and Companion Voices meetings, where we create spaces of gentle listening and shared humanity.
Yet, I felt called to deepen and expand my toolbox—to better support those navigating this complex emotional landscape.
As David beautifully puts it, grief is like a vast forest. My intention is to walk alongside individuals in this forest, recognizing milestones, providing compassionate guidance, and offering a gentle, comforting presence.
I’m excited to share this meaningful journey with you all.
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April 11th, 2025.Grief Educator Certification – Week 2
This week was all about witnessing and being present with someone who is grieving. This topic strongly echoed my end-of-life doula training two years ago, where we also explored the essence of holding space.
Holding space isn’t about doing something specific. It’s about simply being there, truly listening, and staying present, without projecting our own expectations or trying to fix anything. The grieving person knows their grief and journey best. Our role is to gently serve, asking what they need, without giving unsolicited advice or trying to cheer them up. It’s about allowing them the time they need to unfold their experience, and humbly learning from them.
An especially interesting reflection this week involved examining our own reactions as listeners. We often instinctively show empathy and understanding through nodding, facial expressions, or mirroring body language. But I found it fascinating to experiment with the opposite: a very neutral face and posture. Not as a goal, but simply as a practice to better understand how we naturally engage when actively listening.
We also emphasized that every loss matters deeply. It’s essential not to minimize anyone’s experience, but instead, to respectfully acknowledge the profound depth and uniqueness of each person’s grief.
This journey naturally invites a lot of self-reflection. As we explore grief, it is impossible not to reflect on our own paths; the losses we’ve experienced, our reactions, and the stories we attach to them. It’s been profoundly moving.
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May 13th, 2025.Grief Educator Certification – Week 3-4-5-6
Time flies, have you noticed?
My training has been unfolding with many powerful insights. As a death doula and someone who has worked alongside a grief expert in Switzerland, I don’t consider myself new to this topic. Yet, I continue to gather valuable tools and perspectives—especially as I revisit the many layers of grief and loss in my own life.
Loss and grief are universal, but each person navigates them in their own unique way. One theme that stood out recently is how we tend to create and hold onto stories around our losses or the death of a loved one. These narratives help us make sense in the chaos that can follow a breakup, a job loss, or the death of someone dear.
While these stories can be helpful, when they are filled with guilt or resentment and we hold them too tightly, they may become harmful over time. One of the roles of a grief educator is to gently support a shift in perspective and plant the seed that maybe, just maybe, there could be a breath, a crack in the harsh version of the story.
I thought of an acquaintance who carries deep guilt about his brother’s suicide. They had gone through tough times together in their youth, and he feels he should have protected him. Guilt became a way to feel some control, because accepting the role of mental illness and addiction in his brother’s death was too painful. There had to be a reason—someone to blame. And that someone became him.
Maybe, with time, space will open in that painful narrative. Everyone processes grief in their own way and time. There’s no right or wrong. But as witnesses, it helps to be mindful. Trying to force change, or offering well-meaning suggestions like “You should stop feeling guilty” or “It’s been a while now, try to move on,” can unintentionally do more harm than good
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June 9th, 2025.Grief Educator Certification – Week 7-8-9-10
These past weeks, we’ve explored a wide range of grief experiences: • The death of a child • Children in grief • Death of a parent or partner • Pet loss
One area I found especially useful was learning more about children in grief. Children grieve in waves—intensely one moment, then suddenly playing again. Supporting them means respecting those rhythms, being honest in our answers and our own feelings, offering information appropriate for their age and level of understanding, and helping them return to familiar routines.
Including them in the rituals of mourning or funerals helps them feel a sense of belonging and continuity, even in the midst of deep loss. One thing that especially stood out to me: it is important to have someone close and trustworthy dedicated to being present for the child during key moments of a funeral (especially if the parents are themselves deeply in grief)
Should we bring children to funerals
Another theme that struck me deeply is the grief that follows deaths caused by illnesses of the mind, like suicide or addiction. These losses are often wrapped in silence and stigma.
1. They didn’t Cause it.
2. They couldn’t Control it.
3. They couldn’t Cure it.
One truth holds for these losses: every life was important, no matter how it ended.
And one message echoes again and again in this course:
Grief doesn’t need to be fixed—it needs to be witnessed.
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July 4th, 2025.Grief Educator Certification – Weeks 11-12 + Wrapping Up
During these last three weeks of my Grief Educator program, we explored themes that are especially close to my heart: 
Coming from a multicultural environment shaped by many nationalities, spiritual traditions, and years of expatriate life, I’ve always been curious about how people experience and make meaning of the world around them. It is part of my love for storytelling and listening to others’ life experiences
The course also brought us into more practical ground, exploring how to bring this work into the world, support others, and facilitate group spaces
This journey has been incredibly rich
Now it’s time to integrate all of this and explore how I can best be of service to my community… More details coming soon
Stay tuned 😊!
