Professional Development

Building stronger, more resilient school communities

Educators want, but often lack, the knowledge and/or resources to support students facing significant adversity. This represents the single greatest barrier preventing educators from reaching out and offering support.

Research shows that building up caring, responsive adult relationships around students facing adversity helps to mitigate risk factors that include higher rates of stress, anxiety, depression as well as the social isolation students often feel.

The goal of our professional development workshops is to empower educators to create an empathic environment in their classrooms. We help educators understand how adversity, loss, and trauma shape the behaviors, learning, relationships, and wellbeing of children and adolescents. Our training equips trainees with language, tools, and a sense of self-confidence in their capacity to support their students.

Professional development workshops range in length from 1-hour to full-day trainings. We even offer multi-day skills-based trainings for counselors and social workers. To learn more about what we can provide for you and your faculty, reach out to us.

Our Professional Development Program is designed to meet these goals:

Increase educator competency and confidence to be responsive to students facing adversity

Increase confidence in educator’s ability to work with students to build resilience

Enhance educator capacity to identify signs of grief in children and adults

Improve educator strategies and activities to help assist children and adolescents facing loss and adversity

We empower educators to create empathic environments in their classrooms:

95% of educators reported increased knowledge of the impact of adversity and loss on learning and behaviors in their students

98% agreed that they learned to identify signs of grief in children and adults

97% of educators reported an increased understanding of how to work with students to build resilience

100% agreed that they learned new strategies and activities to help assist children and adolescents facing loss and adversity

“Good Grief are the finest presenters I have ever encountered in my 30 years of being a social worker. They are incredibly knowledgeable, thorough, compassionate and authentic. It is very rare for a professional trainer to embody ALL of those qualities. Well done! Thank you, Good Grief.”

– School Social Worker
"I am so impressed with how helpful this training was. It pushed me to lean into my own discomfort and remember that there are many more things I can control than things I cannot!"

– Teacher in K-12 Public School