STILL Method Resource Library
Grief Coaching Insights
Our complete collection of trauma-informed grief resources — family guides, coaching specialisms, practitioner articles, and training — written for coaches, educators, carers, families, and anyone supporting others through loss.
September 2026 — statutory requirement
From September 2026, grief and bereavement education becomes mandatory in every school in England under the DfE's updated RSHE guidance. If you work with children or young people, the resources below and our Child Grief Coach Practitioner Training are directly relevant to meeting that requirement.
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Stuart Thompson
Founder, The STILL Method. Trained social worker. Anxiety specialist and coach trainer. Over 20 years experience. Featured in The Guardian.
ACCPH
IPHM
What is grief coaching and why does it matter?
Grief coaching is a structured, forward-focused approach to supporting people after loss. It is not therapy, and it does not try to be. It fills the space between doing nothing and clinical treatment — helping people understand what is happening in their body and mind, build practical coping tools, and begin to find stability and meaning again.
The STILL Method's Life After Loss framework approaches grief through a nervous system lens, because grief and anxiety are closely connected in the body. The resources below reflect the principles taught in our accredited Life After Loss Grief Coach Training and our Child Grief Coach Practitioner Training.
For families and parents
2 guidesPractical guides written for parents, carers, and families — not practitioners. If you are living through a bereavement rather than supporting others professionally, start here.
Parent guide
What to Say to a Child When Someone Dies
Honest guidance on the specific words that help and those that close things down — with age-by-age phrases you can use.
Read the guide →
Parent guide
When a Parent Dies: Supporting a Child Through Parental Bereavement
From the first days through the first year — for surviving parents, family members, and schools navigating parental bereavement with a child.
Read the guide →
Coaching specialisms
2 routesThinking about specialising in a specific area of loss? These pages explain why Life After Loss grief training is the strongest foundation for each.
Practitioner route
Divorce Coaching and the Life After Loss Foundation
Thinking about becoming a divorce coach? Discover why grief certification gives you stronger credentials, a wider client base, and a framework that actually matches what divorce clients are going through.
Divorce grief
Ambiguous loss
Life After Loss training
Practitioner route
Specialist Widow Coaching: Training and Approach
Supporting widows requires more than general grief coaching. How Life After Loss training equips you with widow-specific tools alongside complete grief certification.
Widowhood
Partner loss
Life After Loss training
Types of grief
8 articlesAnticipatory Grief: What It Is and How Training Prepares You to Support It
Grief that begins before a loss — how to recognise it and hold it safely with clients.
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Delayed Grief: When Mourning Comes Later
Why grief sometimes doesn't arrive immediately, and what practitioners need to understand when it surfaces weeks, months, or years on.
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Masked Grief: When Loss Hides Behind Other Emotions
Anger, overworking, physical symptoms — how grief disguises itself and how trained coaches spot it.
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Cumulative Grief: Understanding Stacked Losses
When losses arrive before earlier grief has been processed — and how coaches provide structure without overwhelming clients.
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Ambiguous Loss: Grief Without Closure
Grieving someone still alive — dementia, estrangement, missing persons. One of the hardest forms of grief to recognise and support.
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Collective Grief: When Communities Mourn Together
Public loss, shared mourning, and what practitioners need to understand when grief becomes communal.
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Disenfranchised Grief: The Hidden Losses That Training Needs to Cover
Pet loss, miscarriage, relationship breakdown — grief society doesn't always validate, and why that makes it harder to support.
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Why Divorce Grief Can Hurt as Much as Bereavement
Divorce and separation produce real grief responses that look like anxiety, identity loss, and exhaustion. What practitioners often miss and how Life After Loss training addresses it.
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Grief in children and young people
8 articlesHow Children Grieve Differently by Age: A Complete Developmental Guide
What grief looks like from infancy through adolescence — and how to respond in ways that match each child's developmental stage.
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Physical Signs of Grief in Children: When the Body Speaks What Words Cannot
Stomach aches, headaches, fatigue, school refusal — how grief presents somatically in children and what it means for practitioners.
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What is Complicated Grief in Children?
When grief doesn't ease and becomes prolonged grief disorder — how to recognise it, what makes it more likely, and when to refer on.
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School Refusal After Bereavement: Why Bereaved Children Avoid School
School refusal after loss is a trauma response, not a behaviour problem. What is actually happening in the nervous system, and what actually helps.
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Supporting Grieving Children in Residential Care and Foster Settings
Children in care carry compounded, relentless, unprocessed loss. Why traditional approaches often fail, and what actually works.
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Why Angry Children Are Often Grieving Children
Aggression, defiance, and rage as grief responses — what is happening underneath the behaviour and how adults can respond without missing the loss.
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Somatic Tools for Helping Children Process Grief
Body-based approaches for children who cannot yet access grief verbally — practical nervous system tools for coaches, teachers, and carers.
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Creative Grief Activities for Non-Verbal Children: When Words Aren't Enough
Art, movement, story, and play-based tools for supporting children who express grief through behaviour and body rather than language.
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Schools and the September 2026 requirement
3 resources
Deadline: 1 Sept 2026
Grief education is now statutory in every school in England. Schools have until September to implement — training, curriculum planning, and staff CPD all take time.
See full requirements →
School training
Meeting RSHE 2026 Grief Education Requirements: The Complete School Guide
What the DfE statutory guidance requires, how to meet every requirement, implementation timeline, and how STILL Method training aligns directly. Essential reading for school leaders and pastoral teams.
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September 2026: The Grief Education Requirement Most Teachers Don't Know About Yet
From September 2026, every school in England must teach children about grief and bereavement. What this means and how schools can prepare.
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Child Grief Coach and Practitioner Training — Accredited Course
Three-day live Zoom training covering child psychology, attachment, ACEs, and bereavement support in school settings. ACCPH and IPHM accredited. Specifically designed for the DfE RSHE requirement.
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Tools and practice
6 articles8 Trauma-Informed Techniques Every Grief Coach Should Know
Grounding, consent, body-based work, pacing, metaphor, and safe expression — practical tools for grief coaching sessions.
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Grief Coach or Grief Counsellor? Understanding the Key Differences (UK)
Updated February 2026. Who does what, when coaching is appropriate, how to refer ethically, and a clear comparison of both roles.
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Bereavement Training in the UK: What Practitioners Need to Know
The landscape of grief training in the UK — what accreditation means, what to look for, and how to choose the right programme.
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A Day in the Life of a Grief Coach
What grief coaching work actually looks like in practice — sessions, clients, challenges, and what makes it worthwhile.
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Why Accreditation Matters in Online Grief Coach Training
How to tell credible programmes from low-rigour courses — what accreditation actually means and why it protects both you and your clients.
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Online Grief Coach Certification: What to Look For
Updated January 2026. Not all grief training is equal — how to assess delivery quality, accreditation, practical tools, and post-course support.
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Becoming a grief coach
7 articlesHow to Become a Grief Coach (2025 Guide)
What grief coaches do, whether you need qualifications, the steps from decision to practice, and how accredited online training works.
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How to Become a Grief Support Coach Without a Counselling Degree
For carers, educators, and people with lived experience — why a therapy background is not a requirement, and what actually matters.
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Do You Need a Counselling Degree to Train as a Grief Coach?
The short answer is no — but accredited, trauma-informed training is essential. Here is what is actually required and why.
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Grief Coach Training for Professionals
How teachers, care workers, wellbeing leads, and coaches are using grief training to deepen their practice without retraining as therapists.
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The Future of Grief Coaching: Why Demand Is Rising
Updated January 2026. The career outlook, rising need in schools and workplaces, and why 2026 is a significant moment for the field.
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Become a Certified Grief Coach: Support Others and Build a Meaningful Career
Why grief coaching attracts people from education, care, and lived experience — and what you can build once you qualify.
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Supporting Bereaved People: Building Confidence, Creativity, and Compassion
Introduction to live grief training — what the Life After Loss programme looks and feels like for educators and frontline professionals.
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