Supporting clients through grief and loss
Learn the skills that you were not taught in your basic mental health training
You know how to guide conversations — that’s your strength. But loss changes everything. It shifts the dynamics of the therapeutic relationship in ways your training may not have prepared you for.
Do you feel like you’re lacking the right tools?
Do you sometimes wonder if you’re doing the “right” thing?
Don’t let doubt eat away at your confidence…There is another way.
Do you feel uncertain when someone dealing with grief walks through your door? Do you find yourself at a loss for what to do or say?
Don’t refer them out. Don’t turn them away. Learn how to support clients through grief and loss.
THE TRAINING FOR COACHES AND MENTAL HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS
Professional Grief Support Training
Specialisation: Adults
Helping clients deal with loss — without feeling powerless.
This training provides you with:
- All the tools you need to build confidence in your knowledge and skills around loss
- Deep insight into the uniqueness of grieving and how to truly meet someone in their experience
- A step-by-step approach with practical techniques, so you always have a clear guide to follow
- Knowledge on how to take care of yourself when working with heavy emotional themes
- An understanding of the underlying processes of grief, making you an expert in the field of loss and bereavement
Professional Grief Support Training
Specialisation: Children
Finding the right tone and techniques to help young people cope with loss.
This training provides you with:
- Insight into what a child’s behavior is really ‘saying’, allowing you to deepen your guidance
- Knowledge of how young people express their grief, so you can equip parents with the right tools to support them
- A deep understanding of how children process loss in their own unique way — helping you tailor your support accordingly
- Practical skills to effectively support children using a variety of methods and interventions
- Tools to position yourself as a specialist in youth grief support
Feeling insecure about grief support?
It’s your passion to guide people through difficult times. But when it comes to dealing with loss and supporting clients in their grieving process — that’s not really your area of expertise. And that’s perfectly understandable; it likely wasn’t (or barely was) part of your professional training.
As a result, you may feel insecure or even afraid of saying the wrong thing — or of making the trauma even worse. You might avoid diving into the pain, or even avoid bringing up the loss altogether.
Does this sound familiar?
You don’t want to keep referring clients elsewhere (let alone avoiding the issue entirely). You want to do it yourself. You may have read a thing or two about grief, but actually applying it in your sessions still feels scary — so you keep putting it off. You wish you had a simple checklist that would show you exactly what steps to take with your client. The steps that actually help.
…But so far, you haven’t found it.
The Solution
You’re tired of that feeling. You love your work, and you want to feel confident when supporting clients in loss. You long to feel secure in how to meet each client in their unique grieving process, while truly helping them move through it. You want to feel like you’re genuinely contributing to their healing — so that both your client and you can look back on your sessions with a sense of meaning and satisfaction.
…And you can. That’s exactly why the Grief Training Centre was created — especially for mental health care professionals like you.
To teach you how to guide clients through grief with skill, care, and the passion that defines your work.
Leoniek van der Maarel
The Grief Training Centre offers practical, hands-on training for coaches, social workers, general mental health care assistants, psychologists, and other mental health care professionals.
The centre is led by Leoniek van der Maarel, who has helped thousands of people cope with loss over the past 25 years.
At the Grief Training Centre, you’ll find the practical training and personal guidance that was missing from your formal education.
Leoniek is featured in…
Renowned author of:
- 2024 – “Jouw rouw bij partnerverlies”, Leoniek van der Maarel
- 2023 – “Vechten voor je scheiding”, Leoniek van der Maarel & Tineke Rodenburg
- 2022 – “Wij zijn nooit voorbij”, Leoniek van der Maarel & Stichting Nooit Voorbij
- 2016 – “Blijf me Bij”, Leoniek van der Maarel
- 2016 – “Verstandelijke beperking en rouw, 80 praktische tips”, Karina Knijnenburg & Leoniek van der Maarel
- 2014 – “Als Kanker je Gezin treft”, Leoniek van der Maarel
- 2013 – “Kinderen in Spagaat”, Leoniek van der Maarel
- 2013 – “De Gids over Rouwende Kids, 80 praktische tips” Leoniek van der Maarel
- 2010 – “De Rouwkalender” (scheurkalender), Hans Breekveldt & Leoniek van der Maarel
The training has been of great added value to my coaching practice. In my work as a relationship and divorce coach, I pay a lot of attention to processing loss, in which what I have learned is a very nice addition.
The deepening gives my clients beautiful insights and helps well in the processing process. In both relationship problems and divorce situations, it is important to know well how the grieving process works, which losses and emotions there are and to learn what you can do about it yourself. Leoniek, many thanks for transferring your knowledge in a passionate way.
Edwin Beijersbergen | Beijersbergen Coaching
I met Leoniek van der Maarel at a difficult time for my country, at the beginning of a full-scale invasion. Leoniek became one of the foreign specialists who came to the aid of Ukrainian psychologists, few of whom have experience working with grief and loss. I was immediately impressed by Leoniek’s high level of professionalism.
For me, as a specialist who also works with this topic, Leoniek’s training helped to deepen my own knowledge and expand my practical tools for working with people who have experienced loss.
Oksana Korolovych | o.a. president van de Lagerta International Community of Women
