Get your Biblical Counseling for Grief & Loss Certificate Today!
Light University’s online Biblical Counseling and Psychology certificate, diploma, and master diploma programs offer a grief and loss counseling specialization that covers topics such as how and why suicide occurs, mental illness, the digital world’s influence on suicide rates, and how to care for yourself and other caregivers when a client takes their own life. You’ll also explore how to help people deal with the death of a child, the connection between grief and trauma, understanding God’s heart for children, and much more!
Biblical Counseling for Grief & Loss
Certification
Grief & Loss Counseling 101, 201 & 301
36 CE Credits • IBCC Certification
total cost is $951.00 with fees
Grief & Loss Counseling Certification includes:
Digital Text Book
Certificate of completion
36 CEU Credits
Industry Leading Instruction
36 Course Modules
Course Lessons and Descriptions
Grief and Loss 101
Course Lessons
GAL 101: A Time to Weep: Biblical Foundations for Grief and Loss
In this presentation, Dr. Jared Pingleton walks viewers through a biblical understanding of grief. Grievers need to view loss from a biblical paradigm, for it is through the process of pain and sorrow that we can truly find comfort from a loving and caring God.
GAL 102: Bereavement, Grief, and Mourning: Understanding the Fundamentals
This presentation will help people understand the basics and definitions of grief, as well as the different stages and phases through which grievers walk. Jennifer Cisney Ellers and Kevin Ellers walk viewers through several different models of grief and help provide a foundation of the principles of grief.
GAL 103: From Children to the Elderly: Grief Across the Life Cycle
This presentation will walk viewers through the difficulties that young grievers face in the different age groups of childhood. The presenters will also discuss the specific challenges faced by elderly grievers. These two populations, children and the elderly, are often overlooked yet their grief is no less valid because it is expressed differently.
GAL 104: Grieving Styles: Moving Beyond Gender Stereotypes of Grief
In this presentation, Dr. Kevin Ellers and Jennifer Cisney Ellers will describe the different types of grievers, along with what each griever needs in order to work through and process their grief. Everyone is unique in how they grieve, but there are universal principles that can help each type of griever most effectively mourn their loss.
GAL 105: Cultural Competency in Grief Work
Grief is universal, but how cultures deal with grief is not. This panel presentation brings together Dr. Mark Crear, Dr. Elias Moitinho, and Rev. Sabrina Black as they speak with Dr. Eric Scalise about how grief is processed in the African American community and the Latino/Hispanic Communities.
GAL 106: Why God: Spiritual Assessment with the Bereaved
When tragedy occurs, people are left with feelings of great agony and grief. For Christians, there is also an element of desperate questioning – Why, God? Faith in the midst of grief and doubt can be challenging, but not impossible. In this presentation, Dr. Kevin Ellers discusses the importance of listening to people’s stories and walking with them through the pain.
GAL 107: The Neurology of Grief: The Impact of Loss on the Brain
Grief affects the brain, but the brain also affects grief. In order to learn how to best help people through the process of grief, it is helpful to discover the impact of a person’s neurology. In this presentation, Dr. Linda Mintle walks viewers through the parts of the brain and how each part influences the grieving process.
GAL 108: Grief and Trauma: Identifying the Connection
Grief as a result of trauma can present a unique set of problems; trauma as a result of intense grief can also occur. In this presentation, Dr. David Jenkins walks viewers through what grief and trauma are, how they work together, and what to do when grief and trauma appear together.
GAL 109: When the Pain Lingers: Dealing with Long-term Grief
How can counselors discern what is normal in the grieving process and what has moved beyond the healthy grief process and into clinical concerns? In this presentation, Jennifer Cisney Ellers lists thirteen clinical indicators that can help differentiate between normal and abnormal grief.
GAL 110: From Mourning to Morning: Effective Counsel, Care, and Companionship
How a person walks through grief may be more impactful than the actual loss. Dr. Eric Scalise presents a biblical and practical guide to helping people through mourning. There is hope on the other side of grief – mourning does not need to last forever, and with God’s help, healing can come in the morning.
GAL 111: Using the Backdoor: Experiential Techniques in Grief Counseling
People grieve in different ways, and when people experience unresolved grief or are unable to fully process their loss, experiential techniques can help optimize healing. In this presentation, Dr. Scalise and Jennifer Cisney Ellers will cover theoretical constructs, research findings and applications for experiential therapies.
GAL 112: Disenfranchised Grief: When Your Pain Doesn’t Seem to Matter
People are quick to respond in love and sympathy when a family member dies, but many truly significant losses are not recognized as such by society. In this presentation, Jennifer Cisney Ellers introduces the concept of disenfranchised grief and the many types of losses that are often unacknowledged by the world.
Grief and Loss 201
Course Lessons
GAL 201: Stages of Development: When Children and Adolescents Experience Loss
When children undergo loss, the way they understand the loss and experience grief can vary based on their ages. In this session, Dr. Joshua Straub walks listeners through the different stages and provides practical tips and counseling strategies for those working with children experiencing grief.
GAL 202: Putting the Pieces Together: Grief and the Family System
In this information-packed lecture, Robert DeVries and Susan Zonnebelt-Smeenge provide an in-depth look at Family Systems Theory as it pertains to grief and loss. This lecture explores the complexities of grief for families. Clinical interventions and therapeutic techniques are discussed.
GAL 203: Grief, Health, and Wellbeing: Comorbidity and Mental Disorders
Grief is a normal response to loss, but when the sorrow refuses to abate, it can turn into complicated grief. In this lecture, Dr. Linda Mintle will discuss grief, bereavement, complicated grief, major depressive disorder, and persistent complicated bereavement disorder.
GAL 204: When Tragedy Strikes: The Death of a Child
Losing a child is one of the most painful losses a person can experience. In this presentation, Dr. H. Norman Wright describes his personal experience with the loss of his son and provides information for counselors working with those who have lost children.
GAL 205: Loss in Marriage: Helping Couples Grieve Together
Couples experience a variety of losses throughout life, some typical and some atypical. In this lecture, Dr. Jared Pingleton discusses the types of losses that couples face and how counselors can help walk a couple through a challenging time of grief and loss.
GAL 206: When the Quiver is Empty: Grieving Infertility, Miscarriage, or Still Birth
Infertility is a silent struggle that results in a powerful sense of loss and grief that often goes unseen. In this lecture, Dr. Eric Scalise shares his personal story with sensitivity and compassion. Counselors must be aware of the facts, statistics, and grief responses that infertile couples face in order to effectively help with the grieving process.
GAL 207: Broken Vows: The Grief of Divorce
In this presentation, Dr. Kevin Ellers and Georgia Shaffer discuss how to help people who are grieving the loss of a relationship through divorce. Using expertise gained through years of counseling and coaching experience, as well as through their own experiences with divorce, the presenters bring a practical and relatable message to all those working with divorcees.
GAL 208: Til Death Do Us Part: The Loss of a Spouse
Losing a spouse is a painful experience that causes a number of crises in a person’s life. Dr. Robert DeVries and Susan Zonnebelt-Smeenge both know this from personal experience. In this session, they share what counselors need to know when working with people who are going through the painful emotions that come with losing a spouse.
GAL 209: They’re Gone: When Adult Children Lose a Parent
Losing a parent is a painful experience that everyone will ultimately face. Sometimes the loss is sudden and unexpected, and sometimes it happens slowly and painfully as the loved one deteriorates at the hands of a disease. This presentation brings together stories from those who not only understand grief counseling, but also understand the painful loss of a parent on a personal level.
GAL 210: No Goodbyes: Grieving a Suicide
Suicide survivors face stigma, guilt, shame, and a myriad of unanswered questions. In this lecture, Jennifer Cisney Ellers discusses ways that counselors can sensitively and effectively help those who are grieving the loss of a loved one to suicide.
GAL 211: Beyond the Tears: Treating Complicated Grief
Complicated grief can occur for a variety of reasons, and can manifest differently in different people. In this presentation, Dr. Eric Scalise and Jennifer Cisney Ellers share how to identify complicated grief. They also highlight risk factors and treatment strategies for counselors seeking to more effectively help their clients.
GAL 212: A Picture of Healing: Examples of Recovery from Loss
When people are in the midst of grief, it can sometimes appear that there is no end in sight. However, there is hope – though the memories will never fade, the pain eventually will. In this session, you will hear powerful testimonies of those who have loved, lost, and lived anew. Grief may steal your joy for a time, but it does not have to last forever. Healing is possible.
Grief and Loss 301
Course Lessons
GAL 301: Childhood Grief, Loss, and Trauma: An Introduction
Tim Clinton, Ed.D. and Eric Scalise, Ph.D.
When children experience loss and trauma, they grieve just as much as adults. Yet they often express their grief in different ways. In this presentation, Dr. Tim Clinton and Dr. Eric Scalise will explore some of the different causes of grief in children, along with signs and symptoms that children are experiencing intense grief. Treatment strategies for working with grieving children will also be discussed. Children are an often overlooked population when it comes to grief, but helping children work through their grief can make an incredible difference in their lives.
GAL 302: Childhood Attachment: Relationship Wounds, Styles, and Interventions
Joshua Straub, Ph.D.
A child’s attachment style impacts how that child will interact with people throughout his or her lifetime. When children experience trauma, whether that be emotional, physical, relational, or any other type of trauma, that experience can influence how the child views others and the world around them. Children want to know if they are safe, and emotional wounds negate that feeling of safety. In this presentation, Dr. Joshua Straub will unpack the attachment styles and guide viewers through ways to help children who have undergone trauma.
GAL 303: The Effects of Trauma on Childhood Development
Barry Lord, Psy.D.
Science has revealed that emotional trauma changes brain functioning at the place where the “emotional brain” and “survival brain” meet. This presentation examines recent brain research, emotional trauma in childhood, the effects on the developing person, and long-term psychological risks. Dr. Lord discusses relevant brain structures and the relationship of early childhood emotional trauma on the developing brain, personality and relationships.
GAL 304: Child and Adolescent Stress and Trauma: Assessment and Diagnosis
Jonathan Robinson, Ph.D.
Stress and trauma affect everyone differently, but children are particularly impacted by traumatic events. Depending on their developmental stage, children need different responses from counselors and caregivers. Dr. Jonathan Robinson will talk viewers through stress and trauma in childhood and provide assessment tips, diagnostic tools, and treatment strategies.
GAL 305: Shattered Trust: Childhood Sexual Abuse
June Hunt, M.A.
Nothing damages the core of a child’s inner being like sexual abuse. Its long tentacles reach deep, choking the young heart, killing innocence and trust, leaving its victim in darkness—a place no child should ever have to experience. Childhood sexual abuse is almost always committed by someone the child knows. Such familiarity sets the stage for a child to be all the more vulnerable, traumatized, and confused. Children victimized by sexual abuse are in bondage to “the secret.” Therefore, the best strategy for breaking the power of the secret is to gently lead the child into the light of grace and truth—to reveal the truth and heal from the truth. In this presentation, you will identify the typical course of childhood sexual abuse, the profile of perpetrators, the root cause of this type of abusive relationship, and the essential steps for healing childhood sexual abuse. June Hunt offers biblical hope and practical help for the abused as well as those who care about them.
GAL 306: Helping Children Cope with Grief through a Divorce
Deanna McClannahan, M.A.
Parents are a child’s means of survival, so when mom and dad decide to part ways, it can shake the very foundations of a child’s world. Divorce in America is a widespread problem, and children are often the unintended and invisible victims. In this presentation, Deanna McClannahan walks counselors through how children are affected by divorce. The effects of divorce on children can be long-lasting and far-reaching, making it essential for counselors to know how to help children work through the grief that comes with divorce.
GAL 307: Domestic Violence and Children: Impact and Treatment Issues
Heather Gingrich, Ph.D.
Domestic violence has far-reaching effects, but few more significant than the impact on children. Whether or not the child is the direct victim of the abuse, growing up in a home where intimate partner violence is prevalent can have an extremely detrimental effect on their lifelong development and worldview. This presentation explores what can be done to help children who are negatively impacted by growing up in a home full of domestic violence.
GAL 308: Child Sex Trafficking: The Growing Epidemic
Jeanne Allert, M.Ed.
Childhood sex trafficking is an appalling stain upon today’s world. In this presentation, Jeanne Allert, founder of Samaritan Woman Ministries, will discuss the components of human trafficking along with methods traffickers use on their victims. She will present case studies and real-life examples derived from her many years of working with human trafficking victims.
GAL 309: Treating Child Abuse Survivors: Lessons from a Play Therapist
Daniel Sweeney, Ph.D.
Children speak though the language of play. When working with sexually abused children, it is paramount that counselors have a firm grasp of play therapy, since children will not respond to adult therapeutic techniques due to their developmental level. In this presentation, Dr. Daniel Sweeney unpacks several goals and techniques of play therapy. Child abuse is a pervasive and heartbreaking problem, and counselors, especially those who work with children, must be equipped with knowledge of play therapy so as to most effectively help their young clients.
GAL 310: Guidance and Support for Children with Developmental Disabilities
Stephanie Holmes, M.A.
Grief and loss are abstract ideas for neurotypically developing children who will also struggle to understand and describe meaning to this experience. What about those children who are developmentally delayed? This seminar will provide a brief overview of stages of development to compare neurotypically developing children and grief with those children who may be developmentally delayed or impaired. Best practices of grief care for children on the autism spectrum will be examined with the nuances considering the degree of loss how it impacts the child’s daily routine.
GAL 311: When the Innocence of a Child Meets the Complexities of the Legal System
Molly Catherine Goodson, M.A., J.D., Esq.
The legal system can be complex and challenging for counselors to navigate, but when counselors suspect child abuse, they must report it to the authorities. In this presentation, Molly-Catherine Goodson, a prosecuting attorney from North Carolina, unpacks the difference between civil and criminal law when dealing with cases of child abuse. Counselors must be aware of their responsibilities as mandated reporters of child abuse.
GAL 312: A Kingdom Such as This: Understanding God’s Heart for Children
Jared Pingleton, Psy.D.
When children experience loss, they grieve. A child’s grief, however, may look different than an adult’s grief based on the child’s developmental level. Dr. Jared Pingleton will walk listeners through how to approach grief based on the child’s age and the type of loss that occurred. Counselors will learn how to discuss death with children, including ideas of what to say and what not to say.
Biblical Counseling for Grief and Loss Certification
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Industry Leading Faculty
Catherine Hart Weber, Ph.D.
JOHNNY PARKER, D.S.L.
JENNIFER ELLERS, M.A.
MARK CREAR, Ph.D.
Ted Cunningham, M.A.C.E.
Georgia Shaffer, M.A.
Valorie Burton, MAPP
SYLVIA HART FREJD, D.Min.
Tim Clinton, Ed.D.
Ben Allison, Esq., MBA
Biblical Counseling for Grief & Loss
Biblical Counseling for Grief & Loss Certification with Specialized Training
The 2022 Global Consumer Awareness Study revealed that 85% of clients searching for a coach say it’s important or very important that they coach hold a certification or credential. Earning an advanced IBCC Credential provides you with instant credibility and increased visibility to prospective clients. Holding a credential – especially an IBCC Credential – is extremely important to today’s coaching clients.
Frequently Asked Questions about Light’s Biblical Counseling School
How to Become a Biblical Counselor: What do I do?
Because there is no legal requirement that mandates Biblical counselors must be licensed or undergo formal training, becoming a Biblical counselor can be straightforward. If you want to become a biblical counselor, you can declare yourself one – though we advise against this.
If you “become a biblical counselor” without studying the Bible, learning basic lay counseling skills, and doing your due diligence, you may find yourself unprepared. Worse yet, you misidentify what the person you’re helping needs – and you may fail to provide optimal care. Fortunately, becoming a certified biblical counselor is simple and affordable at Light University. With a 100% online format and a time-tested program of study, you’ll emerge from our program more prepared to help struggling people.
Is biblical counseling the same as nouthetic counseling?
Answers to this question may vary, but the short answer is this: nouthetic counseling is enveloped by the larger umbrella of biblical counseling. Nouthetic counseling relies on the sufficiency and supreme authority of scripture alone to provide solutions to man’s problems (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Like nouthetic counseling, Christian counseling uses scripture–but unlike nouthetic counseling, Christian counseling draws on principles of observational psychology to identify sin patterns. Great care must be taken when using psychology, however. Psychology is inherently man-centered, and for counseling to be biblical, it must be God-centered and focused on conforming the client to the image of Christ.
Do the certificate and diploma programs build on each other?
Yes. The academic requirements of our certificate program are built into the diploma program, and the academic requirements of the diploma program are integrated into the master diploma.
The coursework of the biblical counseling certificate program is enveloped by the diploma curriculum, and the diploma’s curriculum is enveloped by the master diploma curriculum.
Do you get a certificate at the end of the courses?
Upon completion of a program, you’ll have the option to order a printed certificate. When you’ve finished your program of study, contact us. Upon verifying your completion of program requirements, you will be issued a digital diploma!
Where do you find a list of the Biblical Counseling electives?
There are several lists of biblical counseling electives. The detailed list you’re looking for depends on which program you’re enrolled in.
Our Biblical Counseling Certificate program does not require any electives. Our Biblical Counseling Diploma, however, requires two electives. The first elective you take in our diploma program must be one of the following courses:
- Extraordinary Women
- Caring for Kids God’s Way
- Caring for Teens God’s Way
For the second course you take in our diploma-level biblical counseling program, you will choose from the following list:
- Extraordinary Women
- Caring for Kids God’s Way
- Caring for Teens God’s Way
- Healthy Sexuality
- Marriage Works
It’s worth noting that you cannot complete the same course twice and receive dual credit. For example, you cannot take “Caring for Kids God’s Way” or “Caring for Teens God’s Way” once to satisfy both elective requirements – nor can you take the class twice.
At the master diploma level, you will take three elective classes. You may choose three courses from the following list:
- Extraordinary Women
- Caring for Kids God’s Way
- Caring for Teens God’s Way
- Healthy Sexuality
- Marriage Works
For more information, please see our certificate, diploma, and master diploma pages.
What can I do with Light’s online biblical counseling certificate?
Our online biblical counseling program is a great way to prepare for ministry work and lay counseling. The emotional intelligence skills you glean from our online biblical counseling certificate can also help make you a better parent, son or daughter, friend, mentor, or confidant.
Our biblical counseling certificate is a non-licensure program. It is not designed to equip you for clinical counseling settings.
What's the difference between a life coach and a counselor?
There is a clear distinction between professional mental health services and life coaching. Licensed mental health professionals diagnose and treat emotional and behavioral health disorders. Life coaches help clients focuses on setting and achieving goals. Many ask what the difference is between counseling and coaching.
There is a clear distinction between professional mental health services and life coaching. While both life coaches and mental health professionals seek to improve client wellness, educational and licensure requirements set the two apart. Coaches do not diagnose or treat mental-health-related disorders, but mental health professionals often do. While therapy focuses on mental health, abetting distress, and improving impaired functioning; life coaching focuses on setting and achieving goals.
“AACC has trained thousands of coaches throughout the years and is now excited to help lead and train the next generation of Christian life coaches. Now, more than ever is the time for trained and specialized Christian coaches to meet the growing need for services.“