Facilitating a peer grief group is both a skill and an act of care. This training helps participants move beyond “helping” into genuine accompaniment — creating spaces where people can connect through shared experience, mutual respect, and presence.

Grounded in the RIVER model (Relate, Invite, Validate, Empower, Reassure), this training explores how to hold space for diverse experiences of loss, navigate group dynamics, and respond to emotional intensity with steadiness and compassion. Whether you’re leading a new group or strengthening an existing one, this session offers practical tools and reflective practices to help you guide with empathy and authenticity.

The course integrates trauma-informed, equity-centered, and relational approaches that honor the complexity of grief and the wisdom that peers bring to one another. Designed for facilitators in harm reduction, healthcare, community, and workplace settings, this training combines reflection, skill-building, and real-world application — helping participants build confidence, clarity, and connection to the deep purpose of this work: helping communities find strength together through grief.

This is not a clinical or professional grief counseling training, but rather an opportunity to learn and grow through shared understanding, cultural humility, and community-based support.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to: