Introduction to Grief Support Series | Create Engaging and Meaningful Activities for Individual and Group Grief Support
2025-11-07 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom
This webinar is part of an ongoing series that will provide a foundation of introductory information for anyone working with or providing support to children, teens, and families who may be grieving. This series is not progressive; sessions can be viewed in any order.
The development of activities that effectively address the topic of grief aids in the retainment of grief-related education. The incorporation of activities can enhance the learning, growth, and connection that grief support provides. Participants will learn how to design and implement activities that are both interactive and therapeutic, as well as see examples. In addition, they will better understand the importance of incorporating current interests of youth into the activities for further engagement. Attendees will explore the various types of activities, including physical activities, artistic expression, and mindful practices. Also, participants will learn various ways to measure the effectiveness of their activities in age-appropriate ways. The session will equip attendees with the knowledge, tools, and strategies needed to enhance their grief care by incorporating activities into grief support.
This playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Students, interns, individuals entering the field of childhood bereavement, new staff members, new counselors, group facilitators, volunteers, anyone who wants to invest in their practice.
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

Objectives:
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Develop interactive activities for children and teenagers that facilitate productive discussion.
Identify relevant trends and interests of youth to incorporate into activities and maximize engagement.
Create activities that foster expression by incorporating various art mediums and levels of instruction.
Apply developmentally appropriate modifications to activities to maximize comprehension and effectiveness.
Utilize a variety of activity types to ensure different types of learners are engaged.

Speaker Bios:
Laurel Neitling joined the team in July 2023 as the Circles of Hope Program Manager. She previously graduated from Central Michigan University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and minor in management, and she graduated with an MBA from Western Governor’s University in 2024. She previously volunteered with New Hope as a support group facilitator. She experienced the loss of her father as a young child, and that led to a passion for helping bereaved families get the support they need. Laurel has presented at numerous Grief Sensitivity Training sessions and the 2024 NACG Grief Conference. Laurel has had the privilege of watching many of our participants grow through their grief journeys, and she is grateful to work alongside such dedicated volunteers and staff members to offer grief support services to the bereaved.

Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Data and Evaluation Series Training #6: Ethical Practices in Evaluation
2025-11-12 12:00 - 13:00
Given limited resources and stretched capacity, data collection procedures and program evaluation strategies at the individual program level often fall short in terms of identifying gaps in service, areas for growth, and program impact. Today, philanthropic giving demands quantifiable return on investment in exchange for donations and grants. Combining nearly 20 years of experience in designing bereavement-focused evaluation protocols with the power of the CBEM, with philanthropic support provided by the New York Life Foundation and in collaboration with the National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG), Judi’s House/JAG Institute offers a series of free trainings to share best practices in data collection and program evaluation.
In 2024-2027, JH/JAG will continue to support the field in growing their capacity for evaluation and data analysis. In this sixth workshop on Ethical Practices in Evaluation, participants will review the purpose of evaluation, learn about ethics in evaluation practice and research, and learn to map evaluation questions to evaluation surveys and measures.
The training structure includes a welcome/introduction, and for each objective: content, polls, and examples. The presenters will utilize polls and reflections to engage participants in activities focused on the evaluation content and to orient participants to how they can apply learnings in their organization. Time will be allocated at the end of the session to review each of the three objectives, discuss plans for application of learnings, and answer participant questions.

Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals. This is an intermediate level training, so it would be beneficial to have completed the initial Data & Evaluation series.
Instructional Level: Intermediate- This best describes a topic or issue that the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or a working knowledge.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

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

Understand the goals and purpose of evaluation and ethical practice.
Apply ethical principles to data collection practices.
Use measure mapping to accurately match data collection to evaluation goals.

Speaker Bio:
Maria Bartini, PhD, is the Evaluation Manager at Judi’s House/JAG Institute. With a doctoral degree in Life-Span Developmental Psychology from the University of Georgia, she has over 20 years’ experience teaching research methods, statistics, and child development at the college level. In her academic career, she also conducted evaluation research in schools, colleges, and youth sports organizations with the overarching goal of improving the lives of children and adolescents. In addition to heading the organization’s Childhood Bereavement Changemaker Initiative, Maria contributes to the evaluation and research activities at Judi’s House. Her work focuses on building evaluation/data utilization capacity in the field of childhood bereavement and evaluating the impact of Judi’s House services. She can be reached at mariab@judishouse.org.
Maddy Saunders, MS, works as a Research Associate at Judi’s House/JAG Institute. In her role, she helps lead the Childhood Bereavement Changemaker expansion, collaborating with organizations across the country to support implementation of data-informed strategies in decision-making, program implementation, and evaluation. Maddy holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Psychology with concentrations in Evaluation Research and Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She can be reached at maddyv@judishouse.org.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.0 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.0 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.0 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.0 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please ensure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and require a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note that if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the attendance policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

Grief and Bereavement of Children with Intellectual Disabilities: Current Research and Practice
2025-12-10 12:00 - 13:00
The development of activities that effectively address the topic of grief aids in the retainment of grief-related education. The incorporation of activities can enhance the learning, growth, and connection that grief support provides. Participants will learn how to design and implement activities that are both interactive and therapeutic, as well as see examples. In addition, they will better understand the importance of incorporating current interests of youth into the activities for further engagement. Attendees will explore the various types of activities, including physical activities, artistic expression, and mindful practices. Also, participants will learn various ways to measure the effectiveness of their activities in age-appropriate ways. The session will equip attendees with the knowledge, tools, and strategies needed to enhance their grief care by incorporating activities into grief support.
This playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Students, interns, individuals entering the field of childhood bereavement, new staff members, new counselors, group facilitators, volunteers, anyone who wants to invest in their practice.
Instructional Level: Intermediate – This best describes a topic or issue that the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or a working knowledge.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

Objectives:
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Describe ways that children with ID understand and process a loss
Provide examples of how children with ID engage in Caring Connections
Demonstrate developmentally inclusive support strategies

Speaker Bios:
Arlen Gaines, PhD, MSW, LCSW-C, LICSW, APHSW-C, is a psychosocial leader in the field of palliative care and hospice, providing system-wide leadership to social workers in palliative care at MedStar Health. Over close to 20 years of caring for patients and their families with serious illness and at the end of life, she developed a specialization in supporting individuals with developmental disabilities in their grief and speaks nationally on this subject. She is the co-author of the award-winning I Have a Question series, which addresses complex topics for children, inclusive of those with developmental disabilities, such as I Have a Question about Death and I Have a Question about Cancer. As the first social worker in the inaugural doctoral program in Palliative Care at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, she completed her dissertation research on the grief and bereavement experiences of children with intellectual disabilities.

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please make sure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and need a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

Evaluation & Dissemination of a Bereavement Support Intervention for LGBTQIA+ Youth
2026-01-21 13:00 - 14:30
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender non-conforming youth, are impacted by high rates of traumatic loss, as well as by the experience of suffocated and disenfranchised grief, much of it caused by the stigma, shaming and violence directed at LGBT people. These youth can also have unique bereavement concerns, distinct from their heterosexual and cisgender peers, given the ways that the developmental trajectory of LGBT adolescents can intersect with the processes of mourning and grief.
The Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI) is one of the nation’s oldest and largest LGBT youth-serving organizations, providing primarily Black and Latino youth with mental health services and an array of youth development programs. In response to the numbers of bereaved youth seeking counseling services at HMI, and the regularity with which our community mourns the loss of young people, many of whom die by violence and suicide, the Institute has developed a curriculum-driven group intervention to support bereaved youth, focused on resilience, coping with loss, and finding connections with LGBT ancestors. The curriculum teaches youth about LGBT history and collective responses to loss and trauma, so that youth can learn how to transform pain through creative expression, social action, and community celebrations. The intervention, titled “Survivance and Queer Youth,” is grounded in Shawn Ginwright’s concept of “Healing-Centered Engagement” which is a strength-based approach, and views those exposed to trauma as active agents in the creation of their own healing. Healing-Centered Engagement advances a collective view of healing, and re-centers culture, healthy identity, and a sense of belonging as central features in well-being.
Staff from HMI will present on the implementation and dissemination of this community-based bereavement support program, and will share results from our program evaluation which includes quantitative data from seven (7) youth centers located across the country, and qualitative data about the Facilitator Training.
This playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals, school professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

Objectives:
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Recognize and articulate the types of non-death losses experienced by LGBT youth, and the reasons for higher rates of bereavement and early death among this population.
Identify and understand the psychosocial phenomenon of disenfranchised grief and suffocated grief among LGBTQ youth communities.
Articulate best practices for counseling and supporting bereaved LGBTQ youth and adolescents using approaches drawn from Healing-Centered Engagement

Speaker Bio:
Zola Bruce is a dynamic social worker, educator, writer, and interdisciplinary artist whose work centers on experiential learning, leadership development, creative program design, healing, and community-based education. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Zola relocated to New York to attend Sarah Lawrence College, where they studied psychology and sculpture. Their global perspective was further shaped by a semester abroad in Kingston, Jamaica, with The School for International Training, focusing on Gender and Development.
Zola earned their Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University in 2001 and spent over a decade advancing youth development initiatives across New York City. Their work with organizations such as the Center for Family Life, McBurney YMCA, the LGBTQ Center, and The Center for Anti-Violence Education emphasized therapeutic programming for youth and families, with a strong commitment to social justice and healing.
Internationally, Zola founded Unified for Global Healing, a nonprofit dedicated to grassroots community health initiatives in Haiti, Ghana, and India. Through the use of art as a universal language, they fostered cross-cultural dialogue and connection beyond barriers of language, class, and culture. They also led youth programming in Kyoto, Japan, as part of World Learning’s Arts & Culture initiative.
Blending their passions for art, activism, and social work, Zola served as Associate Director of Communications & Impact at The Center for Anti-Violence Education and continues to consult and speak at activist events. Currently, they serve as Manager of Bereavement and Mental Health Services at the Hetrick-Martin Institute and teach as an Adjunct Professor at Hunter College.
Zola resides in Brooklyn, where they remain deeply engaged in creative and community-centered work.

Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Brothers in Grief: The Hidden Toll of Gun Violence on Black Boys and Their Schools
2026-02-25 13:00 - 14:30
The webinar will introduce and illustrate the main findings from my new book, Brothers in Grief: The Hidden Toll of Gun Violence on Black Boys and Their Schools.
Brothers in Grief spotlights the neglected aftermath of neighborhood gun violence and its consequences for racial and educational equity. Drawing on two years of school-based ethnography and more than five years of digital ethnography at a single-sex charter school in Philadelphia, sociologist Nora Gross examines how Black teen boys manage their grief after losing friends to gun violence and how school leaders and teachers balance their educational mission with often incomplete understandings of students’ emotions. The book conceptualizes the progression of institutional responses to student grief as a set of stages: the easy hard, hard hard, and hidden hard. In the aftermath of multiple student murders, the school initially recognizes the need for communal outlets for student grief, but soon the urgency of educating Black boys deemed ‘already behind’ takes priority. Relying on myths of Black resilience and male stoicism, the school ushers students back to ‘business as usual.’ Despite the adults’ best intentions, these decisions fail to mitigate the effects of peer loss on students’ social and educational trajectories. Although students’ persistent, unacknowledged grief is narrated constantly in online peer-driven social media spaces, it remains hidden from the adults making decisions about their education. Forcing students’ grief into hiding produces long-term social injuries for some students. Brothers in Grief concludes with a discussion of what can be learned from other youth and school responses to gun violence and proposes that schools could play a role in helping youth translate their collective grief into productive forms of grievance and action.

Not currently a NACG member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals, school professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

Objectives:
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Recognize and acknowledge the role of grief among Black boys in contexts of high levels of neighborhood youth gun violence.
Consider the role the schools can play in supporting grieving youth.
Consider how opportunities for activism, service, and other community efforts could play a role in youths’ healing.

Speaker Bio:
Nora Gross, PhD, is a sociologist of youth, race, and education and a documentary filmmaker. She is Assistant Professor of Education at Barnard College, Columbia University and received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in Sociology and Education. Nora uses qualitative, multimodal, and participatory methods to understand the ways youth develop and protect their inner lives in the face of external constraints. She has published on issues related to racialized masculinity for both Black and white boys, grief and loss, political polarization in schools, teens’ social media use, youth resistance and emotional solidarity, and school supports for vulnerable youth. She has also produced several documentary films focusing on the lives of Black boys and men. Nora is the author of the ethnographic book, Brothers in Grief: The Hidden Toll of Gun Violence on Black Boys and Their Schools (University of Chicago Press, 2024), as well as co-editor of Care-Based Methodologies: Reimagining Qualitative Research with Youth in US Schools (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please make sure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and need a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

Introduction to Grief Support Series | Talking with Children and Teens about a Death Due to Suicide
2026-02-27 12:00 - 13:00
This webinar is part of an ongoing series that will provide a foundation of introductory information for anyone working with or providing support to children, teens, and families who may be grieving. This series is not progressive; sessions can be viewed in any order.
How do we best support children and families when someone in their life has died by suicide? Explaining a suicide death to children and teens is often a daunting task for parents and guardians navigating such a profound loss. Well-meaning adults want to protect children from the truth and from the painful emotions such as guilt, shame, and regret that often accompany a suicide death. Yet, avoiding honest conversations can leave children and teens feeling confused and isolated. Parents and guardians may feel overwhelmed as they struggle with their own grief while also trying to decide what to tell their children and how to support them. For caregivers, telling the truth may feel intimidating and provoke anxiety. This workshop will explore the impact of suicide loss on families, including the layers of stigma, silence, and unanswered questions that often surround a death due to suicide. Additionally, we will discuss the unique challenges that families grapple with after a loss to suicide. Participants will receive helpful tips and information about best practices for supporting families, with suggested verbiage and phrases to use when explaining a suicide death to children and teens. This will include examples of what to say and what not to say, as well as helpful responses when children have questions. There will be ample time for discussion in this interactive presentation.
This playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Students, interns, individuals entering the field of childhood bereavement, new staff members, new counselors, group facilitators, volunteers, anyone who wants to invest in their practice.
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

Objectives:
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Describe the grief and loss experience of children and teens who have been impacted by the death of someone in their life due to suicide.
List practical tips and tools for supporting grieving children and teens affected by a suicide death.
Discuss examples of what to say and what not to say as when talking with children and teens about a death due to suicide.
Discuss societal stigmas and their impact on bereaved children and teens.

Speaker Bios:
Pamela Gabbay, EdD, FT – Dr. Pamela Gabbay is a nationally recognized author and trainer who has served the bereavement field in many capacities during her nearly 30-year career. Dr. Gabbay is part of the Youth Programs team at TAPS – The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, and a member of the TAPS Advisory Board, as well as working closely with Coping After Suicide. Additionally, she is a National Trainer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and is the co-author, along with Andy McNiel, of Understanding and Supporting Bereaved Children: A Practical Guide for Professionals. Dr. Gabbay has served in a variety of roles in her career, including being the Director of Operations and Training for The Compassionate Friends, the Director of The Mourning Star Center for Grieving Children, and the Camp Director for Camp Erin-Palm Springs. Additionally, she served as Vice President on the Board of Directors of the National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG). Dr. Gabbay holds a Fellow in Thanatology from the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and earned a Master of Arts degree in Cognitive Psychology from Claremont Graduate University. She earned her Doctor of Education degree in Organizational Leadership from Brandman University/UMass Global.

Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Tender Moments: Guiding Preschoolers and Families Through the Journey of Grief
2026-03-12 12:00 - 13:30
Participants will explore how preschoolers understand and process loss, effective ways to foster emotional expression in safe and supportive environments, and how to engage family members in meaningful conversations about healing. Drawing from both professional expertise and lived experience, this session equips educators, caregivers, and community members with tools to recognize the signs of grief, provide comfort, and build resilience for children and families navigating difficult times.
This playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals, school professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

Objectives:
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Recognize developmental differences in how preschool-aged children understand and express grief compared to older children and adults.
Identify signs of grief in young children and family members, including emotional, behavioral, and physical responses.
Apply developmentally appropriate strategies (such as play, storytelling, and routine support) to help preschoolers process loss in a safe and nurturing way.
Engage families with sensitivity and empathy, providing resources and communication tools that promote resilience and healing within the home and classroom.

Speaker Bio:
My name is Doris McCoy, LBSW/MSW-IPR, and I bring more than 37 years of experience as a Social Work Consultant in health care, managed care, and early childhood education. I hold a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) from Prairie View A&M University and a Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Houston, where I now serve as Vice President of the Graduate College of Social Work Alumni Board Association. Much of my career has been dedicated to addressing the great needs of the communities I serve, providing advocacy, education, and practical support to families, children, and professionals. Early in my career, my retired professor, Sandra Lopez, affirmed that I have a gift and unique skills in the area of grief and bereavement. That insight has guided my path and deepened my commitment to supporting individuals and families during life’s most difficult transitions. In addition to direct service, I am a certified Community Health Worker Instructor, an American Heart Association CPR/BLS Instructor, and a TECPDS Master Trainer. My work integrates grief and bereavement into trainings that equip professionals with strategies to respond with empathy, build resilience, and strengthen the capacity of communities to heal and thrive.

My name is Jackie Hopkins, RN, and I bring a wealth of diverse knowledge and experience as a Registered Nurse. In addition to my clinical background, I am a TECPDS-certified Trainer and Certified CPR Instructor, dedicated to equipping individuals and organizations with the skills they need to succeed. I am especially passionate about teaching and supporting my community in the areas of **grief and bereavement**, where I see a tremendous need for compassionate guidance and resources. Through my work, I strive to provide training that is both practical and meaningful, blending healthcare expertise with empathy to meet people where they are. My goal is to empower others, whether in professional development or in personal healing, by offering education and support that strengthens individuals, families, and the wider community.

Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Introduction to Grief Support Series | Silent Grievers: Supporting Siblings After Infant Loss Through Honest Communication and Connection
2026-03-27 12:00 - 13:00
This webinar is part of an ongoing series that will provide a foundation of introductory information for anyone working with or providing support to children, teens, and families who may be grieving. This series is not progressive; sessions can be viewed in any order.
Siblings of infant loss are often the “forgotten grievers.” While parents receive the focus of support, children frequently navigate their grief in silence. Some spend months joyfully anticipating a new baby, only to have that hope shattered in an instant. Others meet their baby sibling only to say goodbye, while many never meet the baby at all yet still live with the weight of their absence.
This session equips professionals, caregivers, and parents with research-backed strategies to validate and support these siblings while fostering emotional resilience. A key focus will be on the language we use to explain death and how vague statements like “went to sleep” or “we lost the baby” can cause confusion, fear, and mistrust. Participants will gain tools for delivering clear, compassionate, and developmentally appropriate explanations that help children process their grief safely.
The session begins with “Through Their Eyes,” a reflective group activity where participants examine real-world vignettes and step into the perspective of grieving siblings. After exploring evidence-based principles for supporting siblings of infant loss, participants will engage in “Find the Words,” a hands-on exercise to practice reframing confusing or euphemistic statements into language that promotes trust, clarity, and connection.
Attendees will leave with practical tools, including language guides, sibling-support strategies, and memory-making prompts to help families foster open communication and inclusion. This session blends research and real-world application, giving participants confidence and actionable skills to better support siblings affected by infant loss.

This playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Students, interns, individuals entering the field of childhood bereavement, new staff members, new counselors, group facilitators, volunteers, anyone who wants to invest in their practice.
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

Objectives:
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Identify the unique grief experiences of siblings after infant loss, including children “born into grief” after a loss.
Demonstrate clear, compassionate, and developmentally appropriate language when explaining a sibling’s death.
Recognize subtle signs of sibling grief and validate overlooked emotional needs, including shattered anticipation and lack of closure.
Create opportunities for siblings to participate in memory-making and ongoing conversations to foster inclusion and resilience.

Speaker Bios:
Michelle Cramer is the Founder and Executive Director of On Angels’ Wings, a nonprofit organization providing therapeutic photography, grief support, and long-term wellness resources to families navigating infant and child loss or caring for medically fragile children. As an Advanced Certified Grief Recovery Method Specialist, Michelle has spent 18 years supporting grieving families and developing tools to foster healing. Her expertise lies in helping families, caregivers, and professionals validate and include siblings impacted by infant loss while modeling healthy communication and coping strategies.

Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

From Breaking News to Breakthroughs: Creative, Play-based Support After a Death
2026-04-14 12:00 - 13:30
One in eleven children in the U.S. will experience the death of a parent or sibling by the age of 18” (Judi’s House, 2025). Beyond death loss, over 60% of adolescents and 64% of children have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE) such as natural disasters, abuse, or community violence (McLaughlin et al., 2013; CDC, 2024). In today’s media-driven world, children are additionally exposed to traumatic content through constant news and social media coverage, heightening feelings of distress and insecurity.
This interactive session is designed to equip professionals with practical tools and strategies to support children and adolescents navigating a variety of trauma types across developmental stages. Traumas to be addressed include, but are not limited to, natural disasters, manmade violence, race-based trauma, adverse media exposure, refugee trauma, sex trafficking, abuse (physical, sexual, emotional), and terrorism. Participants will explore the unique impacts these experiences have on childhood development and working memory, while learning trauma- and grief-informed preparation, processing, and intervention techniques.
Delivering information repetitively can be both essential and emotionally taxing. This session will address the physiological and emotional toll of these tasks and provide thanatologists with self-care and self-regulation strategies, such as grounding and mindful breathing, to maintain presence and resilience.
This webinar session will allow participants to explore trauma-specific bibliotherapy resources, multisensory play-based interventions, and creative therapeutic activities tailored to developmental needs, reinforcing evidence-based strategies while offering opportunities for reflection.
Attendees will leave with at least three reputable resources—including professional toolkits, online libraries, and caregiver-friendly platforms—to extend support beyond the clinical setting. Collectively, this session empowers thanatologists with confidence, communication skills, and holistic strategies to effectively guide children and families through life’s most challenging circumstances.

This playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals, school professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Identify three strategies for age-appropriate communication with children about difficult topics, including preparation and processing based on the situation and potential trauma.
Participants will be able to identify how stress impacts clinicians, caregivers, and professionals, while identifying two self-regulation techniques to overcome these barriers and remain emotionally present during challenging conversations.
Participants will learn about hands-on, multi-sensory play experiences that highlight developmental considerations and coping skill strategies, allowing child life specialists to rotate through interactive stations that reinforce the key talking points of the presentation.
Identify at least three reputable resources (e.g., toolkits, online libraries, or apps) that can be shared with families and professionals to facilitate ongoing support.

Speaker Bio:
Stephanie Heitkemper, PhD, LPC, RPT-S, FT, is the owner of Resilient Minds Counseling in Denver, Colorado, where she specializes in grief and trauma across the lifespan. An EMDRIA Approved Consultant and Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor, she integrates EMDR, play therapy, creative expression, and bibliotherapy to support children, families, and professionals navigating loss, trauma, and life transitions.
Her clinical and training work emphasizes age-appropriate communication with children about difficult topics, offering practical strategies for preparation, processing, and developmental support. She also guides clinicians, caregivers, and child life specialists in recognizing the effects of stress on their ability to remain present, equipping them with self-regulation techniques that strengthen their capacity to respond with empathy and confidence during challenging conversations.
As a national presenter and published author, Stephanie is known for her interactive and experiential teaching style. She designs multi-sensory play experiences that highlight coping skills, developmental considerations, and strategies that can be readily applied in professional practice. Her contributions to national grief publications underscore her commitment to evidence-informed resources, while her trainings consistently feature accessible tools—such as apps, libraries, and toolkits—that extend learning beyond the workshop.
Through her work, Stephanie bridges theory and practice to create trauma-informed, developmentally responsive spaces that support both grieving children and the professionals who care for them.

Jessica Correnti, MS, CCLS, is a Certified Child Life Specialist, author, bereaved mother, and grief specialist. She is the founder of Kids Grief Support, a private practice that provides therapeutic sessions and grief education to children and families in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as virtual services to families worldwide. Her work centers on developmentally appropriate communication strategies that prepare children for difficult conversations, support healthy processing of grief, and integrate trauma-informed care.
With nearly twenty years of professional experience, Jessica spent 14 years as a Child Life Specialist in pediatric hospital settings at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, and GBMC. She supported children and families in intensive care, emergency, surgical, and inpatient units, bringing a depth of knowledge in navigating complex medical and emotional experiences. She now applies this expertise in her private practice, offering individual therapy, grief groups, and collaborations with funeral homes and child loss organizations.
Jessica combines clinical expertise with expressive, multi-sensory interventions to help children build resilience and coping skills. She also equips professionals with practical self-regulation strategies and shares accessible resources—including toolkits, libraries, and grief-specific apps—that extend care beyond the therapy room.
As the author of four children’s grief books, including The ABCs of Grief and the forthcoming The ABCs of Grief: Coping (2026), Jessica is committed to creating compassionate, developmentally informed tools that foster connection and healing for grieving children and families.

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please make sure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and need a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

Data and Evaluation Series Training #3: Theory of Change
2026-04-22 12:00 - 13:00
Given limited resources and stretched capacity, data collection procedures and program evaluation strategies at the individual program level often fall short in terms of identifying gaps in service, areas for growth, and program impact. Today, philanthropic giving demands quantifiable return on investment in exchange for donations and grants. Combining nearly 20 years of experience in designing bereavement-focused evaluation protocols with the power of the CBEM, with philanthropic support provided by the New York Life Foundation and in collaboration with the National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG), Judi’s House/JAG Institute offered a series of free basic trainings in 2022-23 to share best practices in data collection and program evaluation.
This third workshop on Theory of Change will focus on how organizations can define their program model and why going through a theory of change process, including creating a logic model, is the first step in developing evaluation and data collection plans. Presenters will provide key information on what theory of change and logic modeling is. Presenters will discuss the purpose of conducting a theory of change process and how it helps organizations in reaching goals. The workshop will review the core steps in conducting a theory of change process, enabling participants to walk away with clear next steps for how to implement this important evaluation best practice to inform their work.

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

Objectives:
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Understand the purpose of conducting a theory of change process
Identify the cores steps of theory of change/logic modeling
Explain how to use the theory of change and logic models to achieve evaluation goals

Speaker Bios:
Maria Bartini, PhD, is the Evaluation Manager at Judi’s House/JAG Institute. With a doctoral degree in Life-Span Developmental Psychology from the University of Georgia, she has over 20 years’ experience teaching research methods, statistics, and child development at the college level. In her academic career, she also conducted evaluation research in schools, colleges, and youth sports organizations with the overarching goal of improving the lives of children and adolescents. In addition to heading the organization’s Childhood Bereavement Changemaker Initiative, Maria contributes to the evaluation and research activities at Judi’s House. Her work focuses on building evaluation/data utilization capacity in the field of childhood bereavement and evaluating the impact of Judi’s House services. She can be reached at mariab@judishouse.org.
Maddy Saunders, MS, works as a Research Associate at Judi’s House/JAG Institute. In her role, she helps lead the Childhood Bereavement Changemaker expansion, collaborating with organizations across the country to support implementation of data-informed strategies in decision-making, program implementation, and evaluation. Maddy holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Psychology with concentrations in Evaluation Research and Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She can be reached at maddyv@judishouse.org.

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.0 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.0 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.0 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.0 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please ensure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and require a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note that if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the attendance policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

Introduction to Grief Support Series | When One Grieves, We All Grieve: Family Systems–Informed Strategies for Grief Support
2026-04-24 12:00 - 13:00
This webinar is part of an ongoing series that will provide a foundation of introductory information for anyone working with or providing support to children, teens, and families who may be grieving. This series is not progressive; sessions can be viewed in any order.
When one member of a family is grieving, the entire system feels the ripple. Family systems theory reminds us that families don’t just contain grief—they express it, shape it, and sometimes even silence it across generations. For grief professionals, recognizing these dynamics opens the door to more holistic and sustainable healing.
This interactive, intermediate-level workshop explores strategies rooted in family systems theory. Through reflection, dialogue, and experiential activities, participants will learn to recognize family patterns, support healthier communication, explore intergenerational grief, foster flexibility in disrupted roles, and build rituals that honor culture and memory. They will leave with adaptable strategies for diverse settings and a renewed lens for seeing grief as a collective journey.
This playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Students, interns, individuals entering the field of childhood bereavement, new staff members, new counselors, group facilitators, volunteers, anyone who wants to invest in their practice.
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

Objectives:
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Identify and describe common grief roles within families and their impact on the system.
Apply family systems–informed strategies to strengthen communication and boundaries in grieving families.
Facilitate rituals and practices that promote shared meaning-making across diverse cultural contexts.

Speaker Bios:
Annette Mendez is a certified grief educator through David Kessler and the Training & Curriculum Manager at Good Grief. Raised in Newark as a first-generation college graduate, she earned her B.A. in Human Development and Family Studies from Montclair State University and a Master’s Certification in Developmental Models for Autism Intervention. Annette is also a Certified Child Development Specialist, with experience as an educator and as Special Services/Mental Health Coordinator for Head Start programs in Morris County. She brings both professional expertise and lived experience to her work with grieving families.
Ariana Locascio is the Senior Family Services Manager at Good Grief. She has experience in hospital, mental health, and nonprofit settings, including work as a Child Life Specialist and Case Manager. A former volunteer facilitator at Good Grief, she joined the staff in 2021. In her current role, she orients new families, facilitates groups, and supervises staff, serving as the first point of contact for families beginning their grief journey. Ariana’s passion is helping others and building supportive spaces where healing is possible.

Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Data and Evaluation Series Training #4: Evaluation Planning
2026-07-08 12:00 - 13:30
Given limited resources and stretched capacity, data collection procedures and program evaluation strategies at the individual program level often fall short in terms of identifying gaps in service, areas for growth, and program impact. Today, philanthropic giving demands quantifiable return on investment in exchange for donations and grants. Combining nearly 20 years of experience in designing bereavement-focused evaluation protocols with the power of the CBEM, with philanthropic support provided by the New York Life Foundation and in collaboration with the National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG), Judi’s House/JAG Institute offered a series of free basic trainings in 2022-23 to share best practices in data collection and program evaluation.
In 2024-2027, JH/JAG will continue to support the field in growing their capacity for evaluation and data analysis. This fourth workshop on Evaluation Planning will focus on how organizations can develop an evaluation plan for their program, including identifying key questions, selecting design, measure mapping, and protocol development. Presenters will discuss the purpose of creating an evaluation plan and how it helps organizations in reaching goals and will detail essential evaluation plan elements. The workshop will review the core steps in evaluation planning, enabling participants to walk away with clear next steps for how to establish this important evaluation best practice to inform their work.

Continuing Education (CEs): 1.5 continuing education credits available
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for All

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

Summarize the purpose of developing an evaluation plan
Explain how to use evaluation planning to achieve goals
Identify the essential elements of a good evaluation plan
Describe the core steps of evaluation planning

Speaker Bio:
Maria Bartini, PhD, is the Evaluation Manager at Judi’s House/JAG Institute. With a doctoral degree in Life-Span Developmental Psychology from the University of Georgia, she has over 20 years’ experience teaching research methods, statistics, and child development at the college level. In her academic career, she also conducted evaluation research in schools, colleges, and youth sports organizations with the overarching goal of improving the lives of children and adolescents. In addition to heading the organization’s Childhood Bereavement Changemaker Initiative, Maria contributes to the evaluation and research activities at Judi’s House. Her work focuses on building evaluation/data utilization capacity in the field of childhood bereavement and evaluating the impact of Judi’s House services. She can be reached at mariab@judishouse.org.
Maddy Saunders, MS, works as a Research Associate at Judi’s House/JAG Institute. In her role, she helps lead the Childhood Bereavement Changemaker expansion, collaborating with organizations across the country to support implementation of data-informed strategies in decision-making, program implementation, and evaluation. Maddy holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Psychology with concentrations in Evaluation Research and Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She can be reached at maddyv@judishouse.org.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please ensure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and require a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note that if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the attendance policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

From Silence to Support: Addressing Childhood Grief and Racial Trauma in the Classroom
2026-07-30 12:00 - 13:30
This workshop equips educators, mental health professionals, and youth-serving staff with the tools to recognize, validate, and respond to the complex grief experiences of Black and marginalized children. Drawing from The Cost of Healing in Silence: Navigating Racial Trauma and the Call for Culturally Responsive Care, participants will learn to integrate grief literacy and racial trauma awareness into their practice, develop culturally responsive strategies that affirm identity, and build classroom and community environments where young people are no longer left to grieve in silence, but supported in their healing.

*Please note: This webinar must be attended live. The recording will not be available following this webinar.

Continuing Education (CE) Credits: 1.5 continuing education credits available
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals, school professionals
Instructional Level: Intermediate – This best describes a topic or issue that the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or a working knowledge
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for NACG Members; $60 for Guests without CEs, $75 for Guests with CEs

Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Identify behavioral, emotional, and cultural indicators of grief in Black and marginalized youth that may be misinterpreted as defiance or disengagement.
Describe how racial trauma and systemic inequities intersect with childhood grief experiences and impact student learning and well-being.
Identify culturally responsive grief literacy frameworks to classroom or community-based scenarios involving bereaved children.
Create strategies for creating supportive environments that validate cultural identity and reduce stigma around grief expression.
Construct at least one practical action step to engage families or community partners in supporting children through bereavement and racial trauma.

Speaker Bio:
Ashley McGirt, MSW, LICSW, is a licensed mental health therapist, author, and nationally recognized speaker whose work bridges clinical expertise with lived experience. As a Black woman who was exposed to grief and loss at an early age, she understands firsthand the deep impact bereavement has on children, particularly in communities that are historically marginalized and underserved.
Ashley has spent her career addressing the intersections of racial trauma, grief, and mental health, dedicating her work to eliminating barriers to care and building culturally responsive support systems. She is the founder and CEO of the Therapy Fund Foundation, a nonprofit committed to providing free therapy, scholarships, and resources that affirm the experiences of Black individuals and families.
Through her book, The Cost of Healing in Silence: Navigating Racial Trauma and the Call for Culturally Responsive Care Ashley amplifies the urgency of creating spaces where grief is not pathologized or silenced, but recognized and supported. She has led trainings and workshops across schools, health systems, and community organizations, equipping educators and practitioners with tools to better serve children navigating grief within the context of systemic inequities.
Grounded in both her professional practice and her personal story, Ashley brings a unique voice to conversations about loss, healing, and resilience. Her mission is to ensure that no child is left to grieve in silence, and that every family has access to care that honors both their pain and their cultural identity.

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please make sure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and need a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

In the Aftermath of Crisis and Loss: Practical strategies and tools for educators and other caring professionals to talk with and support children
2026-08-18 12:00 - 13:00
This webinar will introduce a new tool designed by the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement for educators and other caring professionals that outlines practical strategies to talk with and support children after a death or other school/community crisis. This tool – the 5Es (Engage, Empathize, Explore, Educate and Empower) – can be used by all educators and other caring professionals, including those without a mental health background. The aim is to go beyond the more typical advice on how adults can support students to instead identify strategies to empower students/children to take a more active role in their own coping and subsequent recovery. Additional freely available tools will be showcased, such as 3 new versions of the popular wallet-sized tip cards for What to Say and What Not to Say to a Grieving Child that were developed for use after deaths from suicide, violence, or natural disasters and will be available for free from the New York Life Foundation.

Continuing Education (CEs): 1.0 continuing education credit available
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for All

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

List the 5 “E”s describing practical strategies to talk with and support children after a death or other school/community crisis
Describe the role of Children’s Bereavement Centers/Programs in advising school staff and other caring professionals on how to support children after a crisis
Incorporate these approaches in training for your Center’s/Program’s facilitators for use with children served by the Center/Program
Know when and how to partner with the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement after a local school or community crisis to provide support

Speaker Bio:
David J Schonfeld, MD, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician, founded the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement (www.schoolcrisiscenter.org) at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The NCSCB coordinates the Coalition to Support Grieving Students which is comprised of over 140 professional organizations representing educators, medical professionals, and other interested groups. For 35 years, he’s supported schools/communities after crises and loss, including the COVID-19 pandemic, shootings/stabbings in Winder, GA, Parkland, FL, Santa Clarita, CA, Newtown, CT, Las Vegas, NV, Aurora, CO, & Osaka, Japan; hurricanes Helene (TN), Maria (San Juan), Sandy (NYC/NJ), Katrina (New Orleans), & Ike (Galveston); tornadoes in Joplin, MO & Alabama; wildfires in Maui, HI, Butte & Sonoma Counties, CA, Sevierville, TN; & Sichuan, China earthquake. His school-based research (e.g., funded by NICHD, NIMH, NIDA, MCHB, WT Grant) involves children’s understanding of and adjustment to serious illness and death and school-based interventions to promote adjustment and risk prevention. He is Chair of National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters and a member of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Children and Disasters, and former Commissioner for the National Commission on Children and Disasters and Sandy Hook Advisory Commission.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.0 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.0 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.0 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.0 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please ensure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and require a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note that if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the attendance policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

Double Burden: Trauma and Stigma Following Losses to Gun Violence and Opioid Overdose
2026-09-01 12:00 - 13:30
A growing number of children and adolescents are experiencing the loss of loved ones to gun violence and opioid overdoses, representing two of the most traumatic and stigmatized forms of bereavement in contemporary society. These losses present unique challenges that extend far beyond typical grief responses, as young people must simultaneously process traumatic circumstances of death while confronting societal stigma that often complicates and prolongs their grieving process. This presentation will examine the complex intersection of trauma and stigma in youth bereaved by violence and substance-related deaths, providing evidence-based strategies for recognition, assessment, and intervention with this vulnerable population.
Background and Rationale: The landscape of childhood bereavement has shifted dramatically in recent decades, with increasing numbers of young people losing family members and friends to preventable causes, including gun violence and drug overdoses. These deaths carry distinct characteristics that differentiate them from other forms of loss: they are often sudden, violent, preventable, and accompanied by significant social stigma that can isolate bereaved families and complicate natural grief processes.
Gun violence has become a leading cause of death among young people in the United States, with ripple effects extending far beyond direct victims to include family members, friends, and community members who witness or experience secondary trauma. Similarly, the opioid epidemic has created unprecedented numbers of children orphaned by overdose deaths, with research indicating that between 2011 and 2021, more than 321,000 children lost a parent to overdose.
The traumatic nature of these deaths, combined with societal stigma and blame, creates what researchers term “disenfranchised grief” – grief that is not socially recognized or supported. Young people bereaved by these causes face unique barriers to healthy grief processing, including shame, blame, social isolation, and lack of appropriate support services designed for their specific needs.

Continuing Education (CE) Credits: 1.5 continuing education credits available
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals, school professionals
Instructional Level: Intermediate – This best describes a topic or issue that the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or a working knowledge
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for NACG Members; $60 for Guests without CEs, $75 for Guests with CEs

Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Identify the unique characteristics of grief following losses to gun violence and substance abuse in youth populations
Recognize signs of traumatic grief and complicated bereavement in children exposed to violent or stigmatized deaths
Assess the impact of stigma on grief processing and long-term adjustment outcomes
Implement trauma-informed, culturally responsive interventions for youth bereaved by violence and substance abuse
Develop community-based support strategies that address both trauma and stigma components

Speaker Bio:
Dr. Brian K. Shaffer is a licensed professional counselor, certified alcohol, drug and addiction counseling practitioner, clinical chaplain, thanatologist, and approved clinical supervisor with 25 years of experience in spiritual and pastoral care, grief, loss, bereavement, trauma, and mental and behavioral health. His work has spanned both private practice and community-based settings.
Dr. Shaffer’s professional passions include working with homeless and disadvantaged populations as well as helping faith communities develop and implement mental and behavioral health social action programs. He currently serves as a professor in Counselor Education and Supervision while maintaining a private telehealth therapy practice.
Throughout his career, Dr. Shaffer has served as mentor and clinical supervisor to numerous students and residents in counseling. His specialty areas include working with adults and families struggling with addiction issues, grief and loss, and trauma, as well as providing chaplain services.
Dr. Shaffer regularly conducts workshops on death, dying, and bereavement as well as mental health and addiction topics. He is actively engaged in research within these areas to contribute to both academic and clinical knowledge. His doctoral research focused on the bio-psychosocial-spiritual needs of retired clergy.
Dr. Shaffer holds a Master of Theological and Pastoral Studies, a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Capella University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Counselor Education and Supervision from Capella University.

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please make sure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and need a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

Introduction to Grief Support Series | From Vision to Vocation: Creative Career Pathways in Childhood Bereavement
2026-09-18 12:00 - 13:00
This webinar is part of an ongoing series that will provide a foundation of introductory information for anyone working with or providing support to children, teens, and families who may be grieving. This series is not progressive; sessions can be viewed in any order.
This training will explore diverse professional pathways in the field of childhood bereavement. Participants will gain an understanding of roles, skills, and qualifications needed within the field of childhood bereavement. Emphasis will be placed on translating academic knowledge into practical pathways, preparing attendees to apply new insights within clinical, educational, and community settings. This training will also involve interactive discussion and reflection that encourages participants to reflect upon their personal strengths and how those strengths can align with professional opportunities. At the end of the training, attendees will be better equipped to identify potential career trajectories and consider how their unique expertise can address this critical need.

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for this webinar.
Target Audience: Students, interns, individuals entering the field of childhood bereavement, new staff members, new counselors, group facilitators, volunteers, anyone who wants to invest in their practice.
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for NACG Members; Non-Members: $20 per session, $50 for Whole Series

Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

Objectives:
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Identify 5 professional pathways available in the field of childhood bereavement
Identify 2 gaps in counselor and social work education related to potential career preparedness in childhood bereavement
Analyze how personal strengths and professional backgrounds can align with specific opportunities in childhood bereavement.
Develop an individualized action plan or next steps for pursuing or advancing a career in childhood bereavement.

Speaker Bios:
Kailey Bradley, Ph.D., LPCC-S, NCC, FT, is a licensed professional counselor, nationally certified counselor, and fellow in thanatology. She also holds a doctorate in counselor education and supervision from Ohio University. Dr. Bradley has a background in hospice work and feels that companioning and advocating for grievers is her life’s passion. Currently, she is an adjunct professor at both Marian University and Marshall University where she teaches a wide range of counseling courses including childhood bereavement and pediatric hospice care. Dr. Bradley is the clinical director at Refuge Counseling LLC and the co-founder and executive director of the Ohio Bereavement Collaborative, a non-profit grief organization. Moreover, her professional leadership can be seen in her dedication to conducting over 100 peer-reviewed conference presentations and 10 peer-reviewed publications on topics related to: counselor education, grief and loss, and development of neurodiverse affirming learning environments.
Nancy Baur, LPCC-S, LICDC-S, is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor with Supervision designation and a Licensed Independent Chemical Dependency Counselor. Nancy has a background cworking as a Mobile Response Stabilization Service (MRSS) therapist for Hopewell Health Centers in Southeastern Ohio. Nancy specializes in trauma therapy for children, adolescents, and people struggling with addiction. Nancy is an adjunct instructor for the University of Rio Grande and completed studies at the University of Vermont where she completed her certification as a Death Doula.

Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Beyond the Behavior: Relationship-Based Behavior Management for Children Grieving
2026-09-24 12:00 - 13:30
This training provides participants with practical strategies for understanding and managing the range of behaviors exhibited by children who are grieving. Grief can manifest differently in children than in adults, often presenting as behavioral changes that can be challenging for caregivers and educators. This training will explore the unique ways children process grief at different developmental stages, common behavioral manifestations of grief (e.g., aggression, withdrawal, regression), and effective techniques for providing support. Participants will learn how to create a safe and supportive environment, utilize communication strategies that promote emotional expression, and implement behavior management techniques tailored to the specific needs of grieving children. The training will also address self-care strategies for adults supporting grieving children, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and managing their own emotional responses. By the end of this training, participants will be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to compassionately and effectively support grieving children through their behavioral challenges, fostering healthy emotional development and resilience.

Continuing Education (CE) Credits: 1.5 continuing education credits available
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals, school professionals
Instructional Level: Intermediate – This best describes a topic or issue that the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or a working knowledge
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for NACG Members; $60 for Guests without CEs, $75 for Guests with CEs

Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Summarize the importance of building strong, trusting relationships with grieving children and demonstrate at least one technique for fostering such relationships.
Identify at least two communication and support strategies to create a safe and supportive environment for grieving children.
Formulate intervention and de-escalation techniques, matched to the intensity of the situation, using a tiered response.

Speaker Bio:
Kristen Huber MS, LPC, FT, became the Volunteer Services Coordinator at the Highmark Caring Place facility in Erie in April of 2014. Since 1996, Kristen has been working with and advocating for children who have experienced trauma in their lives. She has trained and supervised master level clinicians and has done numerous trainings on helping people understand how trauma effects a child’s development and their ability to effectively interact with those around them. Kristen has her own private practice and has been a licensed professional counselor since 2006. She has worked with children and adults that present with a variety of mental health issues. Most of her work is focused on helping people with depression, anxiety, relationship issues, bereavement/loss and trauma. In addition to being an LPC, she has been a Certified Thanatologist since 2018. She then received her Fellow in Thanatology in 2022.
Melissa Reagan, MSW, LSW, CT, has a Bachelor’s of the Arts degree in psychology from Goucher College and a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a licensed social worker in the state of Pennsylvania and has a Certificate in Thanatology. Melissa currently works at the Highmark Caring Place in Camp Hill as the Volunteer Services Coordinator and Senior Grief & Clinical Services Specialist. Prior to her current role, Melissa worked in children’s behavioral and mental health in various roles and capacities — case manager, outpatient therapist, quality services and clinical care management. Her experience encompasses direct care provision alongside collaborative work with treatment teams, to ensure that each child’s mental and behavioral health needs were met. In her current role, she continues to use clinical and practical skills gained through previous experience to meet the unique needs of children who are grieving.

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please make sure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and need a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

Data and Evaluation Series Training #7: Visualizing and Reporting Evaluation Data
2026-09-30 12:00 - 13:30
Given limited resources and stretched capacity, data collection procedures and program evaluation strategies at the individual program level often fall short in terms of identifying gaps in service, areas for growth, and program impact. Today, philanthropic giving demands quantifiable return on investment in exchange for donations and grants. Combining nearly 20 years of experience in designing bereavement-focused evaluation protocols with the power of the CBEM, with philanthropic support provided by the New York Life Foundation and in collaboration with the National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG), Judi’s House/JAG Institute offered a series of free basic trainings in 2022-23 to share best practices in data collection and program evaluation.
In 2024-2027, JH/JAG will continue to support the field in growing their capacity for evaluation and data analysis. In this seventh workshop on Visualizing and Reporting Evaluation Data, participants will learn about different ways to visualize data, how to report data to various stakeholders, and gain practical tips for using data in writing grant proposals.
The training structure includes a welcome/introduction, and for each objective: content, polls, and examples. The presenters will utilize polls and reflections to engage participants in activities focused on the evaluation content and to orient participants to how they can apply learnings in their organization. Time will be allocated at the end of the session to review each of the three objectives, discuss plans for application of learnings, and answer participant questions.

Continuing Education (CEs): 1.5 continuing education credits available
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for All

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

Select appropriate visualizations of evaluation data.
Effectively prepare for reporting evaluation results to different stakeholders.
Use evaluation data in writing grant proposals and reports.

Speaker Bio:
Maria Bartini, PhD, is the Evaluation Manager at Judi’s House/JAG Institute. With a doctoral degree in Life-Span Developmental Psychology from the University of Georgia, she has over 20 years’ experience teaching research methods, statistics, and child development at the college level. In her academic career, she also conducted evaluation research in schools, colleges, and youth sports organizations with the overarching goal of improving the lives of children and adolescents. In addition to heading the organization’s Childhood Bereavement Changemaker Initiative, Maria contributes to the evaluation and research activities at Judi’s House. Her work focuses on building evaluation/data utilization capacity in the field of childhood bereavement and evaluating the impact of Judi’s House services. She can be reached at mariab@judishouse.org.
Maddy Saunders, MS, works as a Research Associate at Judi’s House/JAG Institute. In her role, she helps lead the Childhood Bereavement Changemaker expansion, collaborating with organizations across the country to support implementation of data-informed strategies in decision-making, program implementation, and evaluation. Maddy holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Psychology with concentrations in Evaluation Research and Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She can be reached at maddyv@judishouse.org.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please ensure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and require a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note that if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the attendance policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

Holding Both: Activity Series for Children in Substance-Affected Families & Substance-Related Death
2026-10-13 12:00 - 13:30
321,566 children in the US lost a parent to substance use-related death from 2011-2021 (NIDA, 2024, May 8). Substance-related deaths present unique challenges that create complexities that may look beyond the traditional grief timeline. When a parent dies from substance-use related death, suicide related to drugs or alcohol, or complications from substance use, children can face “disenfranchised grief”; loss that society deems less worthy of support due to stigma and moral judgment.
These deaths often come after years of anticipatory grief, when children have already been mourning the parent who felt absent even while alive. What follows can be a tangle of emotions—shame from stigma, relief, anger, or confusion about how to grieve someone whose substance use caused deep harm. For some, there is ambivalence: the parent may not be missed at all, yet the loss still reshapes their story. This complexity challenges the idea that grief always equals love, reminding us that children’s experiences are never one-dimensional.
This 90-minute experiential presentation introduces four specialized activities from the Circle of Care Intervention Activity Book, curated and developed by the presenter, specifically for children grieving substance-related deaths. Along with familiar supportive bereavement activities, these highlighted interventions address discovering agency amongst ambiguous loss and internalized stigma often accompanied in substance-affected families.
Utilizing activities that address this intersectionality, participants will have the opportunity to be fully engaged with activities and explore adaptation for their practice and programs. To extend learning beyond the session, all attendees will receive an e-book containing 30 additional interventions for substance-affected families and children impacted by substance-related deaths, providing a comprehensive resource for continued integration into their work.

Continuing Education (CE) Credits: 1.5 continuing education credits avaialble
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals, school professionals
Instructional Level: Intermediate – This best describes a topic or issue that the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or a working knowledge
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for NACG Members; $60 for Guests without CEs, $75 for Guests with CEs

Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Identify and assess the intersection of unique characteristics of substance-related grief in children, including disenfranchised grief, post-traumatic growth, and the intersection of ongoing trauma with death-related loss.
Implement four specialized evidence-based activities from the guide to support children in processing contradictory feelings, integrating complex memories, and navigating family conflicts around memorializing substance-using adults.
Access a comprehensive resource guide of grief and trauma-informed activities that can be adapted and implemented in individual practice, group settings, or organizational programming for children affected by substance-related death and family dysfunction

Speaker Bio:
Jessica Porte, MA, is a grief educator, consultant, and founder of Wayfinder Family Co., dedicated to supporting children, families, and organizations navigating the complex emotional impact of loss, substance use, and transition. With over 14 years in the nonprofit sector, she began her career in hospice running and supporting school programs, community grief groups, and bereavement camps for children. In addition, she spent over six years with Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s Children’s Program as a Children’s Counselor, supporting youth impacted by a loved one’s substance use disorder, and now consults and trains with other wrap-around and treatment programs.
Central to Jessica’s work is recognizing that systems meant to support children and families must be healthy, accessible, and responsive to community gaps. She designs programs, leadership strategies, and training initiatives that strengthen organizational resilience while fostering psychologically safe spaces for staff and families alike.
Certified in Psychological First Aid and trained in LEGO® Serious Play®, Jessica blends thanatology, psychology, and innovative learning methods to transform grief from a hidden cost into a pathway for connection, growth, and adaptation. She has supported communities recovering from crises and leads statewide initiatives like Illinois’ Circle of Care, helping organizations better serve families affected by substance use-related loss.

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please make sure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and need a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

Introduction to Grief Support Series | Heroes, Hashtags, and Healing: Using Pop Culture to Connect with Grieving Kids and Teens
2026-10-23 12:00 - 13:00
This webinar is part of an ongoing series that will provide a foundation of introductory information for anyone working with or providing support to children, teens, and families who may be grieving. This series is not progressive; sessions can be viewed in any order.
Kids and teens often process grief through the lens of the media they consume, including superheroes, TV shows, movies, video games, and social media trends. By incorporating these familiar characters and stories into grief programming, facilitators can make activities more relatable and engaging. This session explores practical ways to integrate pop culture into grief curriculum, such as using superhero resilience metaphors, TikTok-inspired activities, or movie clips as discussion starters. Participants will engage in hands-on examples of adapting familiar stories into therapeutic activities while ensuring sensitivity and inclusivity. Attendees will leave with creative tools to better meet young people where they are, making group sessions both meaningful and memorable.

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for this webinar.
Target Audience: Students, interns, individuals entering the field of childhood bereavement, new staff members, new counselors, group facilitators, volunteers, anyone who wants to invest in their practice.
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for NACG Members; Non-Members: $20 per session, $50 for Whole Series

Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

Objectives:
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Identify at least three benefits of incorporating pop culture references into grief programming.
Design one activity using a superhero, movie, or social media trend to support grief expression.
Adapt pop culture integration strategies for different age groups.
Implement at least two strategies that strengthen engagement and reduce chaos in group settings.

Speaker Bios:
Laurel Neitling joined New Hope in July 2023 as the Circles of Hope Program Manager and transitioned to the role of Development and Communications Manager in 2025. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in management from Central Michigan University and completed her MBA at Western Governors University in 2024. Before joining the staff team, Laurel volunteered with New Hope as a support group facilitator and has presented at numerous conferences and outreach events, including the 2024 and 2025 NACG National Symposium on Children’s Grief. She is grateful for the opportunity to work alongside New Hope’s dedicated volunteers and staff to provide compassionate grief support services to the community.

Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Imagined Worlds, Real Stories: Exploring Grief and Strength Through Tabletop Role Playing Games
2026-11-12 12:00 - 13:30
This presentation introduces participants to the theory, structure, and practical application of therapeutically applied tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) in clinical and supportive settings. Drawing on evidence-based practices and current research in game-based interventions, the presentation explores how role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons can be intentionally adapted to support session goals such as exploring strengths and coping mechanisms, enhancing connection to the person who died, increasing emotional regulation and addressing loss in a safe, contained, and imaginative environment.
Participants will gain introductory knowledge in both the mechanics of tabletop role-playing games and the core principles of therapeutic facilitation. Through a brief overview of TTRPGS, case examples, and hands-on activities, attendees will learn basic principles of TTRPGs in individual and group sessions. Participants will leave with interventions that they can use in their supportive sessions.

Continuing Education (CE) Credits: 1.5 continuing education credits available
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals, school professionals
Instructional Level: Intermediate – This best describes a topic or issue that the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or a working knowledge
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for NACG Members; $60 for Guests without CEs, $75 for Guests with CEs

Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Assess opportunities within the session to utilize TTRPGs to support therapeutic themes such as connection to the person who died, identity exploration, and resilience-building.
Recognize the potential benefits and limitations of using TTRPGs with grieving clients, including considerations for age, neurodiversity, and group dynamics.
Identify at least one intervention that can be used in supportive individual or group sessions.

Speaker Bio:
Ashlee Cabral, MA, LMFT, is a private practice therapist who has specialized in traumatic grief and loss with all ages. Her experience includes over a decade of private practice therapy, hospice grief services coordination, higher education instruction and clinical supervision. She is a certified therapeutic game master with experience using TTRPGs and video games in therapeutic practice. She has previously presented at the NACG on using video games with grieving kids.
Christina Thomas, MS, LCSW, is the Child and Families Grief Coordinator at a regional nonprofit hospice. She holds dual master’s degrees in child development and social work, and has spent the past decade working with families navigating grief and loss. Christina developed the Adventures Through Grief program, combining evidence-based grief support with creative role-playing interventions.

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please make sure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and need a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.

Introduction to Grief Support Series | Navigating childhood grief and trauma exposure in the aftermath of violence and disasters
2026-11-13 12:00 - 13:00
This webinar is part of an ongoing series that will provide a foundation of introductory information for anyone working with or providing support to children, teens, and families who may be grieving. This series is not progressive; sessions can be viewed in any order.
In this session, disaster response and recovery experts from Aftermath Solutions will provide an overview of childhood trauma and grief in the wake of terrorism, targeted violence, and traumatic events, and offer effective strategies for early intervention, establishing safety and trust, and building protective factors in children and caregivers. Aftermath Solutions is a collaborative of practitioners leveraging lived experience from frontline work with hundreds of communities after human-caused and natural disasters to advise on community preparedness, recovery, and resilience. Presenters are subject matter experts in mass violence response, community resilience, and trauma recovery in the public and private sector.
Each year, 60% of children in the U.S. have experienced or witnessed an act of violence in their home, school, or community, and 40% are direct victims of two or more violent acts. (OJJDP, 2020) One in 12 children will experience the death of a parent or sibling by the age of 18. (Judi’s House, 2022) Throughout 2025, family exposure to trauma and grief has been permeated with a high prevalence of mass shootings in schools and community spaces, multiple incidents of targeted political violence, increased focus on community grief, and elevated rates of anxiety among parents and children. Promoting and restoring safety can be a protective factor from adverse health outcomes. (He et al, 2025)
Grief due to violence and traumatic events can be protracted and complicated, and reactions vary among children and individuals based on developmental stages, cumulative adverse childhood experiences, and risk and protective factors. Key recommendations to improve outcomes for children and families experiencing trauma and grief due to traumatic events include: establishing safety, trust, and strong social supports; adopting trauma-informed approaches in schools and family-facing community services; providing preparedness and prevention education; ensuring clear, strengths-based communication; and leveraging partnerships and collaboration to ensure coordination of care.

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for this webinar.
Target Audience: Students, interns, individuals entering the field of childhood bereavement, new staff members, new counselors, group facilitators, volunteers, anyone who wants to invest in their practice.
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for NACG Members; Non-Members: $20 per session, $50 for Whole Series

Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

Objectives:
After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Define the elements of a trauma-informed approach to supporting children through grief in the aftermath of a human-caused or natural disaster.
Identify risk factors and protective factors for youth impacted by trauma and grief. Risk factors vary widely for youth and may include poly-victimization or multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), isolation or withdrawal, a lack of social or emotional supports, disruptions in family dynamics or instability, and attraction to social or peer communities that promote negative coping mechanisms.
Demonstrate effective strategies and interventions for supporting parents, caregivers, and supportive adults in helping children navigate grief after a traumatic event.
Define common and more complex trauma and grief reactions in children and methods to increase protective factors and promote recovery and resilience.
Differentiate between trauma-informed communication strategies that can boost engagement and create safety and trust and those that may increase stigma, lead to confusion, or create barriers. What to say / what not to say.

Speaker Bios:
Sallie Lynch, MA, is a highly accomplished consultant with over 25 years of expertise in nonprofit leadership, specializing in tragedy response and community resilience. Known for her ability to facilitate peer connections and long-term healing, Sallie has empowered individuals, families, and communities impacted by terrorism, targeted violence, military conflict, and widescale trauma and loss. A mass violence response subject matter expert and consultant to the U.S. Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center (OVC-TTAC), she delivers strategic guidance to frontline service providers, community leaders, and survivors in the U.S. and worldwide. Sallie is co-founder of Aftermath Solutions, a disaster response collaborative, co-founder of S.T.O.P. (Survivors of Tragedy Outreach Program), a coalition of survivors and nonprofits impacted by and responding to terrorism and mass violence, and serves on the board of Dignity Beyond Borders, a safe community for global survivors of terrorism, war, and mass violence.
Throughout her career, Sallie has strengthened the capacity of both large and grassroots nonprofits to launch transformative initiatives in disaster response, international victim advocacy, trauma and grief support, counterterrorism and targeted violence prevention, humanitarian relief, education, family engagement, child development, and elder care. As an accomplished fundraiser, Sallie has secured substantial institutional support for high-impact projects addressing trauma, loss, and mass casualty events, including multiyear six- and seven-figure grants from federal and private institutions to advance resilience and recovery programs in response to terrorism, targeted violence, and the COVID-19 pandemic. An expert facilitator, she has led cross-cultural resource-sharing and training sessions with victim service providers from 34 countries, fostering global collaboration and innovation. She has held leadership roles and consultancies with a range of U.S. and international nonprofits guiding on fundraising and development, program design and delivery, outreach and communications, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy and policy, and education and curriculum development. Her previous roles include Director of Development at the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, Senior Program and Development Consultant at Tuesday’s Children, and Research Coordinator for the FDNY/Columbia University Family Program.
Sallie is an experienced media spokesperson and public speaker, having addressed distinguished audiences at venues such as the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice and the United Nations. She is co-author of “FDNY Crisis Counseling: Innovative Responses to 9/11 Firefighters, Families and Communities” (Wiley, 2006), and her work on long-term healing, community resilience, and peer support has been published in leading U.S. and international journals. Sallie coordinated a landmark longitudinal research and intervention program for 9/11 widows and children in partnership with Columbia University School of Social Work and the FDNY Counseling Service Unit. She has served on the Training Subcommittee for Vibrant Emotional Health’s Crisis Emotional Care Team (CECT) and was a founding Advisory Board member for Peace of Mind Afghanistan (PoMA), a national initiative to advance mental health awareness. Sallie holds an MA in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University and a BA in Cultural Studies from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, and is certified in Psychological First Aid (PFA) and as a Grief Educator.

Amy O’Neill, DHSc, MS, LPC, is a clinician, consultant, and educator with over 30 years of experience in the mental health field, at the local, national, and international levels. As a survivor of the Boston Marathon Bombing, Dr. O’Neill’s combination of lived and learned experience is especially relevant to and resonant with victims of mass violence. She has developed learning communities, presented at national and international conferences, and provided trauma-informed care, support, and consultation to individuals and communities affected by terrorism and mass violence, including those in Minneapolis, MN, Virginia Beach, VA, Gilroy, CA, New Orleans, LA, Columbine, CO, Nashville, TN, Perry, IA, Allen, TX, and provided expert consultation in response to the Weisser School Shooting in Vienna, Austria.
Dr. O’Neill is a member of the consultant networks for the NMVC (National Mass Violence Center), the OVC VOCA Center, and the OVC TTAC (Mass Violence Response). She has served on various committees and advisory groups, including the NMVC Survivors & Providers Steering Committee, the Crisis Emotional Care Team for Vibrant Emotional Health providing support for Afghan evacuees, the advisory committee for the DDH peer support network and Steering Committee for the Disaster Distress Helpline, the Disaster Mental Health Team for the American Red Cross, and the Survivors of Tragedy Outreach Program for Tuesday’s Children.
Dr. O’Neill is a member of the European Union Hub of Experts on Victims of Terrorism and provided expert consultation on the response to the Weisser Ring School Shooting in Austria. She contributed testimony to the development of the United Nations Model Legislative Provisions for the Rights of Victims of Terrorism, specifically with regard to the importance of access to justice for victims of terrorism and the importance of memorials. At the First Global Congress for Victims of Terrorism, held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, she presented on the importance of remembrance and memorials to those impacted by terrorism.
Dr. O’Neill maintains a private counseling practice and is an Adjunct Instructor for the graduate Counseling Psychology Program at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a Lecturer for the Institute of Disaster Mental Health at SUNY, New Paltz. A graduate of Old Dominion University with a master of science degree from Chestnut Hill College, she holds a doctorate of health sciences degree with a mental health concentration from Bay Path University in Massachusetts, where her dissertation focused on perceived social support in communities impacted by hate-motivated mass shootings, the findings of which are being prepared for publication.

Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Reflection and Regulation: Art-Based Practices to Support Clinicians Working with Children in Grief
2026-12-03 12:00 - 13:30
When supporting children in grief, clinicians bring best intentions and well-developed skills to the therapeutic relationship. Yet their own histories of loss can surface, often in unrecognized ways and may shape how they engage with children in grief. Without awareness and reflection, these reactions risk complicating the healing process. Research demonstrates that previously developed relationship patterns and emotional expression influence the therapeutic relationship (Prasko et al., 2022).
Recognizing and reflecting on these experiences is essential in grief work. Equally critical is the capacity to regulate one’s own response to remain attuned and effective to the child. Clinicians themselves confirm this, “those least likely to talk about grief with their clients described feeling uncomfortable reflecting on their own grief,” highlighting the necessity of self-reflection before working with clients in grief (Blueford et al., 2022).
Using creative modalities may help in this process. As Shukla et al., (2022) note, creative activities can reduce stress, offering an accessible entry point for reflection and coping. Similarly, del Río Diéguez et al., (2024) demonstrate that creative arts therapy interventions foster emotional regulation and self-awareness, supporting counselors as they acknowledge personal grief, process emotions, and regulate more effectively.
This session introduces art-based techniques designed to foster both self-reflection and self-regulation for clinicians supporting children in grief. Drawing on international fieldwork in Ukraine during war, the presenter will illustrate how trauma-informed training, paired with art-based activities, helped psychotherapists deepen awareness of their own grief responses while working under ongoing stress and loss.
Participants will engage in a brief guided art therapy experiential to explore their own comfort with grief, reflect on their own responses, and practice methods for helping to maintain regulation while working with children in grief.

Continuing Education (CE) Credits: 1.5 continuing education credits pending
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals, school professionals
Instructional Level: Intermediate – This best describes a topic or issue that the audience likely has a theoretical foundation for understanding and/or a working knowledge
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for NACG Members; $60 for Guests without CEs, $75 for Guests with CEs

Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

Define countertransference in grief counseling and explain how a counselor’s own loss history may influence the therapeutic relationship with client.
Identify personal responses (of loss, attunement, needs) through a guided refection that may impact presence in the therapeutic relationship.
Demonstrate an art-based activity designed to increase awareness of loss and its influence on the clinical work with children in grief.
Practice an art-based self-regulation technique to manage emotional responses while working with children in grief.

Speaker Bio:
Wendy Bradley, MS, ATR-BC, CLAT, is a board certified and licensed art therapist with over 25 years experience working with children, teens and families medical, psychiatric and school-based settings. She has been in private practice for ten years now, where she focuses on children in grief and trauma. Wendy is also an adjunct professor, teaching courses in communication, psychology and child development.
In 2024, Wendy co-designed and co-directed a grief and trauma respite camp in Ukraine, where she trained Ukrainian psychotherapists and facilitated art-based interventions for children and families living in an active war zone. This work continues to inform her work with children and families, helping them process grief through safety, regulation, and connection, to build resilience.
She is also the author of “Spidey Senses”, a children’s book created to help young readers manage anxiety and strengthen coping skills through their five senses. Wendy presents at national and international conferences, sharing her expertise in trauma-informed art therapy and developmentally responsive grief work with children.

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

Continuing Education (CE) Provider Information:
Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend “live” (in real-time) to earn CEs. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE process, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7221. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0689. Social Workers completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0238. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 contact hours.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief, #1819, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. National Alliance for Children’s Grief maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 07/20/2023 – 07/20/2026. Counselors completing this course will receive 1.5 continuing education credits.
Refund/cancellation policy: If you need to cancel your registration, please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688. Please note that no refunds will be given.
To request accessibility accommodations: The National Alliance for Children’s Grief is committed to providing universal access to all our events. Please contact Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@childrengrieve.org or at (432) 288-4688 to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.
Attendance policy: To earn CEs for this event, you must attend the entirety of the event as demonstrated by your autogenerated login and logout time on the Zoom Webinar report and complete an online event evaluation within seven (7) days of the event. Please make sure you are signed into Zoom using the name that matches your professional license and not the name of your place of employment, as there is no way to verify your attendance after the fact if your name does not appear on the Zoom Webinar report. CE certificates will be sent out within 30 days of the educational event. The link for your certificate will come from “certificates@simplecert.net” as the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. Please be sure to add this email to your “safe sender list”. The NACG is unable to process certificates after 90 days from the date of the event.
CE Certificate retrieval request: The NACG maintains continuing education records for at least six years from the date of completion of the educational event which include: the name and curriculum vitae of the presenter, a record of attendance, an outline of the course, date, and location of the course, and the number of hours for completion of the course. If you attended a CE educational event and need a copy of your CE certificate, please complete this form to obtain a copy: https://nacg.wufoo.com/forms/qfsln7r1twqpty/. Please note if the education event was more than 90 days ago, and a required evaluation was not completed, a certificate cannot be provided per the policy.
Grievance policy: Find the link to the NACG’s Continuing Education Grievance Policy HERE. Please complete THIS form to share a grievance with the NACG regarding a continuing education event.
