THE PATH
How to become board certified in grief care
Board certification in grief care, which is non-clinical grief support, is open to anyone who does this work, whatever their title. You bring grief-specific education from any qualified provider, document your practice, and sit the Board Examination. Start with the path that matches your background.
Board certification in grief care, which is non-clinical grief support, is open to anyone who does this work, whatever their title. Grief coaches, bereavement coordinators, chaplains, funeral aftercare staff, nurses, social workers, and licensed clinicians all follow the same Certification Path and are held to the same published standard.
Start with the page for your background, or read on for what certification requires, what it costs, and what comes with it.
Your starting point
Start with your background
The requirements are the same for everyone. What differs is what you already hold and what you may need to add. Each page below explains how the path applies to your background.
Licensed clinicians
Counselors, therapists, social workers, and psychologists who provide non-clinical grief support alongside their clinical role. The credential does not certify clinical practice.
Healthcare professionals
Nurses, hospice and palliative care staff, and bereavement coordinators who support grieving patients and families.
Clergy and pastoral caregivers
Chaplains, clergy, and pastoral caregivers whose grief work needs to be verifiable outside their tradition.
Coaches and practitioners
Coaches and other practitioners adding a grief-specific focus to an existing practice.
Trained elsewhere
Practitioners who hold a grief training certificate and want an independent board credential that verifies it.
New to the field
People entering grief support from another career, often with lived experience and no clinical background.
The requirements
What does board certification require?
Documented grief-specific education, 50 verified practice hours of non-clinical grief support, attestation to the Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice, and a passing result on the proctored Board Examination. The credential is Board Certified in Grief Care (BCGC), maintained through annual renewal.
Education teaches you the work. Certification lets people who have never met you verify it.
- Grief-specific education from any qualified provider, reviewed against the six published topic areas.
- 50 verified practice hours of non-clinical grief support provided to grieving people, documented by your signed attestation and one supporting record. Group sessions count when they can be verified, and clinical treatment hours do not count. No client session is ever recorded or reviewed, and no client participates in the process.
- Attestation to the Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice, reaffirmed at every renewal.
- A passing result on the Board Examination, at 80 percent across six equally weighted topic areas.
The whole process is remote. The Board Examination is administered online through remote proctoring with identity verification, so you can certify from anywhere in the country. Once certified, anyone you give your credential number to can confirm your standing in the INBGC registry.
For what the credential changes, see why get board certified in grief care. For the full process, see how certification works.
Step one
What grief-specific education counts?
Education from any qualified provider that covers the six published topic areas. Education from more than one source may be combined, and INBGC sets no minimum number of instructional hours.
Your education needs to cover grief theory, the non-clinical frame and its skills, scope of practice and referral, ethics, and working with diverse and disenfranchised grief. Continuing education, graduate coursework, Clinical Pastoral Education, and clinical training in grief and bereavement can all count alongside a primary program.
INBGC does not train
INBGC does not provide foundational grief support training at any price. That separation is what allows the board to review education from any provider without a stake in the outcome. If there is a gap in one topic area, Program Administration tells you which one, and you close it through any qualified provider.
General life coaching, general counseling, and unrelated professional training do not count toward the grief-specific requirement on their own. See the full eligibility requirements, or read the six topic areas.
Requirements
Do you need a degree or a license?
No. Board certification has no degree requirement and no licensure requirement. Eligibility rests on documented grief-specific education and verified practice, and it is the same for every background.
Licensed clinicians may certify for the non-clinical part of their work, and the credential does not certify clinical practice. Practitioners without a clinical background are held to exactly the same standard. Individual employers may set their own requirements above that, so read each job posting closely.
Fees
What does board certification cost?
The certification fee is $1,295, or three payments of $450 totaling $1,350, and it includes your first year of certification. Annual renewal is $125 after that. Grief-specific education is a separate cost paid to whichever provider you choose.
Covers application and eligibility review, education review against the six topic areas, one Practice Exam attempt with a topic-area breakdown, the proctored Board Examination, verified practice hours review, credential issuance, and your first year of certification.
The fee is the same whatever your title, setting, or where you trained. All fees are non-refundable, with a limited exception for withdrawal before review begins.
Cost a barrier? The INBGC Access Award reduces the certification fee at three tiers. It reduces the fee and never the standard. See fees and policies and funding options.
After certification
What comes with the credential?
Registry standing anyone can check, group rates on professional liability coverage through INBGC's insurance partners, and inclusion in Find a Grief Coach while your credential is Active.
Every certificant is issued a credential number. Anyone you give it to can confirm your name and whether your credential is Active, Expired, or Revoked in the INBGC registry, free and without involving you. Active certificants are included in Find a Grief Coach, where individuals can submit a request for support.
The board's Public Resource Center is free to everyone, whether or not they are certified. An optional Advanced Resource Center is $99 per month, month to month, and is not included in certification or renewal. See the resource centers.
The credential does not place clients with you and makes no claim about what a practice will earn. It makes your preparation something others can confirm.
Common questions
Next step
Get board certified
Bring the grief-specific education you already hold, and the Certification Path takes it from there. Creating your account takes about a minute and does not enroll or charge you. You choose how you pay in the next step.