STANDARDS
Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice
These standards govern the professional conduct of every holder of the Board Certified in Grief Care (BCGC) credential issued by the Independent National Board for Grief Certification. Attestation to these standards is a condition of certification, and ongoing compliance is required to maintain active certification.
Version 1.6, effective September 2026 | Maintained by the INBGC Advisory Board
Grief coaching is one form of non-clinical grief support. This page sets out the scope of practice and the Code of Ethics every certificant attests to, including where the work ends and when a certificant must refer to licensed or emergency care.
Scope of practice
What does the scope of practice cover?
Non-clinical grief support, including grief coaching, is a professional service that helps people through loss, transition, and significant life change. It is present- and future-focused, grounded in the person's own strengths, capacity for meaning-making, and ability to adapt. Grief is not limited to death and bereavement.
Under the INBGC standard, grief is the natural human response to any significant loss or unwanted change. The scope of practice includes support for clients experiencing:
- Death of a person or pet
- Estrangement from family, community, or identity
- Divorce and relationship endings
- Anticipatory grief
- Job loss, career transition, or forced retirement
- Ambiguous loss
- Serious illness, their own or a loved one's
- Major life transitions that carry an element of loss
Scope of practice
What do certificants provide?
A structured, confidential relationship focused on adjustment, meaning, and life after loss. The work is non-clinical, and it includes recognizing risk and referring to licensed or emergency care when a person's needs call for it.
- A structured, confidential space for clients to process loss and transition
- Presence and witnessing, without steering a client toward a particular way of grieving
- Accurate, general education about grief responses and adaptive coping
- Goal-setting and support related to adjustment and life after loss
- Assistance with meaning-making, identity, and re-engagement
- Recognition of warning signs that call for clinical or emergency support, and help connecting the client to that support
- Resources and referrals to additional professional support when appropriate
Scope of practice
What is outside the scope of practice?
Non-clinical grief support is not clinical practice. A certificant does not diagnose, treat, prescribe, provide psychotherapy, assess clinical risk, or serve as crisis intervention in that role, and does not present as a licensed clinician unless separately licensed.
Certificants do not:
- Diagnose mental health conditions, including Prolonged Grief Disorder
- Prescribe medication or advise on medication a client is taking
- Provide psychotherapy, clinical counseling, or trauma treatment
- Assess the level of a client's suicide or self-harm risk, or provide crisis intervention or emergency mental health care
- Treat Prolonged Grief Disorder or any other clinical presentation
- Provide legal, financial, or estate planning services
- Practice as a licensed counselor, therapist, or clinician, unless they hold separate licensure for those professions
Scope of practice
Where is the boundary between non-clinical support and clinical practice?
Non-clinical grief support, including grief coaching, and grief therapy are distinct services. Non-clinical support helps with adjustment, meaning, and quality of life going forward. Clinical treatment addresses psychological disorders, trauma, and conditions that require a licensed professional.
A certificant recognizes when a person's needs exceed the non-clinical scope and responds accordingly. A certificant also does not pathologize grief, and does not treat a normal grief response as a condition to be corrected. Knowing where non-clinical support ends and clinical care begins is a core competence of the credential, and it is examined directly on the Board Examination.
Prolonged Grief Disorder is a recognized clinical diagnosis. Grief that is intense, long-lasting, or difficult is not, by itself, a disorder. A coach does not decide which is which. When a client's grief presents with features consistent with Prolonged Grief Disorder, the coach refers to a licensed professional for assessment and continues in-scope coaching only with appropriate coordination. This standard uses the term Prolonged Grief Disorder whenever it refers to the diagnosable condition, and it uses plain language for grief that is simply hard.
Scope of practice
How does a certificant respond to signs of suicide, self-harm, or acute risk?
A certificant is required to recognize warning signs of suicide, self-harm, and other acute concerns, and to connect the person to clinical or emergency support without delay. Recognizing and escalating is within scope. Assessing the level of risk, and treating it, is not.
People in grief experience significant distress, and some will be at risk. A certificant providing non-clinical support is not acting as a clinician and is never asked to. A certificant is asked to notice, to take what they notice seriously, and to act on it.
What a certificant is required to recognize
- Talk of wanting to die, of not wanting to be here, or of being a burden to others
- Hopelessness, feeling trapped, or seeing no reason to go on
- Withdrawal from people and activities, giving away possessions, or saying goodbye
- Marked increases in substance use, agitation, or reckless behavior
- Disclosure of self-harm, of a plan, or of access to means
- Statements or behavior suggesting risk of harm to another person
What a certificant is required to do
- Ask directly and calmly whether the person is thinking about suicide or harming themselves. Asking does not create risk
- Stay with the person, in the room or on the line, until they are connected to support
- Connect the person to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by call or text, to 911 or local emergency services where danger is immediate, or to the person's own clinician where one is already involved
- Follow the confidentiality limits set out in the informed agreement, which permit disclosure to prevent serious harm
- Consult a licensed professional afterward where possible, document what was observed and what action was taken, and follow up with the client
- Keep the crisis resources for their own area written into their client agreement and readily at hand
A coach does not determine how serious a risk is, does not decide that a disclosure can safely be managed within coaching, and does not treat the underlying condition. Those judgments belong to licensed and emergency professionals. The coach's obligation is to recognize the sign, connect the person to that help, and remain a steady presence while it happens. A coach who is unsure whether a sign is serious treats it as serious.
Scope of practice
When must a certificant refer to a licensed professional?
A certificant must refer a person to appropriate licensed or emergency care when they present with indicators that exceed the non-clinical scope. Referral does not require ending the support relationship.
Referral is required when a client presents with:
- Risk of harm to self or others, escalated immediately to emergency or crisis support as set out above
- Substance use requiring licensed care
- Features consistent with Prolonged Grief Disorder
- Trauma requiring clinical treatment
- Acute psychiatric symptoms, or symptoms consistent with clinical depression or an anxiety disorder
- Any presentation the coach is not qualified to address
A responsible referral names the limits of non-clinical support, provides appropriate resources, and helps the person connect to care rather than leaving them without support. A certificant maintains a current list of licensed and community resources in the areas they serve, and seeks consultation from a licensed professional when the right course is unclear.
Referral does not require ending the coaching relationship. A coach may continue to provide in-scope coaching alongside clinical treatment, with appropriate coordination and with the client's consent to any exchange of information.
Code of ethics
What are the fourteen ethical principles?
Fourteen principles define the professional obligations of every certificant. They apply to all professional relationships, communications, marketing, and public conduct, in person and online, and attestation to them is a condition of certification. Not knowing a principle is not a defense to a complaint under it.
A coach practices grief coaching as non-clinical support. They do not diagnose, treat, assess clinical risk, or prescribe for any condition, and they do not represent grief coaching as therapy or clinical care. Where a coach also holds a clinical license, a person is a coaching client or a clinical client, and the coach does not hold both roles with the same person at once.
A coach practices only within the limits of their education, training, and experience, accepts only work they are qualified to do, and maintains competence through continuing education grounded in current grief and bereavement knowledge rather than personal experience alone.
A coach places the well-being of the client first, supports the client's own grief process, and does not impose beliefs, timelines, or outcomes on how a person should grieve. A coach does not exploit a grieving person's vulnerability for any purpose.
A coach respects the dignity, autonomy, and self-determination of every client, presents options rather than directing choices, and works in partnership with the client rather than in authority over them. A coach takes into account a person's capacity to give consent, and observes the additional care and legal requirements that apply when working with minors.
Before the work begins, a coach sets out in writing what grief coaching is and is not, the limits of the coach's role, the fees and how they may change, the limits of confidentiality, the crisis resources the client can use between sessions, and any risks to privacy in remote or electronic delivery. Where a third party pays for or requests coaching, the relationships of everyone involved are clarified and agreed in advance.
A coach treats all information arising in the coaching relationship as confidential, makes its limits clear, and discloses without consent only to prevent serious harm or where required by law, and then only what is relevant and only to appropriate others. Records are kept secure, retained as applicable law requires, and disguised or used only with consent in any teaching, writing, or public speaking. No session is recorded or observed by a third party without the client's informed consent for that purpose.
A coach maintains clear professional boundaries and avoids multiple relationships that could impair judgment or risk exploitation. A coach does not enter into romantic or sexual relationships with clients or their close family members, does not use the coaching relationship to advance personal, business, religious, or political interests, does not solicit another professional's clients, and neither offers, seeks, nor accepts payment of any kind for referrals.
A coach serves clients without discrimination on any basis and approaches every client's grief with cultural humility, including grief that is marginalized, unacknowledged, or disenfranchised. Where a coach cannot serve a person, the coach makes an appropriate referral.
A coach recognizes warning signs of suicide, self-harm, and other acute risk to the client or to others, asks directly, takes what they hear seriously, and connects the person to clinical or emergency support without delay, remaining present until that connection is made. A coach does not assess the level of risk or treat it.
A coach recognizes when a client's needs fall outside the non-clinical coaching scope, including features consistent with Prolonged Grief Disorder, trauma, substance use requiring licensed care, or other clinical conditions, and refers to licensed care. A coach keeps referral resources current and seeks consultation from a licensed professional when the right course is unclear.
A coach attends to their own grief and well-being, is aware of how their own losses may affect their work, and does not practice when personal difficulty or impairment is likely to compromise their competence. In that situation the coach seeks their own support and reduces or pauses their caseload, and does not bring their own grief into the client's session.
A coach does not abandon a client. When coaching is not benefiting a client, when the coach can no longer provide the service, or when the relationship ends for any reason, the coach names it honestly, prepares the client, and helps them connect to suitable support. A coach makes provision for the secure handling of client records if their practice closes or they become unable to continue.
A coach represents their credentials, education, experience, and scope accurately, corrects any misrepresentation made about them by others, does not use the BCGC designation while the credential is lapsed or revoked, makes no claim to heal, cure, or treat, and does not use fear, urgency, or a grieving person's distress to sell services. When speaking publicly, a coach makes clear whether they speak for themselves or for an organization, and never for the board.
A coach treats colleagues and professionals in other disciplines with respect, cooperates with the licensed professionals involved in a client's care, and reports a serious violation of this Code by another certificant through the published process rather than publicly. A coach complies with INBGC's standards, continuing education, and renewal requirements, cooperates with any review, and is subject to the published process for addressing complaints and violations.
Where this Code sets a higher standard of conduct than the law or another code a coach is subject to, the coach meets the higher standard. Where it conflicts with the law, the coach follows the law and raises the conflict with Program Administration.
Accountability
How are ethics concerns reported and reviewed?
Anyone may submit a concern about a certificant's conduct. Reports are reviewed confidentially by Program Administration. Where a violation is found, outcomes range from guidance to revocation of certification, and certificants have a right of appeal.
Report a concern
Anyone may submit a concern about a certificant's conduct that may violate this Code of Ethics. Reports are submitted in writing to ethics@inbgc.org. There is no cost to report.
Review process
Reports are received and reviewed confidentially by Program Administration, which may request additional information as needed. A person raising a concern is asked whether their name may be shared with the certificant before any part of the report is put to them.
Outcomes
Where a violation is found, outcomes include guidance, a warning, probation, suspension, or revocation of certification, in accordance with the published enforcement process.
Appeals
Certificants have the right to appeal a decision in accordance with the published appeals process and timeline.
This process applies to certificants. INBGC has no authority over a practitioner who does not hold the credential. There is no license for grief coaching, so there is no body to report to unless the practitioner has voluntarily accepted one. If you are unsure whether someone holds the credential, ask for their credential number and enter it in the INBGC registry.
A revoked credential may not be used at all. Anyone holding a certificant's credential number can confirm current status in the registry at no cost, and institutions that maintain credentialing files can request formal written verification from Program Administration at verify@inbgc.org.
Accountability
Is attestation to these standards enforceable?
Yes. Attestation to this Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice is a documented condition of board certification, reaffirmed at every annual credential renewal, and enforceable through the credentialing process up to revocation.
Before certification
Every candidate reviews and attests to these standards before the credential is awarded. The attestation is recorded with the candidate's file rather than acknowledged in passing.
Every year after
Every certificant affirms continued compliance annually as part of credential renewal. A certificant whose conduct raises a concern may be reviewed at any point in the credential term.
This Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice forms part of the INBGC professional standard for non-clinical grief support, Version 1.7, effective October 2026. Revisions are published at this address with a version number and effective date so that the version an organization cites remains identifiable.
Common questions
Next step
See what certification requires
These are the standards every certificant attests to. If you are considering certification, the next step is confirming you meet the published eligibility requirements.