Frequently Asked Questions

INBGC is an independent credentialing board for grief coaches. It publishes the professional standard for non-clinical grief coaching, verifies competence through documented education, verified practice hours, and a proctored Board Examination, and holds certificants accountable through annual renewal and continuing education. It provides no foundational grief coach training, which is what allows it to review education from any provider without a stake in the outcome.

A credentialing board. Training programs teach skills and issue a certificate confirming the course was completed. INBGC sets the standard the field is measured against and tests whether an individual meets it. A coach who holds the BCGC has been through eligibility review, education review, verified practice, an ethics attestation, and a proctored examination.

The Advisory Board. It owns the standard, the six topic areas the Board Examination is built on, the scope of practice, the Code of Ethics, the continuing education requirements, and the passing threshold. It does not review individual candidate files. Program Administration applies the standard to each candidate and does not author the rules it enforces, so standard-setting stays separate from individual certification decisions. The seated members are published on the Advisory Board roster.

No. INBGC is independent of any training program, school, method, or franchise, and it sells no foundational grief coach training of its own. The body that administers the Board Examination has no financial interest in where a candidate studied.

In an unregulated field, "accredited" is used loosely and often describes a program that accredited itself. INBGC is not accredited by an outside body and does not pursue outside accreditation. It publishes the standard in full instead. Read the six topic areas, the Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice, and the passing threshold, and judge the credential against them directly rather than against a word on a sales page.

The term covers two different things. A coach with a certificate completed a training course, and the school that sold the course decides what the certificate means. A Board Certified Grief Coach has met the INBGC standard for grief-specific education, verified practice hours, ethics and scope of practice, and passed the proctored Board Examination. The designation is maintained through annual renewal and continued compliance with the published standard.

A certificate is issued by the training program you paid, and confirms you completed the course. Board certification is issued by a body that did not sell you the training, and verifies your education, your practice, and your knowledge against a published standard. A certificate is one-time. Board certification is maintained every year. See training program vs. certifying board.

All significant loss, not only death. That includes divorce and relationship endings, job loss and forced retirement, serious illness, estrangement, anticipatory grief, ambiguous loss, identity change, and major life transitions that carry an element of loss. Defining grief as bereavement alone is one of the most common errors in the field.

Separate examined credentials that suffix the base credential: BCGC-AC for ambiguous loss and caregiving, BCGC-RL for divorce and relationship dissolution, BCGC-CL for workplace and career loss, BCGC-AG for illness and anticipatory grief, and BCGC-PL for pet loss.

Each requires an active BCGC and a separate proctored Endorsement Examination. The BCGC stands alone and is the complete credential, a suffix never appears without an active base credential behind it, and a certificant holding more than one writes each in full.

Yes, by design. The credential renews annually and requires 30 hours of continuing education across a rolling three-year cycle. A credential that never has to be renewed says only what was true on the day it was issued. An active BCGC describes a coach's standing today.

No. Grief coaching is not a regulated profession in the United States. No license is required, no training is required, and no authority checks. Anyone may use the title tomorrow with no preparation at all. Board certification is the point at which someone independent has verified the education, the practice, and the knowledge behind the title.

Practitioners from many backgrounds, including coaches, licensed clinicians, healthcare professionals, clergy, social workers, funeral directors, and professionals entering grief work from another career. Eligibility rests on documented grief-specific education, verified practice, and the non-clinical frame of the work, not on licensure. Review the full eligibility requirements.

No. There is no degree requirement and no licensure requirement for board certification. It is built for coaches and helping professionals who support grieving clients in a non-clinical capacity. Licensed clinicians are welcome and certify as coaches operating within a non-clinical frame.

INBGC sets no minimum number of instructional hours. What is reviewed is whether your grief-specific education covers the six published topic areas, and education from more than one qualified provider may be combined. Competence is demonstrated on the proctored Board Examination.

Yes, and the process is built for it. Program Administration reviews the education you already hold against the six topic areas and the published eligibility requirements. Training from any qualified provider may qualify. If you are unsure whether yours does, write to [email protected] before applying.

No. INBGC does not provide foundational grief coach training at all, on either path or at any price. Every candidate brings grief-specific education obtained elsewhere and sits the Board Examination on that preparation. The only education INBGC sells is specialty education inside the Specialty Path, and it covers a defined specialty rather than the foundations.

The Certification Path at $3,750 is the route to the BCGC. The Specialty Path at $5,000 covers the same ground and adds specialty education in an area you choose plus a second proctored examination, so you finish holding the BCGC and a specialty endorsement.

Neither path includes foundational grief coach training. Both include application and eligibility review, education review, one Practice Exam attempt, the proctored Board Examination, verified practice hours review, and your first year of certification. See how certification works.

Yes. You do not need to hold the BCGC before purchasing the Specialty Path. You earn the BCGC inside the path, then sit the Endorsement Examination for the specialty credential. The BCGC is always issued first.

You may also certify at $3,750 and add a specialty later for $1,250, which reaches the same $5,000 total. A certificant adding a specialty later does not repeat eligibility review, the ethics attestation, or the verified practice hours.

No, and that is deliberate. Specialty content never appears on the Board Examination. The Endorsement Examination draws from its own item bank, and equivalent specialty education is accepted from any provider, so a coach who prepared elsewhere sits the identical examination. Buying anything from INBGC confers no advantage on any examination it administers.

Complete grief-specific education with any qualified provider, then confirm you meet the eligibility requirements and apply. You document your education and your verified practice hours, agree to the Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice, take the included Practice Exam, and sit the proctored Board Examination. Once credentialed, you maintain active certification through annual renewal and continuing education.

Most of the timeline is within your control. There is no cohort schedule and no enrollment window, so a candidate moves as quickly as they assemble their documentation and sit their Board Examination. The Specialty Path takes longer, because it includes specialty education and a second examination.

The two things that most often slow a candidate down are gathering practice hour documentation and closing a gap in one of the six topic areas.

Applied judgment, not memorized definitions. The Board Examination presents standardized scenario-based items that ask you to reason through real practice situations: scope judgment, referral decisions, ethical reasoning, and applied grief knowledge across the six topic areas. Board certification independently verifies that a practitioner has met published standards for grief-specific education, applied knowledge, verified practice hours, ethics, scope, and professional judgment.

80 percent, across six equally weighted topic areas, so no area counts for more than another. The passing standard is criterion-referenced, which means it measures competence against the published standard rather than performance relative to other candidates. No candidate is competing for a limited number of credentials.

A desktop or laptop computer with a working webcam and microphone, permission to run the proctoring software on that device, a stable internet connection, a private space for the full duration, and a valid government-issued photo ID. Tablets and phones are not supported by the proctoring platform.

Employer-managed and institution-issued computers often block software installation. If your only computer is a work machine, confirm this before you register.

With your signed attestation plus one supporting record. That record may be scheduling documentation such as calendar exports, booking reports, or invoicing records, or a signed confirmation from a supervisor, employer, mentor, or colleague with direct knowledge of your grief coaching work. A minimum of 50 verified practice hours is required.

Through documentation and professional attestation. No client session is ever recorded, submitted, or reviewed, and no client is contacted or asked to participate at any point. Confidentiality holds throughout, and the standard remains verifiable because the record comes from scheduling systems and named professionals rather than from clients.

Every attempt returns a topic-area score report showing exactly where to focus. You may retake the Board Examination after a minimum 30-day waiting period for $375 per attempt, up to three attempts in any 12-month period. After three unsuccessful attempts, you reapply.

An unsuccessful attempt is not a refund event. The examination has been administered and the attempt is complete. The score report is designed to make the next attempt a stronger one.

The Certification Path is $3,750. The Specialty Path is $5,000, which adds specialty education and the Endorsement Examination. A certificant adding a specialty later pays $1,250, reaching the same $5,000 total. Board Examination retakes are $375 per attempt. Additional Practice Exam attempts are $125. Annual renewal is $495. Full details are on the fees and policies page.

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.

It does not include foundational grief coach training, which INBGC does not provide. Practice resources are free to every certificant and are not part of the fee. They cover referral mechanics, approaching institutions, explaining scope, and being independently verifiable.

All fees paid to INBGC are non-refundable. This applies to the fee on both paths, additional Practice Exam attempts, Board Examination retakes, and annual renewal, including amounts paid under a payment plan and fees paid by an employer.

Every requirement and every fee is published in advance. Review the eligibility requirements and the fees and policies page in full before you submit payment, and write to Program Administration with any question beforehand.

The fee pays for a process rather than an outcome. Eligibility review, education review, examination administration, and credentialing are carried out when a candidate engages them, and that work is complete whether or not the credential is awarded.

It is also part of what keeps a credential meaningful. A board that refunded candidates who did not meet its standard would be under pressure to lower that standard.

Your candidacy continues and the fee you have already paid stands. Program Administration identifies exactly what is outstanding, and you may complete it through any qualified provider. There is no deadline and no penalty.

No candidate who has paid is left without a path to the credential. If you are unsure whether your education and practice hours meet the published requirements, write to [email protected] before you apply.

Yes, billed directly by INBGC with no third-party financing and no credit application. The Certification Path plan is $975 down, then three monthly payments of $975, totaling $3,900. The Specialty Path plan is $1,300 down, then three monthly payments of $1,300, totaling $5,200. The premium of roughly four percent over paying in full is the cost of financing.

Employers may also fund the fee directly or through reimbursement, and itemized invoices are available for a finance office. Review the funding options.

The INBGC Access Award reduces the certification fee for coaches serving communities with limited access to grief support. The award reduces the fee and never the standard. Recipients complete the same eligibility review, the same verified practice requirement, and the same Board Examination at the same passing threshold as every other candidate.

The credential renews annually. Renewal requires the $495 annual fee, the annual ethics attestation confirming continued compliance with the Code of Ethics, and continuing education completed across a three-year cycle.

$495 per year. Your first year of certification is included in the certification fee, so your first renewal falls more than twelve months after you are certified.

30 hours across every rolling three-year cycle. At least 6 hours in ethics, scope of practice, and risk and referral. At least 4 hours in grief across diverse and disenfranchised populations. The remaining 20 hours in any grief-related topic area. See the full requirements.

No. Continuing education may be completed through any qualified provider, including professional associations, universities, hospice and palliative care organizations, and grief training programs. INBGC does not require certificants to buy continuing education from the board.

A credential that is not renewed by the renewal date becomes inactive, and the BCGC designation may not be used until it is reinstated. An inactive credential does not carry a specialty endorsement. Write to [email protected] for reinstatement requirements.

Ask the coach for their credential number and enter it in the INBGC registry. It returns the name on the credential and whether it is active and in good standing. Lookup is by credential number, and the registry is not searchable by name.

Organizations that maintain credentialing files can request formal written verification from Program Administration at [email protected]. Both routes are free, neither involves the coach, and referral partners are never charged for anything.

Active means the coach has met all renewal and ethics attestation requirements, and the BCGC designation is in good standing and may be used. Expired means the credential lapsed through non-renewal and the designation may not be used until it is reinstated. Revoked means the credential was withdrawn following an ethics review and the designation may not be used.

A certificate image or a claim on a website confirms nothing about current standing. A credential can lapse and it can be revoked. Confirming with the issuing board establishes that the certification is active today, which is what a referral relationship depends on.

The grief coach title is unprotected, so anyone may use it regardless of training. Verifying with the board is how a referral partner tells the difference.

Grief coaching is non-clinical. A Board Certified Grief Coach does not diagnose, treat, prescribe, provide psychotherapy, or serve as crisis intervention, and is bound by the Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice, which requires referral to licensed or emergency care at published indicators including risk of harm to self or others, complicated or prolonged grief, acute psychiatric symptoms, substance use requiring licensed care, and trauma requiring clinical treatment.

The referral partners page covers the scope boundaries, the referral indicators, and the verification process in one place.

Yes, at no cost. The standard is published in full and free to read, cite, or reference. Any hospice, health system, funeral home, chaplaincy network, employee assistance program, or therapist practice may build it into their own referral or vetting criteria without permission and without payment. Sample language is provided on the referral partners page.

Referral partners are never charged for anything, and they never set the standard they reference.