THE PROFESSION
How to Become a Grief Coach
There is no license required to become a grief coach, and no single mandated route.
In practice, the coaches who build credible, referable practices follow the same three steps: they get grief-specific training, they earn a board credential that verifies it, and they build a practice through referral relationships.
This page walks through each step, including whether you need a degree and how to get certified.
The profession
What does a grief coach do?
A grief coach supports people through loss in a non-clinical frame. That includes death and bereavement, and it also includes divorce, job loss, illness, estrangement, identity changes, and major life transitions. The work is about presence, structure, and forward movement, not diagnosis or treatment.
There is no license required to become a grief coach, and no single mandated route. In practice, the coaches who build credible, referable practices follow the same three steps: they get grief-specific training, they earn a board credential that verifies it, and they build a practice through referral relationships.
The three steps most grief coaches follow
This page walks through each step, including whether you need a degree and how to get certified. For a fuller picture of the work, where clients come from, and how coaches are compensated, see Grief Coaching as a Practice.
Step one
How do you get grief-specific training?
Through any reputable grief coaching program. There is no single required provider. What matters is that your training covers the competencies the profession expects: grief theory, coaching skill, scope of practice, ethics, and working with diverse and disenfranchised grief.
What counts as grief-specific training
You do not need a clinical degree to become a grief coach. Grief coaching is non-clinical, so it does not require the license or graduate degree that therapy and counseling do. What it does require is real skill: understanding how grief moves, holding space without steering, recognizing when someone needs clinical care, and staying inside a clear scope of practice.
Several reputable programs train grief coaches well. There is no single required program, and INBGC does not require its own. If you already hold general coaching training, grief-specific education is the piece that qualifies you to work with loss specifically.
How much training is required
Board certification through INBGC requires a minimum of documented grief-specific education covering six published topic areas. Education from more than one provider may be combined, and hours are counted in total, so continuing education, graduate coursework, and clinical training all count alongside a primary program.
General life coaching, general counseling, and unrelated professional training do not count toward the grief-specific minimum. See the full eligibility requirements.
Step two
How do you become a certified grief coach?
You earn a credential from an independent board by meeting its published standard. Through INBGC that means documenting documented grief-specific education and 25 verified practice hours, agreeing to a code of ethics, and passing a proctored Board Examination with at least 80 percent correct. The credential is maintained through annual renewal.
Training teaches you the work. Certification proves it to people who have never met you.
The grief coach title is unprotected. Anyone can claim it, with or without training, which means the title alone tells a client or referral partner nothing. Board certification is what closes that gap. An independent board reviews your qualifications, tests your competency, verifies your practice hours, and holds you to an ethics code and annual renewal.
What board certification requires
- documented grief-specific education from any qualified provider
- 25 verified practice hours with clients, documented without involving any client
- Agreement to the Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice
- A passing score on the Board Examination, at least 80 percent of items correct
The Board Examination is administered online through live remote proctoring, so you can become a certified grief coach from anywhere in the country. It moves you from a coach who claims a title to one who holds a credential a hospice, funeral home, employer, or clinician can verify before they refer.
For what changes in a practice once you hold the credential, see why grief coaches get board certified.
The two pathways
INBGC certifies grief coaches through two pathways that lead to the same credential. If you trained through another program, the Equivalency Path recognizes that training. If you want structured preparation first, the Curriculum Path prepares you for the same examination. The certification fee is $3,750 on both pathways, with the optional curriculum adding $1,250.
Step three
How do you build a grief coaching practice?
Through referral relationships, not advertising. Most grief coaches are found through the professionals and organizations grieving people already turn to: hospices, funeral homes, employers, Employee Assistance Programs, clinicians, and faith communities.
Where grief coaching clients come from
A credential opens doors. Building a practice is how you walk through them.
Those referral partners share one requirement. Before they send a grieving person to you, they need to verify that you meet a standard. A board credential is what makes that verification possible, which is why recognition matters more than marketing in this field.
Building a practice also means establishing your niche, connecting with referral partners, setting your rates, and deciding whether you work with individuals, groups, or organizations. Certification does not do this for you. It is what makes the outreach land.
The honest question
Do you need certification to be a grief coach?
No law requires it. But the people who send grieving clients to coaches generally do require a credential they can verify, because they are putting their own reputation behind the referral. Without one, a coach competes on their personal story alone.
With a credential, you compete on a standard the whole field can check.
Certification is not what makes you a grief coach. It is what makes you a referable one.
Requirements
Do you need a degree to become a grief coach?
No. Grief coaching is a non-clinical profession and does not require a clinical degree or license. It does call for grief-specific training and, to be referable, a verifiable credential.
Licensure applies to clinical roles such as counselor, social worker, and psychologist, and it carries the authority to diagnose and treat. Grief coaching does neither, so it falls outside the licensing system entirely. Board certification through INBGC has no degree requirement and no licensure requirement.
How to become a grief coach without a degree covers this in full, including what qualifies you instead and how to build credibility without a clinical background.
Backgrounds
Who becomes a grief coach?
Grief coaches come from many backgrounds: licensed clinicians, healthcare and hospice professionals, coaches adding a specialization, career changers with lived experience, and coaches already certified elsewhere seeking an independent credential. The path converges for all of them.
Licensed clinicians
Who want to offer grief support in a coaching, non-clinical frame, distinct from their clinical role.
Healthcare professionals
Such as nurses, hospice and palliative care staff, and social workers.
Coaches and practitioners
Adding a grief-specific specialization to an existing coaching practice.
New to the field
Entering grief work from another career, often with lived experience and no clinical degree.
Coaches already certified elsewhere
Seeking an independent board credential that verifies training they already hold.
Clergy and pastoral caregivers
Extending structured, accountable grief support beyond a faith setting.
Whatever the starting point, the path converges: training, certification, practice. Eligibility is based on documented training and professional background, not licensure, and it is the same for every background. Review the requirements.
Frequently asked questions
Next step
Get board certified
If you already have grief coaching training, the Equivalency Path recognizes it. If you are starting out, the Curriculum Path builds the foundation first. Creating your account takes about a minute and does not enroll or charge you.
To go deeper on the profession, see Grief Coaching as a Practice. To understand the credential and how to earn it, see the certification process and the published standards. To see how board certification differs from a training certificate, see Training Program vs. Certifying Board.