Grief Companion Program Winter 2027

(International Coaching Federation approved 39 CCE credits)

The Grief Companion Program is a gathering place for the heart and soul. I launched it in 2020 out of a desire to help us re-imagine our relationship with grief and loss, as something whole, human, and shared. This program is for coaches, helping professionals, and anyone called to accompany the bereaved through life’s hardest transitions. If you want to become more at home with death, dying, and the art of companioning, you belong here.

About me

This work comes from years of sitting with people in their hardest moments. I am an experienced Integral Master Coach, accredited with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) as a professional coach, a Certified Thanatologist (CT), and I remain a student of thanatology. I wrote Grief Unleashed to honour the lived experience of the bereaved and to provide language and healing practices to soothe broken hearts. It’s from this place that I offer grief coaching and teaching the art of companioning.

How the program unfolds

The program unfolds in two stages. The first three sessions, we build a steady foundation that strengthens your capacity to be present with those suffering loss. In the second stage, we practice meeting your own life losses with grace, and learning to bear witness to others with skill and compassion. Come as you are. We’ll do the grief work together.

Grief and Loss Foundations

Here we lay the ground beneath your feet. You’ll become familiar with key bereavement theories, find new language for grief and loss, honour the many ways people cope, explore the myths that keep us stuck, and come to understand complicated grief. Along the way you’ll receive:

• An intake session with me, followed by three foundational sessions

• Key bereavement teachings

• Reflection questions to carry with you between sessions

• Conversations with your peers

• Practices to help it all settle in

The Companioning Way

Here we tend the heart of a grief companion. Through honest conversations, contemporary grief theory, healing rituals, and ongoing practices that deepen your grief and loss literacy, you’ll learn to carry this work in your body as well as your mind and heart. Along the way, you’ll receive:

• Five group sessions

• Practices and resources curated to accompany you between sessions

• Readings to deepen your understanding

• Peer-to-peer conversations between sessions that help the teachings take root

• A completion coaching session with me, to honour what you’ve lived and learned

• A certificate of completion

What you will receive:

• A conversation before and after: Two 1:1 conversations with me, to explore a life loss you want to tend

• A gift to nourish you: A special package, including a signed copy of my book Grief Unleashed: Moving from the Hole in our Hearts to Whole-Hearted

• A shared language for grief: A psychometric tool that helps us come to our grief in an embodied way

• Eight communal conversations: Spacious gatherings that open different doorways into grief and loss (all sessions are from 11:00 to 15:00 EST)

• Practices to carry with you: Curated invitations to stay close to your grief between sessions to support integration of course concepts

• Six small groups circles: Time with other participants to practice and sharpen your companioning skills

• A collection to return to: Poems, songs, and readings to help it all settle in

• 39 CCE credits approved by the International Coaching Federation

  You won’t do this alone. We’ll walk this journey together.

What participants are saying:

“The Grief Unleashed experience has expanded my awareness of my own grief and loss and how I related to it. I feel more capable of companioning others, in large part because Dina models a way of being in this experience that has us witnessing how we might be with others when they are grieving. We aren’t simply talking about grief, we are living through it, together. I feel more curious, more capable to explore my own grief and am more confident to walk alongside others as a companion.” Stephanie Potter, Integral Master Coach

“Exploring this space with Dina was an honor and a gift.  Dina has a unique and differentiated way of simultaneously leading and walking beside, sitting with you in everything so you never feel alone.  There’s no one I’d rather companion me on this journey.  Thanks to Dina and Grief Unleashed, I’ve seen the depths of my grief and the heights of my joy, opening myself to the idea of a fully-lived life. Thanks to Dina, I’ve finally surrendered to the notion that grief is beautiful and healthy and all around us, a shared experience and shared language I can use if I simply shed the fear and allow it in.” Whitney Schmiesing, Google Account Executive

Dina’s blend of expertise and empathy created a safe and enriching environment for learning about grief. The Grief Companion Program was a truly transformative experience, and I am grateful for the supportive space Dina cultivated, which made it possible to learn, share, and grow. The small group format allowed for meaningful discussions and personal growth. I highly recommend Dina to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of grief and how to support others. Lori Bickel, Spiritual Guide