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Barefoot Coaching’s Certificate in Coaching for Grief & Loss

  • A pioneering programme for coaches to navigate grief and loss with skill, confidence and compassion.
  • Gain practical tools and insight from decades of psychological and coaching experience.
  • Learn from expert tutors with diverse, real-world backgrounds in grief and loss.
  • Earn 40 ICF CCE Points to support your ongoing coach development.

Now Enrolling

October 2025 Cohort

14th October to 17th December


February 2026 Cohort

11th February to 23rd April

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Apply Now
40 CCE Points

Certification

40 ICF CCE Points (Application in progress)

Barefoot badge to showcase your credibility as a Barefoot-trained Coach for Grief & Loss.

Course Delivery

Online Sessions

12 x 4-hour sessions over 8 weeks via Zoom, led by Barefoot Founder Kim Morgan, alongside an expert tutor line up.

Fees

£3,500 (Inc VAT)

VAT added for corporately funded places.

Support clients through grief with confidence.

This programme has been designed for coaches who want to deepen their capacity to support existing clients through life’s inevitable losses – and also for those who wish to offer dedicated coaching in grief and loss.

Grief comes in many forms – not just bereavement, but also divorce, estrangement, redundancy, diagnosis, moving home or moving country, ageing, changes in health, changes in finances and more. This course honours that complexity. It blends psychological theory, lived experience, coaching practice and reflective enquiry to help you meet your clients – and yourself – with empathy, knowledge, and courage.

Grief and Loss
Guide to Grief and Loss

There is no definitive guidebook for grief.

Grief is different for everyone. It would be nice if there was something we could follow in a sequential way, but there isn’t.

What we know is that support helps. Early support helps although grievers are often too preoccupied to seek help sooner and talking about it can be too painful. Dealing with admin, finances, legal, medical, property issues often accompany a loss.

This programme has been developed to support coaches in becoming some of those guides. Our aim is to educate and inform coaches, so that they feel equipped to support others who are navigating the many faces of grief, not just bereavement, but grief in all its forms: the loss of relationships, identity, health, home, hopes, and imagined futures.

Kim Morgan, Barefoot Coaching Founder

Kim Morgan, Barefoot Coaching Founder

MCC, Supervisor, Author, Speaker, Certified Grief Educator and Grief Recovery Specialist

“Grief shakes our sense of how the world works. It challenges our belief that life is fair, predictable or within our control. As coaches, I believe we need to be ready to walk alongside people through all kinds of grief – not just bereavement, but the loss of identity, health, home, relationships, hopes and imagined futures.”

Everything You Need To Know:

This programme is for coaches who understand that grief is not a niche topic – it’s a universal human experience. Whether your clients are navigating bereavement, loss of identity, health challenges, or major life transitions like divorce, redundancy or relocation, this course will equip you to support them with skill and care.

You might already be encountering grief in your coaching conversations and want to feel more confident and prepared. Or you may feel called to specialise in grief and loss as an area of focus. This course is for both.

It’s also for coaches who recognise that effective grief support isn’t about having the right answers. It’s about holding space – listening deeply, showing up with compassion, and helping others find meaning in their own time and way.

Through psychological theory, practical coaching tools, and reflective enquiry, you’ll learn how to accompany others through grief—without trying to fix or rescue. You’ll also have space to reflect on your own experiences and deepen your emotional resilience.

If you want to be a steadier presence for your clients in times of loss and uncertainty, this programme is for you.

This programme will give you the confidence, knowledge and sensitivity to support clients through grief, loss and life’s many transitions. You’ll explore key psychological and grief models while developing the ability to be present, compassionate and steady – without needing to fix.

Through hands-on coaching practice, reflective enquiry and expert guidance, you’ll grow your capacity to support others through bereavement, identity loss, health changes, and more.

You’ll also receive 40 ICF CCE points (application in progress) and a copy of our Distillers of Knowledge: Coaching for Grief and Loss book.

On this programme, you’ll learn to support others through grief with empathy, psychological insight and practical coaching skills.

You’ll explore how loss affects identity, relationships and purpose, and how grief can show up in many forms — not just bereavement, but also change, uncertainty and transition.

You’ll gain the confidence to hold steady, compassionate space for others, and offer support that is grounded, sensitive and meaningful.

What you will cover:

  • Understanding Grief and Loss
  • Stages, Timelines, Hierarchies and Responses in Grief
  • The Genogram and Intergenerational Loss
  • Cognitive Conversations
  • Turning Towards the Reality of What Has Happened
  • Oscillating Nature of Grief 
  • Grief of Family Estrangement
  • The Five Gates of Grief 
  • Ancestral Loss
  • The Grief and Loss of Divorce or Separation
  • Feelings in Grief and Creative Expression
  • Journalling for Grief and Wellness
  • An Existential Buddhist Perspective on Grief
  • Grief and the Brain & Grief in the Workplace
  • Ending, Celebration, and Next Steps

All sessions take place between 9:30am and 1:30pm, and are hosted on Zoom.


October 2025 Cohort

Module One

Session One: 14th October 2025

Session Two: 15th October 2025

Session Three: 21st October 2025

Session Four: 22nd October 2025

Module Two

Session Five: 11th November 2025

Session Six: 12th November 2025

Session Seven: 18th November 2025

Session Eight: 20h November 2025

Module Three

Session Nine: 9th December 2025

Session Ten: 10th December 2025

Session Eleven: 16th December 2025

Session Twelve: 17th December 2025


February 2026 Cohort

Module One

Session One: 11th February 2026

Session Two: 12th February 2026

Session Three: 25th February 2026

Session Four: 26th February 2026

Module Two

Session Five: 18th March 2026

Session Six: 19th March 2026

Session Seven: 25th March 2026

Session Eight: 26th March 2026

Module Three

Session Nine: 15th April 2026

Session Ten: 16th April 2026

Session Eleven: 22nd April 2026

Session Twelve: 23rd April 2026

Personally funded:
£3,500 including VAT

Corporately funded:
£3,500 plus VAT

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Meet the Tutor Team

Learn from expert tutors with diverse, real-world backgrounds in grief and loss.

Kim Morgan, Barefoot Coaching Founder

Kim Morgan

Coach, Author, Speaker, Certified Grief Educator & Grief Recovery Specialist

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Julie Stokes OBE

Julie Stokes OBE

Clinical Psychologist, Founder of Winston’s Wish & Bear Us In Mind

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Claire Breeze

Claire Genkai Breeze

Ordained Zen Buddhist, Writer, Zen Supervisor for Coaches

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Jackee Holder

Jackee Holder

Leadership Coach, Author, Ordained Interfaith Minister

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Helen Fitness

Helen Fitness

Life & Leadership Coach specialising in Loss & Cultural Reconnection

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Karl Melvin

Karl Melvin

Psychotherapist specialising in Family Estrangement & Rejection

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Danielle Barbereau

Danielle Barbereau

Specialist Divorce Coach, Author of ‘After The Split’

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Stephen Regel

Stephen Regel OBE

Professor Psychotherapist, Founder, Centre for Trauma, & Author

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Ready to Apply?​

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Looking for a lighter introduction to coaching for grief and loss?

If you’re curious about working with grief, loss or life’s many transitions but not ready for the full certificate, our short course is a great place to start. You’ll explore practical tools and psychological insights to support clients through change — whether planned or unexpected, welcome or not. A thoughtful, accessible first step for coaches looking to grow their confidence in this area.

Learn More
Learn More
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Barefoot Coaching Ltd. Address: Unit 6E Boundary Court, Willow Farm Business Park, Castle Donington, Derbyshire, DE74 2NN
Registered in England and Wales No. 06932330. All content is the sole ownership of Barefoot Coaching Ltd. 2023.

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Kim Morgan

Barefoot Coaching Founder, MCC, Supervisor, Author, Speaker, Certified Grief Educator and Grief Recovery Specialist

Kim is an internationally recognised expert in coaching and coach training, one of the select band of coaches accredited by the ICF as a Master Certified Coach. She draws extensively on her own experience of what works in practice to make successful individuals, great leaders, productive teams and organisations, and outstanding coaches. Kim designed and launched the Barefoot Flagship Course in 2001.

Kim’s passion and curiosity ensure that the course is constantly evolving, refreshed by new ideas and thinking and always remains grounded in ethical and psychological rigour. Kim’s passion to spread the word about coaching has resulted in two best-selling books, ‘The Coach’s Casebook’ (2015) and ‘The Coach’s Survival Guide (2019). Kim also has a monthly coaching column in Psychologies Magazine, and she is a sought-after conference speaker on all things coaching related.

Under Kim’s leadership Barefoot Coaching has established an international reputation as one of the most trusted and respected providers of coach training. Over 6,000 coaches from 28 different countries have chosen Barefoot to begin or to build their coaching careers. Kim’s vision remains the same, to make the world a brighter place through exceptional coaching; firstly, by providing world-class training for coaches who want to make a difference, and secondly by delivering Barefoot-quality coaching to individuals and organisations looking for real and lasting change.

Julie Stokes OBE

Clinical Psychologist, Founder of Winston’s Wish & Bear Us In Mind

Julie Stokes has been working with various forms of grief and loss all her life in a variety of settings: mental health, palliative care, oncology, neurology, suicide, murder, refugee, and for the last 18 years Julie has been working with talented senior leaders across a variety of settings from Global businesses and startups. https://www.theprestonassociates.com/who-we-are/julie-stokes-obe/

A trained Family Therapist, she is passionate about systemic working and how losses impact family and work settings.

Julie is also a Clinical and Health Psychologist and social entrepreneur. She set up the national charity Winston’s Wish following a Churchill fellowship. After the war in Ukraine she established Bear Us in Mind, It gives families receiving displaced children and parents the tools to help them adjust to loss.

Julie has contributed to over 16 documentaries that all involve loss and grief: The Mummy Diaries particularly focused on the work that can be done before the death of a parent.

Described by HM the Queen Elizabeth in 2004 as a “Pioneer to the Life of the Nation” she was later recognized with an OBE for Services to bereaved children and their families.

“This course will be able to attract experienced people who readily see how important a coaching approach can be to navigating the complexity of grief and loss. So excited to join Kim and the team – just as I was almost 20 years ago when she trained me to be an Executive Coach!”

Claire Genkai Breeze

Ordained Zen Buddhist, Writer, Zen Supervisor for Coaches

Claire Genkai Breeze is a Zen Buddhist Chaplain, a coaching supervisor and contemplative.

The founding partner of Relume Ltd for 25 years, she now lives in a monk’s hut in Devon and concentrates on working with individuals who want to explore existential questions and contemporary forms of spirituality.

Author and award acknowledged coach, “Genks” doesn’t claim to be a perfect anything. If asked this is what she says about herself:

“Life is deeply challenging, and the profound task is to stay on the razor edge of intimate full participation with it, whilst never forgetting that everything, including ourselves is impermanent.

Our hearts should be cracked by what we experience. Without it we are merely passing through in safety. Grief is not a failure or something to feel fear about. It is the result of our connections, our longings, our dreams, and our attachments. Caught in this conundrum what can we do?”

Jackee Holder

Leadership Coach, Author, Ordained Interfaith Minister

Jackee works with directors, senior leaders, board level executives and emerging leaders. She supports leaders who are committed to investing in ongoing personal and professional development to improve overall performance and generate results and outcomes that maximize impact in a fast changing environment. Jackee quickly establishes trust and rapport with senior leaders whilst maintaining the capacity to offer constructive feedback, open up to and engage in difficult conversations with the ability to work strategically and emotionally, getting to the core of what matters in the business context.

Jackee’s skills extend to and includes design and delivery of accredited, high quality coach training and leadership programmes, facilitating team coaching and action learning sets, women’s leadership and career advancement along with coaching around diversity and inclusion. Jackee portfolio career in organizational development includes a combination of a therapeutic understanding of human behaviour, a keen interest in reflective practice as a resourceful leadership developmental tool supporting individuals to become stronger, resilient leaders. Jackee skillfully coaches around difference and challenge.

Jackee’s coaching clients describe her as: Empathetic and intuitive, mindful and present, doesn’t allow you to get away with stuff and was not afraid to challenge; her personal presence and style always made me feel at ease, I’ve witnessed her work highly effectively with a wide range of people from different backgrounds.

Jackee also wrote the book “49 Ways to Write Yourself Well: The Science and Wisdom of Writing and Journaling”.

Helen Fitness

Life & Leadership Coach specialising in Loss & Cultural Reconnection

Helen is a leadership and life coach specialising in transitions, loss and cultural identity.

Her coaching draws on professional experience in leadership development, as well as her personal journey with bereavement, relocation and reconnection to her Māori heritage. She supports clients in finding clarity and confidence through change, and brings a unique lens on ancestral and cultural grief. 

Helen’s work honours where we’ve come from, and helps shape who we’re becoming.

Karl Melvin

Psychotherapist specialising in Family Estrangement & Rejection

Karl Melvin has long been fascinated by human relationships. As a child, witnessing his parents’ separation sparked a deep desire to understand what holds families together—and what drives them apart.

Growing up in 1980s Dublin, life experience was his first teacher. But it wasn’t until 2009, following years of personal family struggles and eventual estrangement, that he formally trained as a psychotherapist. He later became accredited with the Irish Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (IACP) and earned a Master’s Degree in Counselling and Psychotherapy.

From the beginning of his clinical work, family conflict was a recurring theme. Though he didn’t initially define it as estrangement, this understanding came into focus during his dissertation, The Experiences of Familial Estranged, which later formed the basis for his published paper, The Changing Impact and Challenges of Familial Estrangement. This work offered a rare Irish perspective on the topic.

Karl has since supported countless estranged adults—parents, adult children, siblings, and grandparents—helping them process the loss and rejection that can accompany family breakdown. His work emphasises individual strengths and offers practical tools for navigating the psychological, social, and relational challenges of estrangement, particularly in a society where it remains stigmatised.

In 2020, he began delivering training programs on family conflict and estrangement, including An Introduction to Family Estrangement, Exploring the Stigma Surrounding Family Rifts, and How to Manage Stressful Events with Estranged Family Members.

In 2022, after over a decade in practice, Karl signed a book deal with Routledge. The result, Navigating Family Estrangement, was published in June 2024. Designed for both estranged adults and professionals—such as therapists, counsellors, and mediators—the book offers an accessible guide to managing the complexities of estranged relationships.

Karl has also contributed to various media outlets, including Virgin Media Television, The Irish Times, The Irish Independent, The Telegraph (UK), and Good Housekeeping (US), where he continues to raise awareness about the realities of family estrangement.

Danielle Barbereau

Specialist Divorce Coach and Author of “After the Split”

After training with Barefoot, I started my coaching practice in 2010, becoming the first coach to specialise in divorce in the UK. Since then,

I have worked with over 1,600 clients face to face, all referred by family lawyers. I particularly enjoy the challenge of helping clients gain clarity of thought and perspective, so they can make difficult decisions and give clear instructions to their lawyers. This work is constantly rewarding and I am fascinated by every client’s unique experience of divorce.

Divorce is a source of grief and loss. My work gives me much insight into the emotions associated with such a transition. On a personal front too, and for various reasons, I am very familiar with grief. In 2015, I wrote After the Split, now in its second edition, to support and guide clients going through the immediate aftermath of a breakup. It delights me to know that my unpretentious little book still helps people navigate the choppy waters of painful separations.

I am busy writing my first novel: The Lightening Years. I was inspired to write the book, because I am aggrieved by how easily women of a certain age become invisible. There is a real disconnect between how I feel and how I am perceived. In my book,

I want to challenge the narrative that women of my age have become obsolete; and honour older women, with their power, strength, wisdom, and rage even. The themes I explore in my writing include: the reasons why women become strong; love and friendships as we age; how the past shapes us but does not define us; finding ourselves; challenging expectations; control and coercion; relationship breakups; mothering – especially as single mothers – and family estrangement.

I am an Age Without Limits champion. Being a granny is my proudest achievement. Prior to my coaching career, I worked in senior management in a Russell Group university. Oh, and I am French, originally.

Ever since receiving a book as a prize in primary school, Jane Eyre, my dream was to stride the Yorkshire Moors in the footsteps of the Brontës, in these impossibly wild and beautiful landscapes.

And I do!

Stephen Regel OBE

Hon., Professor, BABCP Accred., Psychotherapist, Founder, Centre for Trauma, Resilience and Growth School of Education, Author of Post-traumatic Stress: The Facts

A trauma therapist and trainer, with four decades of experience working with survivors of trauma both in the NHS and a range of other organisations. Founder of the Centre for Trauma, Resilience & Growth (CTRG) in 1998. The CTRG was formally opened by Sir Terry Waite in 2000. Between 2000-2023, the CTRG was a collaboration between the NHS and Nottingham University and provided a service for a wide range of trauma survivors, including veterans, workplace trauma (mainly emergency service and related personnel), victims of torture and traumatic loss. The CTRG continues within the School of Education,

University of Nottingham. Having developed the first academic Trauma Studies programme in the UK, this was also commissioned and taught to Health and Social Care Services in Northern Ireland for 6 years. I have worked regularly in Northern Ireland since 1992 and was a visiting therapist in the Family Trauma Centre in Belfast H&SS Trust. I regularly contribute to the MA in Trauma Informed Practice in the School of Education and to the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.

I continue to train in Critical Incident Stress Management(CISM) and Peer Support both nationally and internationally e.g., the ICRC, the UNHCR in Kosovo, emergency services in the UK, Northern Ireland and Iceland. Between 2019-’21, I developed the British Red Cross (BRC) Peer Support programme and worked on the Emergency Services Trauma Intervention Programme for the College of Policing. Between 2004-2021, I was part of the British Red Cross Psychosocial Support Team, supporting UK survivors of major incidents abroad, including the 2004 Asian tsunami, terrorist attack in Sharm-el-sheik, Egypt, and Japanese tsunami of 2011. Since 1996, I have worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support, facilitating training and assessments in Sri Lanka, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Scandinavia, Somaliland, Uganda, Kenya, and Georgia following the conflict with Russia in 2008. As well as CISM, I continue to provide Training in Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) & Interventions for Traumatic loss.

I have worked with individuals and families affected by traumatic loss for over the past 35 years, including survivors of recent terror attacks and remain committed to early interventions for trauma, continuing with a small pro bono practice. I remain a trustee/mental health adviser with Hostage international and on the training committee for Children and War, UK. I retired from NHS in 2022 after 50 years.