CMA Accredited Professional Training
The Embodied Grief Practitioner Certification is accredited by The Complementary Medical Association.

FRAMEWORK

These are not stages or steps, but interwoven pathways through which grief moves and reveals itself. Participants may enter from any point, and multiple pathways are often active simultaneously. Each landscape offers a distinct vantage point from which participants encounter the Five Currents of Living Grief Theory.

The Field of Grief — Spacious Presence

Cultivating the capacity to remain present with grief without collapsing into it, fixing it, or bypassing it. Rooted in contemplative and nondual traditions, this pathway explores witnessing awareness, paradox, impermanence, and the living nature of grief itself.

The Ground of Grief — Somatic Literacy

Learning to recognize grief as embodied intelligence through Felt Sense Dynamics, nervous system awareness, and the body’s nonverbal language of loss. Explores Bodiedism, somatic phenomenology, and the body as the primary site through which grief is first known.

The Estuary of Grief — Inner Multiplicity

A compassionate, parts-aware approach to grief’s internal complexity. Explores contradictory emotions, continuing bonds, relational ambivalence, archetypal inquiry, and the many voices grief awakens within us. Participants learn to work with grief’s emotional multiplicity without forcing coherence, resolution, or a single narrative.

The Horizon of Grief — Meaning, Memory & Mind

Exploring how grief reshapes identity, memory, worldview, and the mind’s orientation toward reality itself. This pathway examines the cognitive, existential, and cultural dimensions of grief, including shattered assumptions, inherited beliefs about mourning, predictive disruption, and socially constructed timelines around loss. Participants learn to recognize grief not as mental failure, but as the mind’s attempt to reorganize itself within a world that no longer feels the same.

The Hearth of Grief — Relational Ecology

Understanding grief as communal, ancestral, ecological, and relational rather than purely individual. Explores ritual, collective mourning, ancestral frameworks, relational systems, land-based grief practices, and the more-than-human world. Participants learn to tend grief not only within the self, but within the wider web of community, lineage, memory, and place. 

THIS PROGRAM IS DESIGNED FOR:

• grief practitioners and educators
• coaches and facilitators
• chaplains and spiritual care providers
• yoga and somatic practitioners
• therapists seeking non-pathologizing grief frameworks
• retreat leaders and community space holders
• hospice volunteers and end-of-life workers
• individuals called to deeper grief literacy and accompaniment work

 

        LEARNING OBJECTIVES

      Participants leave with:

• foundational understanding of Living Grief Theory
• evidence-informed and experiential tools for embodied grief accompaniment
• trauma-informed and culturally responsive frameworks
• somatic and relational facilitation skills
• experiential understanding of the Five Currents
• practices for group, individual, and community grief support
• an expanded capacity to remain present with unresolved sorrow without collapsing into fixing, bypassing, or diagnosis

                 PROGRAM

DAY 1 — THE FIELD OF GRIEF: SPACIOUS PRESENCE

When the Sacred Feels Absent

We enter the shared field of grief, establishing safety, consent, grounded presence, and the capacity to remain with grief without collapsing into it, fixing it, or bypassing it.

THEME

Cultivating witnessing presence within grief.

TOPICS

Living Grief Theory: grief as a living field rather than a problem to resolve.

Nondual and contemplative approaches to grief across wisdom traditions.

The grief–trauma distinction and the cultural costs of pathologizing sorrow.

Humanizing grief: myths, models, and inherited assumptions around mourning.

Mapping the many forms of grief—acute, ambiguous, disenfranchised, cumulative, collective, ancestral, and ecological.

The undercurrent of impermanence beneath all grief.

Ethics, practitioner presence, and scope of practice.

PRACTICES

Guided “Rest in the Field” meditation.

Cross-cultural grief story circle.

Journaling, silence, image-making, or movement practices.

DAY 2 — THE GROUND OF GRIEF: SOMATIC LITERACY

When the Body Carries What Words Cannot

We enter the body as the primary place grief is first known, expressed, and metabolized.

THEME

Attuning to the body’s language in grief.

TOPICS

Somatic phenomenology and embodied grief.

Nervous system awareness and regulation in grief accompaniment.

Felt Sense Dynamics for somatic tracking and grief embodiment.

Bodiedism and cultural disconnection from embodied wisdom.

Trauma-aware pacing, sensory safety, and relational attunement.

Working with shutdown, activation, numbness, contraction, and overwhelm.

PRACTICES

Partner body-mapping exercises.

Breath, grounding, and movement rituals.

Guided somatic witnessing practices.

Adaptations for different bodies, abilities, and neurotypes.

DAY 3 — THE ESTUARY OF GRIEF: INNER MULTIPLICITY

When the Heart Holds Contradiction

We explore grief’s emotional and relational complexity, honoring the many voices, attachments, tensions, and unfinished conversations loss awakens within us.

THEME

Welcoming grief’s inner multiplicity with compassion and curiosity.

TOPICS

Mapping grief selves and inner constellations.

Continuing bonds and the love that has nowhere left to go.

Contradictory emotions in grief: relief, guilt, anger, tenderness, numbness, longing.

Narrative flexibility without forced coherence or premature resolution.

Archetypal and symbolic dimensions of grief.

Relational ambivalence and unfinished emotional bonds.

PRACTICES

Inner Council Sanctum processes and role-play.

Small-group relational dialogue practices.

Creative writing and symbolic reflection.

Compassion-based practices for self-attack and fragmentation.

DAY 4 — THE HORIZON OF GRIEF: MEANING, MEMORY & MIND

When the World No Longer Makes Sense

We explore how grief reshapes worldview, identity, memory, meaning, and the mind’s orientation toward reality itself.

THEME

Understanding grief’s cognitive, existential, and cultural dimensions.

TOPICS

Predictive disruption and cognitive disorientation in grief.

Shattered assumptions and identity reorganization.

Cultural grief timelines and inherited beliefs about mourning.

Meaning-making without forced positivity or closure narratives.

Memory, altered time perception, and existential questioning.

Philosophical and contemplative encounters with impermanence.

PRACTICES

Personal grief narrative mapping.

Existential reflection and contemplative inquiry.

Journaling and worldview reconstruction exercises.

Reframing inherited grief narratives and assumptions.

DAY 5 — THE HEARTH OF GRIEF: RELATIONAL ECOLOGY

When We Return to the Human Circle

We widen the frame to include the relational, communal, ancestral, and ecological webs that hold grief and mourning.

THEME

Tending grief within the wider web of relationship and community.

TOPICS

Grief as relational, communal, ancestral, and ecological experience.

Collective mourning practices across cultures.

Ritual, remembrance, and communal grief tending.

Creating inclusive and non-pathologizing grief spaces.

Cultural humility, ethics, and scope of practice.

Bringing Living Grief into individual, group, retreat, and community settings.

PRACTICES

Constellation mapping of personal and collective grief.

Group altar-building and shared mourning ritual.

Community grief practices and relational witnessing.

Final integration circle and closing ceremony.

 

DELIVERY FORMAT

Participants may complete the Embodied Grief Practitioner Certification through one of two pathways:

Option 1: Fully Online Certification (60 Hours)

Participants complete the entire certification online through a combination of:

• live online instruction
• recorded lectures
• guided embodiment practices
• readings and reflection assignments
• discussion and peer dialogue
• applied practice exercises
• final integration project

This option is designed for participants who are unable to attend an in-person retreat while maintaining the same learning objectives and certification standards.

Option 2: Hybrid Certification (60 Hours)

Participants complete:

• 40 hours of in-person experiential retreat training
• 20 hours of online coursework and integration

The in-person immersion emphasizes somatic practice, relational facilitation, group process, ritual, and supervised experiential learning, while the online component provides theoretical foundations, reflection, and post-retreat integration.

Option 1 – Fully Online (60 Hours)

or

Option 2 – Hybrid (40-hour in-person immersion + 20-hour online integration)

Both pathways meet the same learning objectives and certification requirements. Both pathways award the same Embodied Grief Practitioner Certification upon successful completion.

 

Option 2 Hybrid Details

40 in-person training hours

Delivered across five consecutive retreat days (~8 hours/day)

20 online learning and integration hours

Completed before and after the immersion through guided coursework, reflection, discussion, and applied practice

• Locations: Offered in retreat settings in California, Southeast Asia, and other select international retreat locations.

Online Component Includes:

• Foundational video lectures and readings
• Guided reflection and journaling practices
• Opening intake and orientation process
• Peer dialogue and discussion
• Post-retreat integration assignments
• Applied grief accompaniment exercises
• Final reflection project or case-study application

In-Person Methodology:
Experiential and relational learning through:

• Teaching lectures and guided discussions
• Somatic and contemplative practices
• Small-group process work
• Ritual and communal grief practices
• Creative integration and reflective exercises
• Relational witnessing and facilitation practice

Additional Notes:
Optional morning grounding, meditation, or embodiment practices may be offered and are not counted toward certification hours.

             PROGRAM DEVELOPER

Dr. Naomi Sanderovsky
Ph.D. in Philosophy & Religion

Professor of Death & Dying • Certified Grief Educator • Trauma-Informed Coach
Nondual Integration Specialist • Somatic Facilitator

Founder of Luma Via Retreats & Certification Programs
20+ years in grief education, intercultural studies, contemplative practice, and embodied healing work

ACCOMMODATION

Shared Accommodation

Participants may choose from thoughtfully designed shared lodging options immersed in the natural landscape.

Includes:

Shared bunk-style room (2 participants)

All plant-based meals and refreshments

Full Embodied Grief Practitioner Certification

Training materials and experiential practices

Certificate of completion

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Private Accommodation

Designed for participants seeking additional privacy, solitude, and personal retreat space during the immersion.

Includes:

Private indoor room

All plant-based meals and refreshments

Full 60-hour Embodied Grief Practitioner Certification program

Training materials and experiential practices

Certificate of completion