Trauma-Informed Grief Support

A Helping Skills Training

Space is limited to 15 participants. Add your name to the wait-list below to be the first to know when registration opens.

Next cohort: January 30th + 31st, 2025

This is an online educational workshop for folks who are supporting others through grief and change, whether in 1:1 or small group facilitation contexts. This workshop invites us to explore, learn and practice trauma-informed and therapeutic grief skills that allow us to offer compassionate and attuned care, while also offering accessible and effective grief literacy to support our clients’ capacity to be in relationship to their grief in affirming and healing ways.

As a professional rooted in the therapeutic work of grief and loss, I learned so much from Shauna's training. Her breadth of knowledge on grief, trauma, and a trauma-informed approach to this work is impressive. She draws from a rich and diverse pool of research, theory, and narrative. Shauna modelled a trauma-informed presence in the training itself, being care-full with setting the foundation and nurturing the container for our time together. Her language of theory and practice was resonant with supporting a deep connection to ourselves and our clients. Shauna interwove pragmatic tools throughout the training and offered real-time opportunities to be hands-on with those tools. I feel like I have so much more to bring to my grieving clients--and myself as a practitioner--after this training.

Jaqueline Toth - Licensed Psychotherapist

Who is this for?

This is a helping skills development opportunity for folks in diverse support roles who provide therapeutic support or programs/services to individuals and/or small groups which require you to hold healing space for grief, loss and change. Welcome counselors and therapists, coaches and mentors, volunteers, bereavement group facilitators, death doulas, healing arts practitioners, youth-workers, nature-based facilitators, social workers, peer supporters, non-profit teams, and more.

I welcome folks of diverse ancestries, identities, social locations, faith-based traditions and lived experiences. The content is accessible and invites strategies and reflections that can be explored in ways that work for you and those you serve, personally, professionally, and culturally.

What will we focus on?

The content is grounded in somatic-informed, heart-centered, and resiliency-based approaches and practices, and relevant to many loss contexts. We focus on the grief process and supporting individuals' unique grief needs, while aware of the larger cultural influences and loss experience(s) that shape their grieving, rather than focusing on the specifics of the loss event (death, illness, relationship endings, career transitions, substance use/recovery, moving, cultural loss, identity changes, major life transitions, ecological despair, and more).

We will learn and practice how to...
  • support somatic awareness and containment in service to grieving
  • provide trauma-informed attunement and pacing
  • understand and recognize trauma responses alongside grief expressions
  • assess and track nervous system responses, in ourself and others
  • practice skills of therapeutic and embodied presence
  • explore liberatory language that uplifts the dignity of responses
  • recognize and support different expressions of grieving
  • be aware of dominant cultural influences on grieving
  • offer an accessible and pragmatic grief literacy framework to those you support

You will also receive PDF handouts by email at the end of the workshop with the key handouts/content to support your integration and that can also be used with those you support.


Shauna's skill and clear demonstration of dedication to her personal healing and grief tending work allowed me to experience what a safe container feels like. I felt held in her humour, trauma-informed approach and year's of experience in the field of grief support. I left the workshop with so many tangible skills to not only support the youth I work with but also my personal relationships. I would take this workshop again and can't recommend it enough. I feel like it is invaluable learning for all of us, regardless of profession.

Remy Yates - Nature-based Youth Program Instructor

What will this look like?

This is a 2-day online training via Zoom, meeting for 5 hours each day, from 9:00am - 2:00pm PST each day, with a 45 minute integration break part way through each day.

The learning method is grounded in teaching content, experiential self-inquiry, somatic practices, small group sharing, and large group process. There will be time to invite questions and discussion relevant to your own support contexts.

What is required?

Your live-time attendance for the full duration of our time is required, with zoom camera on, alongside the willingness to work with others in occasional smaller group breakout rooms. There will be invited times when cameras can be off, and for those who request accessibility options that need this.

An openness to engage in self-inquiry and somatic practices around your own relationship to grief is necessary, alongside an openness to be in learning connection with other participants. Similar to any therapeutic training, a willingness to engage in the material in a personal way is an important aspect of learning and integration. The more we can be with and understand our own grief process, the better able we are to show up for others in healing and effective ways. This training is delivered with this axiom as foundation, always alongside choice and invitational options for practices.

This may not be a fit if:

While recognizing that we all hold grief in hearts, this is not a workshop experience for folks who are experiencing acute grief or currently needing direct trauma care. That requires a different attuned approach that cannot be provided here. Also, if you are not comfortable sharing your learning process with others or participating in small breakout sharing groups, this training will not be a fit. Our live time relational space is a necessary part of the learning and integration.

If you have any questions or want to chat about right-fit and timing, please reach out: shaunajanz-at-gmail-dot-com

Shauna is such a powerful teacher. I wasn't exhausted after a many hour long zoom class. I attributed this to her continual somatic practices and teaching style. I learned so much and felt I integrated more material than I ever do. I really felt like everyone doing grief work needs to do this trauma informed grief support offering. It is so vital for supporting people well.

Madison Ledgerwood - Eco-Grief Circle Facilitator


I found Shauna's two-day trauma-informed grief support program incredibly valuable. We covered somatic regulation (education and practices) as well as the personal and cultural aspects of trauma and grief. Shauna's authentic and straightforward approach, combined with her gentle energy, made the content easy to grasp. Her use of personal stories and examples enriched the training. I highly recommend this workshop for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of trauma and grief support.

Hazel Volk - Ancestral Healing and Animist Ritual Practitioner

Financial Reciprocity

This program is offered on a sliding scale which acknowledges folks' different access to resources within an inequitable capitalist system, and is offered within a commitment to economic justice and community care.

I invite you to read my Financial Access Commitments to learn about why and how I do this, and to review a more comprehensive framework to help you discern which pricing tier to choose given your financial situation and access to resources.


Pay it Forward - $625

You have access to wealth, can pay for this course without much financial consideration, and have the ability to pay extra to directly support someone else who needs financial access options to participate.

Program Cost - $500

You have access to reliable income, and/or own property/mortgage, and/or are paying at the nigher end of the rental market, and/or are in a double-income home, and/or have personal savings/investments. You are able to pay for ‘wants’ and spend little time worried about securing necessities in your life, such as housing, food, transportation.

Reduced Cost - $375 (two available)

You have access to income that allows you to meet your basic needs, you may have some expendable income, and/or have access to resources through family/partners to request support from. You may need to budget or cut back in some other areas to make this program happen, but it won't cause any long-term harmful impact on your life.

Sponsored Cost - $250 (one available)

Your access to resources and income stability is limited, and meeting your basic needs is stressful and inconsistent. Paying at any of the higher tiers would have a harmful impact on you.

I prioritize BIPOC, LGBTQI+ and disabled folks who are in financial need for the sponsored spots. Please reach out directly to shaunajanz-at-gmail-dot-com to request this and let me know what financial reciprocity amount you can pay, and I will enrol you.

Coming out of training with Shauna, I feel as though I will be able to better meet my clients where they are in regards to safety, connection, and recognition of trauma responses versus grief expressions. I am so grateful to Shauna for the wisdom she offers and the ability to impart this wisdom in a way that is always modelling healing-centred care.

Melissa Dawson - Family Therapist

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Shauna is highly knowledgeable, and passionate about sharing, the practice of trauma-informed grief support. This skillfully designed and facilitated course allowed me learn about and experience the power of the content at the same time. I whole-heartedly recommend both Shauna and this course.

Sarah Jane Smith - Embodiment Teacher & Coach


1. Fill out an application form (will be made available when the next cohort opens registration)

2. You will receive a confirmation email within 5 days with more details on next steps.

Full attendance is required, so please ensure you are able to attend both days before you send in an application.

No refunds unless the training is already at capacity (15) and I can fill your space with another person from the wait-list. Otherwise, I am happy to transfer your payment towards the next training dates or a different Sacred Grief program.

This training was powerful, enlightening, heart and mind-opening. Shauna teaches from such a space of safety and boundaries, with warmth and humour. I learned so much about my own experience in grief, what to name and acknowledge, and how to see the telling signs in those I work with, to support them to feel just as safe, giving them agency over their own experiences with trauma and grief. Thank you Shauna for your ability to create such incredible learning experiences.

Tatjana Kozak - Emerging Death & Grief Counselor

Your Instructor


Shauna Janz, MA
Shauna Janz, MA

For over 16 years, I have been offering individuals, families, communities, and organizations trauma-informed grief and loss support and education.

I have had the honor to work with non-profit organizations, government, First Nation communities, post-secondary educational institutions, school counseling and critical incident response teams, hospice teams, and rural community support teams. I have an active private practice offering consulting and facilitation services. I am in ongoing partnership with Moms Stop the Harm providing trauma-informed facilitation skills to their national team of facilitators in the context of harm reduction and bereavement by substance poisoning. I have also been a trainer with BC Bereavement Helpline delivering traumatic loss support training for violent death loss, and for 12 years was the education director and facilitator with Learning Through Loss delivering grief trainings for supporting youth and school based programs.

My approach is trauma-informed, anti-oppressive and rooted in nurturing resiliency and dignity.