In 2013, Suicide Prevention News & Comment editor and publisher Franklin Cook earned his Certified Professional Coach credentials and combined the principles and practices of Life Coaching with those of peer help for traumatic loss survivors to create an innovative telephone support service called Personal Grief Coaching. Here is what it’s all about:
Helping people cope with grief after a loved one’s traumatic death is Franklin Cook’s mission in life. His own father died traumatically in 1978, and two decades later, he began working with bereaved people as a newfound vocation. After 15 years as a peer helper, he became a Certified Professional Coach and developed this model for one-on-one telephone support, called Personal Grief Coaching. Franklin believes that each person’s unique experience of loss should be honored and respected, and his coaching sessions provide a safe space for grieving people to tell their story as they wish to tell it.
The guiding principles of Personal Grief Coaching:
- Grief is a natural human response to a loved one’s death.
- Each bereaved person’s needs are unique, and people benefit from individualized assistance.
- Peer support from a person who has recovered from a traumatic death can be very helpful to a bereaved person.
- Grief involves making meaning from things about life that are confusing and painful (which is also called “relearning the world“).
- Compassionate dialogue with a peer coach can create a place from where bereaved people can find their own way to healing.
Suicide Prevention News and Comment 