Automatically apply for jobs with Zippia

Upload your resume to get started.

Grief counselor skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

1 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen,

Kacie Blalock Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical grief counselor skills. We ranked the top skills for grief counselors based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 19.1% of grief counselor resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a grief counselor needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 grief counselor skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how grief counselors use patients:

Provided anticipatory grief and bereavement counseling support to family members of hospice patients.
Coordinate all bereavement activities for a hospice program of approximately 100 patients.

2. MSW

Here's how grief counselors use msw:

Facilitated grief counseling for boys ages 6-14 as the MSW on staff Also oversaw recreation and other activities

3. Community Outreach

Here's how grief counselors use community outreach:

Participate in community outreach meetings.
Developed and implemented an adolescent program and curriculum working with schools, juvenile probation and families through community outreach.

4. Emotional Support

At its core, emotional support involves providing support, reassurance, acceptance, love, and encouragement. It is especially important in a time of stress/sadness as it stabilizes an individual and provides a positive foundation for trust. Honing this skill is important for individuals who want to pursue the career of caregivers and emotional support nurses. Their job includes monitoring mental health and helping patients to handle any mental challenge.

Here's how grief counselors use emotional support:

Provided emotional support and participated in discussions, therapeutic games and activities with campers.
Provided counseling services to terminally ill clients, and provided emotional support for family members.

5. Educational Workshops

Here's how grief counselors use educational workshops:

Designed and implemented educational workshops for the community about children and grief.
Developed and delivered educational workshops to community about children and grief.

6. Ministry

The ministry іѕ a gоvеrnmеnt dераrtmеnt hеаdеd bу a minister whісh deals with a ѕресіfіс cause оr area of activity. Frоm the religious point оf vіеw, the mіnіѕtrу іѕ an activity саrrіеd оut by one or mоrе bеlіеvеrѕ оf a rеlіgіоn tо еxрrеѕѕ or spread thеіr faith.

Here's how grief counselors use ministry:

Planned and executed Children's Ministry, which included ministering to families, coordinating events, and coordinating volunteers.

Choose from 10+ customizable grief counselor resume templates

Build a professional grief counselor resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your grief counselor resume.

7. Mental Health Issues

Here's how grief counselors use mental health issues:

Provided nightly supervision to 30 residents living with mental health issues and assisted individuals with accurate medication ingestion
Participate in education/training of Safety Assistants and Resident Assistants in understanding and responding to mental health issues.

8. Crisis Intervention

Here's how grief counselors use crisis intervention:

Conducted crisis intervention services with individuals whose companion animals were in a state of medical emergency.
Provided grief counseling, home visiting, crisis intervention, and made referrals to appropriate community resources.

9. Art Therapy

Here's how grief counselors use art therapy:

Facilitated bereavement discussion groups & implemented art therapy activities.
Provided group Psychotherapy and Expressive Art Therapy to parenting adolescent mothers once a week.

10. Crisis Support

Here's how grief counselors use crisis support:

Provided outreach, telephone support and crisis support as needed and on an ongoing basis.

11. Caregiver

Here's how grief counselors use caregiver:

Support programming development including co-authoring the Caregiver (Parenting) Pathfinders Curriculum and contributing to Child and Adolescent Pathfinders Curriculum.
Counseled children and adolescents individually and in groups around the death of a significant caregiver or sibling.

12. Group Therapy Sessions

Here's how grief counselors use group therapy sessions:

Facilitate group therapy sessions, individual therapy sessions, and initial assessments.
Facilitated individual, or group therapy sessions to allow grieving people the opportunity to talk about their issues.

13. Educational Presentations

Here's how grief counselors use educational presentations:

Provided counseling, support and educational presentations to hospice and community based individuals and families.

14. Community Resources

Community resources are a set of resources that are used in the day to day life of people which improves their lifestyle in some way. People, sites or houses, and population assistance can come under the services offered by community resources.

Here's how grief counselors use community resources:

Counseled bereaving families by visiting the home and providing information regarding community resources.
Identified and linked clients to appropriate community resources.

15. Terminal Illness

Here's how grief counselors use terminal illness:

Provided end of life counseling and education services to clients and families dealing with terminal illness, from pediatrics to geriatrics.
Provided social support to individuals and families who were experiencing a terminal illness.

5 Grief Counselor resume examples

Build a professional grief counselor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 5+ resume templates to create your grief counselor resume.

Create my resume

Build a professional resume in minutes using this template.

What skills help Grief Counselors find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on grief counselor resumes?

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen

Associate Professor, Augustana University

In Mental Health Counseling, the ability to work with people from various cultural backgrounds is paramount. Training in multicultural psychology, diversity, and inclusion are all essential in our pluralistic society. I would also emphasize training in empirically supported treatments and a clear theoretical orientation grounded in scientific literature. Finally, the recent pandemic has accelerated the use of teletherapy and remote counseling--effectiveness in connecting with people through technology and making the most of an adapted model for therapy will be very important.

What soft skills should all grief counselors possess?

Kacie Blalock Ph.D.

Associate Professor; Director, Master of Counseling, Louisiana State University at Shreveport

Soft skills that are essential for counselors include emotional intelligence, empathy, multicultural competency, interpersonal abilities, and authenticity.

What hard/technical skills are most important for grief counselors?

Kacie Blalock Ph.D.

Associate Professor; Director, Master of Counseling, Louisiana State University at Shreveport

It is important that counselors are able to effectively take notes and summarize progress, interpret assessments, memorize and recall information, and keep clear yet concise records.

What grief counselor skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Melissa Boas

Director of Professional School Counseling, Assistant Professor, Lancaster Bible College

I believe the most important skill to enhance if taking a gap year is self-awareness. Understanding oneself and why and how self-awareness directly relates to future career decision making is instrumental in ensuring the right decisions are made. Self-awareness is extremely beneficial in all areas of life not just in choosing a career pathway.

What type of skills will young grief counselors need?

Chris Hennington Ph.D.

School Counseling Program Coordinator, Lubbock Christian University

School counselors will be tasked with the usual school counseling responsibilities while also encountering trauma that students experience outside of school and in school. Being well versed in trauma response is going to be a vital aspect of being a school counselor. Kids are experiencing more trauma, but we are getting better at recognizing and treating trauma as well.

What technical skills for a grief counselor stand out to employers?

Madeline Lee Ph.D.

Associate Professor, California State University San Marcos

There are technical skills that may stand out to employers, but as social workers, I think those technical skills together with "soft skills," can make an applicant really stand out to employers; social workers can combine their research skills with evidence-informed care and organizational quality improvement efforts, while being able to lead, build relationships, and think critically. In the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, our graduates will need to be able to fluidly navigate between employing telehealth methods to performing their work safely in-person when engaging and helping clients. To be effective, social workers will also need to understand the reverberating effects of the deep-seated roots of racism in our country and be willing to honestly confront and address those issues in whatever role they assume. Social workers are needed now more than ever.

Do you want to know more?

List of grief counselor skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a grief counselor resume and required skills for a grief counselor to have include:

Patients
MSW
Community Outreach
Emotional Support
Educational Workshops

Ministry
Mental Health Issues
Crisis Intervention
Art Therapy
Crisis Support

Caregiver
Group Therapy Sessions
Educational Presentations
Community Resources
Terminal Illness

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse community and social services jobs