When choosing a grief support professional, an executor should consider several important factors to ensure the support matches their emotional needs, practical circumstances, and the unique nature of their grief. Executors often carry a dual burden: grieving a personal loss while managing the complex legal, logistical, and emotional duties of settling an estate. The right support can ease both emotional and practical stress.

A Grief Coach

A grief coach is a trained professional who helps individuals navigate the emotional, mental, and practical challenges of loss—especially the death of a loved one. Unlike therapists, who often address clinical mental health issues, grief coaches focus on providing support, guidance, and tools to help people move forward with life after loss in a healthy, intentional way.

Key Roles of a Grief Coach:

• Emotional Support: They offer a safe, nonjudgmental space to talk about grief, process emotions, and feel heard.
• Guidance and Goal Setting: Grief coaches help clients identify where they are in their grief journey and set goals for healing, self-care, and daily functioning.
• Practical Coping Tools: They teach strategies for managing triggers, handling difficult dates (like anniversaries or holidays), and maintaining routines.
• Accountability: Regular sessions provide structure and motivation as the grieving person works through challenges over time.
• Empowerment: A grief coach encourages clients to honor their loss while rebuilding a meaningful life in the aftermath.

Who Might Use a Grief Coach?

• People dealing with the death of a spouse, parent, child, sibling, or friend.
• Executors or personal representatives coping with grief while handling estate duties.
• Individuals facing complicated grief or prolonged mourning, but who may not need clinical therapy.
• Those who feel “stuck” and want support moving forward in a purposeful way.

What Grief Coaches Don’t Do:

• They don’t diagnose or treat mental health conditions.
• They are not licensed therapists or counselors (though some may also hold such licenses).
• They do not provide crisis intervention or emergency psychological care.

Many grief coaches offer virtual sessions, making them especially accessible to those handling estate matters from out of state or juggling multiple responsibilities. For executors and family members alike, working with a grief coach can provide much-needed emotional support during an overwhelming time.

What Grief Counselors Do:

• Provide a Safe Space: They offer a confidential, supportive environment where individuals can express their feelings of sadness, anger, guilt, confusion, or numbness.
• Help Process Loss: Through structured therapy sessions, grief counselors help clients understand and work through the stages and cycles of grief, which may not always follow a linear path.
• Address Complicated Grief: If grief becomes prolonged or interferes with daily life (known as complicated grief or prolonged grief disorder), a grief counselor is trained to treat this with appropriate therapeutic methods.
• Identify Mental Health Needs: Grief counselors can diagnose and treat related mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, or trauma, that may arise or worsen due to the loss.
• Support Personal Healing: They assist clients in finding meaning after loss, rebuilding identity, and adjusting to life changes—especially when the person lost played a major role (like a spouse, child, or parent).

Who Can Benefit from Grief Counseling?

• Adults, teens, and children grieving a death or major loss.
• Executors and caregivers dealing with grief while managing responsibilities.
• People who have experienced sudden, traumatic, or multiple losses.
• Individuals struggling with unresolved grief from the past

Grief counseling can be short-term or long-term, depending on the person’s needs. Some people attend just a few sessions, while others find ongoing support helpful. Many grief counselors also offer telehealth services, making them accessible for busy executors or anyone managing grief alongside estate responsibilities.