Churches of all denominations and places of worship generally, have a huge opportunity to contribute to a growing need for bereavement support. AtaLoss.org has developed materials and training to help.

Supporting Children and Young People

TOUGHstuff - material for teenage support (see ListeningPeople).

TOUGHstuff journal for young people suffering the loss of parental separation. Can be purchased from our on-line shop.

We are also working on the following booklet: 

TOUGHstuff journal for bereaved young people

Training to support the bereaved

AtaLoss.org offers ListeningPeople to youth organisations, teachers and church youth workers training them to listen to teenagers affected by loss in their communities and/or local schools. The training is run by the hugely experience Pete English. ListeningPeople is one proven way in which youth leaders can take the pressure off school staff and begin to make a real difference in a local school by ‘listening’ to young people who are struggling with every day life issues, many of which are rooted in loss.

"What Pete doesn't know about young people and loss isn't worth knowing."  Rachel Gardner, Youthscape

"The training was professional, insightful and perfectly pitched for our setting."  Joe Lowther, Kick London

Contact: [email protected]

For General Bereavement Support

We also recommend Care for the Family's Bereavement Care Awareness days. Click the link for dates of training in your area or email Care for the Family. You can also call them on 02920 810800.

To be released spring 2020 is our 'Faith Questions in Bereavement' by Yvonne Richmond Tulloch. This will be available for sale from this website.

For those wanting a professional qualification in bereavement support

AtaLoss.org has developed a certified bereavement support course, held annually at Cliff College, Derbyshire.  The week-long, residential course is led by Yvonne Richmond Tulloch, the Founder of AtaLoss.org, along with qualified counsellors from the AtaLoss.org team. The week seeks to equip Christians and Church leaders -and anyone in regular contact with bereaved people - to effectively support the bereaved in healthy grieving, as well as explore what is proving to be a key opportunity for mission.

The week is delivered via lectures and seminars with practical as well as theoretical applications, and aims to enable new learning and provide the student with skills and resources for individual bereavement care or church based bereavement ministry.

Subject areas include:

• Death in society and the Church
• Loss and the Journey of Grief
• The Impact of Bereavement
• Bereavement Reactions and Consequences
• Listening and Communication
• Dealing with different circumstances
• Faith Questions in Bereavement
• Becoming a Bereavement Friendly Church

Recent students have described the course as “Informative, challenging, reflective, resourcing, encouraging, enabling and empowering.” And have said..

“It will be hard to hold me back on things I will do!  I need to go back, reflect, pray, discern the next steps.  But as a ‘way of doing and being’, it’s been brilliant to take that away.”

The next course will be June 2020. For more information click here Cliff College

How churches can offer support for the bereaved

We highly recommend that churches consider providing regularly HTB's 'The Bereavement Journey' course, alongside a programme of ongoing care for the bereaved in their communities. 

The course is for people of any faith or none at any stage of bereavement.  It is available as a filmed resource of 5 sessions with a final, optional, session on faith questions. Email us for further information.

If you decide to run the course please do let us know so that we can signpost the locally bereaved to you. Email [email protected]

Please also see our Resources page for publications and online resources for the bereaved which you may find useful.