The MISS Foundation provides support for families struggling with traumatic grief. We provide Family Support Packets with information and resources for bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings. Upon request, we will connect you with a volunteer HOPE mentor. The MISS Foundation also has support groups in some communities, as well as counseling options and referrals. In this section, we offer a variety of resources for bereaved family members.
Counseling
In-Person Counseling
If you’d like to find out if counseling is available in your area, contact us at the button below.
A Note About Requesting Support Via Email: To ensure you get all the emails you’d like to received from the MISS Foundation, please add @missfoundation.org email addresses and domain to your email white list.That way nothing that comes from us will go into your spam box. Thank you!
Grieving Intake Form
By filling out this simple intake form, we will provide you with a Family Support Packet (sent by email) of resources and information for bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings. We will also help connect you with one of our volunteer HOPE mentors, and provide counseling referrals, upon request.
General Information
If you know of someone who needs support after a traumatic loss such as losing a beloved child, please let them know about us. We are here to help. Our HOPE mentors, support groups, resources for the traumatically bereaved, and The Kindness Project are just a few of the ways the MISS Foundation helps grieving families each day.
Find a Provider
Our unique training program led by Dr. Joanne Cacciatore certifies medical and mental health professionals in our model of care in communities throughout the world. You may locate a Compassionate Bereavement Care® Certified Provider by visiting our Compassionate Bereavement Care Provider section. Please give us feedback on your provider.
Family Support Packets
The MISS Foundation provides Family Support Packets, which are sent by email, with books, brochures, and other support information for bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings. If you’d like to request a support packet or find out if MISS Foundation grief counseling in person or by distance is available to you, please click the button below.
NOTE: If you work at a hospital or agency, please direct your patient/client to the MISS Foundation at 602.279.MISS or 1.888.455.MISS. After our initial intake, we will provide a family support packet directly to the family in need. We do not send packets to hospitals or agencies.
Mentorship
Request a HOPE Mentor
The MISS Foundation provides one-on-one support to bereaved parents, grandparents, and siblings for free via our HOPE Mentor program. In this program, you will be matched with a trained volunteer who is also a bereaved parent, grandparent, or sibling who will connect with you in-person if they are local to you OR via email, phone, and Skype if not in your area.
If you’d like to be matched with a HOPE Mentor, click our button below.
The MISS Foundation provides support for families struggling with traumatic grief. We provide Family Support Packets with information and resources for bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings. Upon request, we will connect you with a volunteer HOPE mentor. The MISS Foundation also has support groups in some communities, as well as counseling options and referrals. In this section, we offer a variety of resources for bereaved family members.
Counseling
In-Person Counseling
If you’d like to find out if counseling is available in your area, contact us at the button below.
A Note About Requesting Support Via Email:
To ensure you get all the emails you’d like to received from the MISS Foundation, please add @missfoundation.org email addresses and domain to your email white list.That way nothing that comes from us will go into your spam box. Thank you!
General Information
To learn more about the MISS Foundation, please click below to download our information sheet.
Find a Provider
Our unique training program led by Dr. Joanne Cacciatore certifies medical and mental health professionals in our model of care in communities throughout the world. You may locate a Compassionate Bereavement Care® Certified Provider by visiting our Compassionate Bereavement Care Provider section. Please give us feedback on your provider.
Family Support Packets
The MISS Foundation provides Family Support Packets, which are sent by email, with books, brochures, and other support information for bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings.
If you’d like to request a support packet or find out if MISS Foundation grief counseling in person or by distance is available to you, please click the button below.
NOTE: If you work at a hospital or agency, please direct your patient/client to the MISS Foundation at 602.279.MISS or 1.888.455.MISS. After our initial intake, we will provide a family support packet directly to the family in need. We do not send packets to hospitals or agencies.
Mentorship
Request a HOPE Mentor
The MISS Foundation provides one-on-one support to bereaved parents, grandparents, and siblings for free via our HOPE Mentor program. In this program, you will be matched with a trained volunteer who is also a bereaved parent, grandparent, or sibling who will connect with you in-person if they are local to you OR via email, phone, and Skype if not in your area.
If you’d like to be matched with a HOPE Mentor, click our button below.
Find a Local Compassionate Bereavement Care Provider
When a traumatic death occurs, such as the death of a child, not just any counselor, physician, nurse, clergy, or therapist will understand the complexities and challenges of grieving family members.
It is critical to find a provider who specializes in traumatic grief. An effective provider will walk with you, help you connect with your feelings, and help you discover ways to cope with the overwhelming sense of loss.
Should I seek counseling or support?
Formal counseling isn’t always necessary but for some it can be helpful, particularly when the provider has been well-trained in traumatic grief. This training, however, is exceedingly rare. Organizations like the MISS Foundation, Parents of Murdered Children, CASPER, and Compassionate Friends can provide a support network for you and your family. Note that support groups, however, are not therapeutic groups. Traumatic grief can be so debilitating that supportive and loving counseling by trained providers may help change lives.
Many people seek counseling and therapy to help them balance their ongoing lives in the aftermath and chaos of traumatic grief. Social support through family, friends, and support groups (online or in person), exercise, sunshine, and contemplative practices (prayer or meditation) may be very effective in helping you and your family.
A provider who is Certified in Compassionate Bereavement Care®, however, may help at a much deeper level, addressing trauma specifically, interpersonal relationships, feelings of guilt, shame, or self-blame, and can even help with past events that negatively affect daily functioning and further add to the trauma of your Beloved’s death.
Many who are traumatically bereaved, over our two decades of existence, have come to us, asking for help in finding a safe, well-educated, and compassionate provider. Sadly, many providers were not getting sufficiently specialized training to prepare them for helping the traumatically bereaved. In an effort to correct this situation, the Center for Loss and Trauma, a partnership between the MISS and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Foundations, two leading organizations in bereavement support and education, now offer thorough training and certification to providers who work with those who are traumatically bereaved.
Are you looking for a provider who has been trained in the specialization area of traumatic grief? Find a Compassionate Bereavement Care Certified Provider here.
Please read: It is absolutely essential that anyone contacting or seeking services from providers listed on this site take responsibility for interviewing, assessing and evaluating the provider’s ability to fulfill what he or she needs in counseling/therapy for traumatic grief. This provider list is a free service without any warranty concerning the identity, value, quality or ethics of the practitioners or facilities. All providers listed have obtained our training and have committed to being in alignment with our philosophy of care for traumatic grief. However, we do not have the ability to measure their fidelity to the program. We welcome your feedback, however, and will consider this when revising and updating our list. Completion of the Compassionate Bereavement Care® Certification course does not automatically warrant referral to you as a provider. We take our clients’ feedback seriously and reserve the right to cease referrals should repeated concerns be brought to our attention.
Attend a Support Group
The MISS Foundation provides monthly, free support groups in various locations around the world. Our trained facilitators and co-facilitators are also bereaved parents themselves, and they will be happy to give you more information about their group meetings, locations, and other local resources.
If you’d like to find out if there is a Support Group near you, please follow the link below to our MISS Foundation map.
Note: All of our in-person support groups are currently canceled due to the COVID-19 health concerns and restrictions in the U.S. and abroad. We will resume in-person meetings as soon as we are able to. Thank you.
Carefarm Retreat for Traumatic Grief
Pause, Reflect, Discover Meaning
A contemplative retreat for traumatic bereavement at the Selah Carefarm near Sedona, Arizona.
Come, rest, breathe, just be…
Our beloved dead remain a part of us always. That means grief remains a part of us, and so does love.
– Joanne Cacciatore
Join Our Online Support Group Forums
The MISS Foundation provides free, 24/7, fully-moderated online support group forums. Our moderators are fully trained and are also bereaved parents, grandparents, or siblings themselves. If you are new to the forums, you’ll need to apply for membership which will take 24 to 78 hours before it clears. All applications and moderation are handled by human beings, all volunteer moderators, so please be patient and kind to them!
If you’d like to apply to join our online support group Forums, click the button below.
OUR SERVICES AND WHO WE SERVE
For the grieving, we offer support through educational resources, mentors, forums, retreats, carefarm program, counseling, support groups, kindness walks, retreats and more. We provide key resources for community members, families, supporters and others helping someone experiencing traumatic grief. We offer researchers key insight into grief studies on trauma and loss, carefarming, green therapy, mindfulness and more. We offer providers specialized training and resources to improve their skills working compassionately with traumatized individuals. We provide grassroots advocacy support on important issues affecting our grieving families. We provide a sacred place for grieving individuals to connect with rescue animals who have also experienced the deepest suffering.
