“Walking beside humanity during its most tender miles.”

There comes a moment after loss when the world expects movement, but the heart is still catching its breath. The crisis may have passed. Support may have faded. Life may be quietly asking for participation again. And yet, internally something feels paused. Grief and the Next Mile™ exists for this space. Not the raw beginning. Not the polished “after.” But the living middle where individuals are still orienting themselves to a life that has changed.

What Grief and the Next Mile™ Is

Grief and the Next Mile™ is a compassionate, facilitator-led focused framework designed to support individuals as they re-engage with life after loss without rushing, fixing, or forcing outcomes. It is about recognizing that something irrevocable has happened and yet, life continues to ask us to participate.

Rather than positioning grief as something to “get over,” this framework honors grief as a natural response to change, disruption, and loss across the full spectrum of the human experience.

This is not about pushing people forward. It is about meeting them where they are and helping them identify what the next honest mile looks like emotionally, mentally, relationally, spiritually, and practically.

Grief and the Next Mile™ provides:

• Structure without pressure

• Guidance without direction

• Permission without expectation

What This Framework Is Not

Grief and the Next Mile™ is not:

• A step-by-step grief program

• A set of stages to complete

• A therapeutic or clinical model

• A promise of healing, closure, or transformation

• A timeline for readiness

• A requirement to relive or process the loss

• A motivation-based or productivity framework

This work does not ask, “Where do you want to be?” It asks, “Where are you standing and what feels possible from here?”

The Next Mile Metaphor

In endurance walking, running, and in life itself, the next mile is not about the entire journey.

It is simply:

• Where am I now?

• What do I need to take one more step?

• What is realistic, honest, and compassionate at this point?

Grief and the Next Mile™ does not promise resolution, closure, transformation, or arrival. It offers a choice point or a pause between what was and what may still be possible.

The Wide Spectrum of Loss

While rooted in grief wisdom, Grief and the Next Mile™ intentionally expands beyond the loss of a loved one to honor the full landscape of human loss, including:

• Loss of identity or role

• Loss of health or physical ability

• Loss of career, purpose, or financial security

• Loss of relationships (divorce, estrangement, friendship loss)

• Loss of dreams, plans, or imagined futures

• Life transitions that arrive without consent

• Collective and cumulative losses that quietly reshape us

This framework recognizes that grief is not event specific. It is impact specific. If something mattered, if something changed you, if something required you to recalibrate your life, this framework is designed to meet you there. It is adaptable across individual coaching, workplace settings, group facilitation, community programs, leadership development, and wellness and resilience initiatives.

Why This Framework Exists

Many individuals reach a point where:

• The crisis phase has passed

• Support has faded

• Expectations to “be okay by now” surface

Yet, internally they may feel:

• Unsure how to re-enter life without betraying what mattered

• Cautious about joy

• Exhausted by advice

• Stuck between honoring the past and engaging in the future

Grief and the Next Mile™ exists for this middle terrain. Not the raw beginning. Not the polished “after.” But the living middle. This framework exists because:

• Individuals are often moving forward on the outside while standing still inside

• Many feel pressure to perform “being okay” before they actually are

• Coaches, leaders, and facilitators need language, structure, and permission-based tools to hold space without fixing

Grief and the Next Mile™ exists for this middle terrain offering companionship, clarity, support, and permission to move at one’s own pace.

The Eight Miles of Re-Engagement

Grief and the Next Mile™ is organized around eight core areas of life where grief and loss often quietly show up and where gentle re-engagement becomes possible. These miles are not stages. They are not linear. They can be entered in any order and revisited as needed.

The eight miles include:

• The Mile of Standing Still

• The Mile of Capacity

• The Mile of Identity

• The Mile of Emotion and Inner Life

• The Mile of Connection

• The Mile of Meaning

• The Mile of Joy and Permission

• The Mile of Choice and Looking Ahead

Mile One: Standing Still

This Mile honors the moment when something has irrevocably changed and forward movement feels impossible or inappropriate. It recognizes that stillness is not failure. It is often the body’s and heart’s most honest response to disruption or loss.

Standing Still invites permission to pause without explanation, urgency, or expectation. It creates safety by acknowledging that not all movement is visible, and not all movement is required.

Mile Two: Capacity

This Mile centers on honoring what is realistically available emotionally, mentally, physically, relationally, and spiritually. It acknowledges that capacity fluctuates and that depletion is not a deficit.

Capacity invites awareness without judgment, helping individuals notice what they can and cannot carry right now, without pushing, stretching, or striving.

Mile Three: Identity

This Mile recognizes that loss often unsettles how people see themselves, their roles, and their place in the world. Familiar labels may loosen, and the sense of “who I am” may feel unclear or unfamiliar.

Identity invites space for not knowing, allowing self-understanding to shift without pressure to redefine or reinvent.

Mile Four: Emotion and Inner Life

This Mile honors the full emotional landscape, including intensity, numbness, confusion, contradiction, and silence. It recognizes that inner experience does not need to be explained, labeled, or managed to be valid.

Emotion and Inner Life invites permission for feelings to exist as they are, trusting that emotional movement occurs naturally when not forced or interpreted.

Mile Five: Connection

This Mile acknowledges how relationships, belonging, and proximity often change after loss. Some connections may fade, others feel overwhelming, and solitude may become necessary.

Connection invites respect for shifting relational needs without pressure to repair, reconnect, or explain boundaries.

Mile Six: Meaning

This Mile holds questions of belief, faith, purpose, and worldview that often arise when life no longer makes sense. It honors doubt, uncertainty, and the absence of meaning without attempting resolution.

Meaning invites permission to not know, recognizing that clarity may return quietly, differently, or not at all.

Mile Seven: Joy and Permission

This Mile recognizes that moments of lightness, relief, or joy may surface, often followed by guilt, hesitation, or fear. It honors joy as compatible with grief, not evidence of moving on.

Joy and Permission invites space for enjoyment without justification, explanation, or pressure to sustain it.

Mile Eight: Choice and Looking Ahead

This Mile honors the quiet emergence of agency and possibility. It allows individuals to consider the future without committing to it and to imagine without deciding.

Choice and Looking Ahead invites openness without agenda, respecting that readiness fluctuates and that choice is a relationship with possibility, not a demand for direction.

The Miles Together: The Miles are not steps to complete or stages to move through. They are reference points. Those inner places where grief often lives and where life may begin to re-enter. Individuals may visit the same Mile many times, skip others entirely, or experience several at once. The framework respects pacing, dignity, and personal truth above all else.

Grief and the Next Mile™ does not promise transformation. It offers compassionate companionship one honest mile at a time. Facilitators are trained to meet individuals where they are already standing, not to move them through a prescribed path.

About the Facilitator Certification Program

Grief and the Next Mile™ is designed to be held and guided by trained facilitators equipped with a clear, ethical, and repeatable framework for walking beside others through loss and life transition.

This program is for:

• Coaches and facilitators

• Helping professionals

• Leaders and educators

• Guides who hold space for others navigating change and loss

The program equips facilitators with:

• A clear, non-linear framework

• Language that does not minimize grief

• Tools adaptable across populations and settings

• Ethical boundaries between facilitation, coaching, and therapy

• Confidence to guide without fixing

Facilitators are trained to:

• Meet individuals exactly where they are

• Normalize pauses, detours, and plateaus

• Guide exploration without directing outcomes

• Help people identify what feels possible now

Created by Dora Carpenter, CPC, founder of the Institute of Professional Grief Coaching (IOPGC), Grief and the Next Mile™ reflects decades of experience walking beside individuals and training grief coaches to support those navigating loss with dignity, compassion, and care.

What Makes This Framework Different

This framework:

• Does not medicalize grief and is non-therapeutic

• Does not promise transformation timelines

• Does not assume readiness

• Does not require reliving the loss

Instead, it:

• Honors what was

• Assesses what is

• Supports what’s next without pressure 

This work is not about teaching people how to grieve. It is about helping people walk with grief while re-entering life with dignity, pacing, and self-trust.

One step. One mile. Then another. Then a pause. Then another. This makes the framework adaptable across:

• Individual coaching

• Workplace settings

• Group facilitation

• Community programs

• Leadership development

• Wellness and resilience initiatives

No one is pushed to run. No one is left standing alone on the road. Participants are not taught what to feel. They are supported in discovering how to live alongside what they feel. Grief and the Next Mile™ is about continuation, not correction. About lighting the next stretch of the path, not forcing a destination.

What the Facilitator Program Includes

Enrollment in the Grief and the Next Mile™ Facilitator Certification Program includes:

On-Demand Video Training

A thoughtfully structured series of video modules that introduce the framework, explore each of the Eight Miles in depth, and guide facilitators in developing the posture, language, and presence required for this work. The training is designed to be completed at your own pace, with space for reflection and integration.

Facilitator Conversation Guide

A detailed, facilitator-facing guide that supports real-world conversations. This guide focuses on:

• listening cues

• facilitator posture

• supportive language

• ethical boundaries

• common pitfalls to avoid

It is not a script or manual. It is a companion for presence.

Participant Companion Guide

A gentle, participant-facing guide designed to support reflection without pressure. This guide offers:

• compassionate orientation

• optional reflections for each Mile

• permission-based language

• space for writing, noticing, or pausing

Facilitators use this guide to support participants without directing outcomes or requiring disclosure.

Facilitator Promise and Ethical Framework

Clear articulation of the values, boundaries, and responsibilities that guide the use of Grief and the Next Mile™. This ensures consistency, integrity, and respect for participants across settings.

Certification, Licensing, and Use of the Framework

Upon certification, facilitators are authorized to use the Grief and the Next Mile™ framework in their work with individuals, groups, organizations, and communities, in accordance with program guidelines. Certification is earned once. Licensing reflects an ongoing commitment to ethical use of intellectual property. Licensing renews annually to maintain active facilitator designation.

This Grief and the Next Mile™ Facilitator Certification Program is not an ICF-accredited program and does not confer ICF credentials.

 Early Access Facilitator Launch

The initial launch of the Grief and the Next Mile™ Facilitator Certification Program is limited to the first 25 facilitators.

Early Access Facilitators receive:

• Discounted full online certification training and first-year licensing

• Priority placement in future facilitator directory listings

• Early engagement with the evolving framework

If something in this work resonates with you, you’re invited to request an informational chat with Dora Carpenter to learn more about the Facilitator Certification Program and explore whether this path feels aligned for you at this time.

“You don’t have to know the whole road. You only need permission to take the next step, the next mile in your own way, in your own time. This framework does not promise transformation. It offers companionship, clarity, and courage. And it trusts that when people are met without urgency, life finds its way back in quietly, honestly, and sustainably.” – Dora Carpenter

Important Disclaimer. This program is educational and facilitative in nature and is not intended to replace professional counseling, therapy, or mental health services. Grief and the Next Mile™ does not diagnose, treat, cure, or heal grief. Facilitators do not provide clinical or therapeutic services. If you are experiencing thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or visit 988lifeline.org for immediate support.