learn gentle touch for grief.

We help compassionate massage therapists feel skilled, confident and prepared to serve grievers.

welcome to the first school dedicated to Grief Massage.

We offer a comprehensive Grief Massage continuing education training, created by the the first ever NCBTMB approved Grief Massage teacher.

Our program covers: Grief Massage techniques, cultural aspects of grief & loss, grief theory, how grief affects the body and nervous system, how to handle grief-related emotional release, how to feel grounded and held by your scope of practice, how to approach Grief Massage marketing with sensitivity and how to create a self-preservation (self-care) practice that helps prevent burnout.

Our training program meets you where you are and offers multiple options and formats: fully online, Zoom live webinar and live in-person classes.

We love to work with brand new massage therapists, very experienced bodyworkers, mobile massage professionals, independent practitioners, massage clinic therapists, spa employees, dual licensed bodyworker-counselors and more! Many students already offer related services like end-of-life massage, fertility/prenatal massage, hospice massage and oncology massage.

Beginners are welcome too! What all our learners have in common is a desire to feel skilled, confident and prepared when offering touch to grieving people.

Education matters.

We can support you.

Come as you are and join our community of learners. whether you are already highly educated on loss or completely new to this topic, you are welcome here.

Grief and loss are human experiences that will affect each one of us at some point in our life.

if you are curious about Grief Massage after experiencing a loss of your own, if you are feeling overwhelmed after an experience with a grieving massage client, if you are feeling inspired after an experience with a grieving massage client, if you feel fed up with the grief-denial that runs rampant in our culture, if you are interested in new options for using gentle touch, if you are eager to help create a kinder, gentler world, or even if you are simply looking to earn CE while expanding your knowledge of grief…we would love to help you learn important new skills. We are here to help.

Grief Massage is unique and different.

we teach A Cultural grief Perspective.

In our training program, we take the time to thoroughly educate massage therapists on grief & loss and cultural grief-phobia/death denial. We understand that learning a particular sequence and practicing certain techniques is not enough to prepare massage therapists for working with grieving clients.

A cultural perspective (one that acknowledges rampant grief-shaming, grief-avoidance and death denial in modern life) is necessary for Grief Massage practitioners to respond sensitively to clients.

we teach Holding Space Instead of “Fixing”grief.

We train our students on the importance of witnessing (not “fixing”) grief. We help massage therapists learn to hold space, trust the moment, and “just be” with a client.

There’s a lot more to Grief Massage than a simple list of techniques or a particular bodywork sequence.

The good news: becoming more grief literate can help you be a much more effective Grief Massage practitioner (as well as an overall more sensitive, empathetic and compassionate human).

Grief Massage asks us to create and hold safe space. We prepare you to do so, while also providing the practical information you expect from any massage therapy continuing education course.

You can start out (and learn a lot) by reading our free general tips and insights. And, when you feel ready to really start specializing in this work, you can rely on us for a solid, detailed, well-researched, step-by-step Grief Massage education.

Want to learn more about us?

how we got started

In 2007, our founder Aimee graduated from massage school and felt a strong call to serve grieving people. She had entered massage training as newly grieving human (her brother Chris died suddenly in 2005, just 12 weeks before Aimee began her training in massage). Experiences of receiving touch as a trainee inspired Aimee to offer therapeutic touch to other grievers.

She created the Grief Massage modality, began training others through Community Service Grants from The Massage Therapy Foundation in 2012 and 2013 and gained NCBTMB approval for the first-ever Grief Massage training course in 2014.

Our organization exists to make Grief Massage mainstream by offering high quality education and support to massage therapists. We believe that a solid, detailed, well-researched, step-by-step Grief Massage education is vital for practitioners who want to specialize in this work.

watch Aimee’s interviews

Massage therapist and integrative health student Jean Rosecrans interviewed Aimee about IGM and Grief Massage as part of a capstone project. Watch the interview by clicking here. Aimee was also interviewed about Grief Massage in late 2023 by Taj and TJ Jackson of the DeeDee Jackson’s “Power of Love” show. Watch the interview by clicking here.