TUCSON, Ariz (KGUN9). - A local organization is seeing an increase in the amount of grief counseling training sessions its employees are giving to school employees.
Tu Nidito specializes in helping grieving children, and over the past few months staff have taken those talents virtual.
Amanda Marks, who works with Tu Nidito, told KGUN9 they began giving the grief counseling training sessions to school staff over the summer.
“We really wanted to provide the support and awareness of how to really be there for a child when they’re grieving, whether it’s someone in their life who has died or the loss of normalcy, the loss of being able to go to school, the loss of friendships, any other type of losses that they’re experiencing right now," said Marks.
Marks told KGUN9 during those training sessions she emphasizes to teachers that different aged children grieve in different ways.
“It’s about 50 to 60 minutes where, depending on the school’s platform, it could be a ZOOM or a google meet, I go through pretty extensive presentation of ‘this is what grief looks liken children. This is what a kindergartner might be experiencing, this is what a high schooler might be experiencing," she said.
Marks said the grief counseling training sessions are free for schools that are interested in incorporating them into their lesson plans.
