Center to Advance Palliative Care

While I am always an advocate of advanced training, often good personality and experience can account for much. I am familiar with two credentialing bodies that both offer fairly rigorous certification:
The Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) offers a certificate in Thanatology (CT) but it requires a master's degree. {http://adec.org}
And the American Academy of Grief Counseling (AAGC) also offers a reputable certification in Grief Counseling {http://www.aihcp.org/aagc.htm}. I have seen several bereavement professionals to hold credentialing in both organizations. Personally I have found ADEC's networking and advocacy to be an invaluable support. I would strongly recommend your counselor join either of both even if she/he does not yet meet the certification standards.

ADEC maintains a partial list of education opportunities and training: {http://adec.org/events/courses.cfm} and AAGC offers proprietary online courses. I have heard excellent feedback and some initial research to indicate that online offerings are becoming very high quality.

The ADEC conference is in Dallas next week, I will keep an eye out for programs more local to NY.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Tim Ford
Palliative Chaplain
VCU Massey Cancer Center