THE NEW PARADIGM for GRIEF & Trauma WORK with children
A Global Movement So Children Are Never Alone With Their Pain
Join trusted adults, practitioners, educators, and caregivers
worldwide in transforming how we support grieving and traumatized children.
Supported by Cynthia L. White & Hiro Ito
THE OLD VS. THE NEW
The Paradigm Shift
Traditional Grief Work
Treating children like small adults
Isolated clinical focus behind closed doors
Pathologizing natural emotional responses
Focusing solely on symptom reduction
Children left isolated with their complex feelings
Cultural context ignored
Connection treated as secondary
The Movement Paradigm
Holistic support tailored to their developmental stage
Community integration involving family and safe adults
Giving all trusted adults practical, actionable tools
Unconditional love as the active healing environment
Post-traumatic growth as the horizon
Never alone with their pain
OUR VISION
Childhood Grief & Trauma Care Knows No Borders
THE GLOBAL INVITATION
Who Should Join
Wherever children grieve or struggle with trauma — at home, at school, in clinical settings, across cultures and continents — trusted adults are needed who
*know how to be unconditionally present.*
If you live or work alongside children, this movement is for you — what you bring to a grieving and traumatized child — your presence, your willingness, your love
changes everything.
We are building a global community of trusted adults who refuse to let any
child carry grief or trauma alone.
Personal Support Network
Parents, caregivers, foster parents, family, and friends who don't have to have all the answers to make a profound difference in a child's life, but you have all the heart and desire to ease their pain. This movement gives you something more powerful than answers, more powerful than their pain. It gives you a way of being present that any child can feel. Learn how unconditional love, practiced in everyday moments, becomes the foundation a traumatized or grieving child needs to heal.
Frontline Community Helpers
Faith leaders, educators, school counselors, nurses, pediatricians, orphanage staff, traumatized and grieving children sit in your office
or classroom every day,
often invisible, often silent.
This movement gives you what no curriculum can: the ability to recognize a grieving child, meet them where they are, and become a trusted presence that changes the trajectory of their healing. You don't need more skills. You don't need a strategy or plan. You need to know how to show up.
Mental Health & Grief Professionals
Psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, counselors, grief support workers, social workers, social welfare workers, most clinical training teaches you what to do to a grieving and traumatized child. This movement asks a different question — who do you need to be? The GriefCynergy model gives mental health & grief professionals a relational foundation that goes beyond symptom reduction, bringing unconditional presence into the heart of your work with grieving and traumatized children.
THE PATHWAY
Your Transformation
Begins Here
This work takes you step by step through a model that has supported grieving and traumatized children across cultures and continents for over 30 years. Each section builds on the last — moving from understanding to practice, and from knowledge to unconditional presence.
Session 1: The Joining Experience
Most trusted adults don't stay silent because they don't care — they stay silent because they are afraid of making it worse. That fear has a cost, and grieving and traumatized children pay it every day.
In this free 1 1/2 hour presentation, Cynthia L. White & Hiro Ito give you the one skill that breaks through that silence — the Joining skill, the practice of unconditional presence that any trusted adult can learn and every grieving and traumatized child needs. No clinical background. No perfect words. Just the willingness to show up. One hour followed by 30 minutes of Q&A.
This is where your transformation begins.
Session 2: The Practice of Presence
Knowing about the Joining skill and being able to use it with a grieving and traumatized child in a real moment are two different things. This two-hour webinar is where knowledge becomes practice.
Cynthia L. White & Hiro Ito take you inside the Joining skill — why it works, how it works, and exactly when and where to use it. You will leave having practiced in real time, with the confidence to show up for the grieving and traumatized children already in your life.
This is not observation. This is transformation.
Session 3: Transformed to Transform
Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross taught me, "You can only take others in their healing as far as you have taken yourself."
Every trusted adult who sits with grieving and traumatized children carries a cost — and without understanding that cost, even the most committed presence burns out.
In this six-hour immersive webinar, Cynthia L. White & Hiro Ito take you beyond survival strategies into something deeper — the foundations of genuine self-care, the mechanisms of post-traumatic growth, and the profound connection between your own healing and your capacity to bring unconditional love through the Joining skill.
This is not about managing stress. This is about growing through it — and discovering that the same presence that heals grieving and traumatized children has the power to transform you.
What You Gain
The Joining skill sequence reference card
Bilingual English/Japanese resource documents
Age-appropriate grief and trauma conversation guides
Self-care and post-traumatic growth frameworks
Recommended reading aligned with the GriefCynergy model
Printable parent and trusted adult handouts
Looking for full certification? Our 16-hour GriefCynergy Certification Program is coming soon.
Join the movement. Become the trusted presence that ensures no grieving or traumatized child is ever alone.
PRACTITIONER EXPERIENCES
Stories of Impact
★★★★★
"The GriefCynergy approach gave me the tools to truly hold space. It's not about fixing; it's about ensuring no child is ever alone with their pain."
Sarah Jenkins
School Counselor
★★★★★
"A profound shift in how we support trauma. The curriculum is beautifully structured, empowering practitioners to create safe harbors for deep healing."
Dr. Marcus Thorne
Child Psychologist
★★★★★
"I used to feel overwhelmed by the depth of childhood grief. This paradigm provided a compassionate framework that honors their unique, delicate journey."
Elena Rodriguez
Community Social Worker
★★★★★
"The global movement is real. Integrating these principles into my daily practice has entirely transformed how I connect with grieving families worldwide."
Liam O'Connor
Pediatric Nurse
About the Founders
THE ARCHITECTS OF THE MOVEMENT
Decades of Experience. One Urgent Mission.
Cynthia L. White & Hiro Ito are the co-founders of GriefCynergy. Cynthia is the author of Everything That Happens Is Right: A Quantum Model for Grief Work with Children. Together they bring over 45 years of direct experience supporting grieving and traumatized children across cultures and continents — including international grief work in Japan following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.
Cynthia came to this work first as a child — one who experienced foster care and discovered, in her fourth placement, what unconditional love could do. That experience, combined with foundational training under Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and years of leadership at the Dougy Center as training director, shaped a life devoted to ensuring no child carries grief or trauma alone.
Hiro's path began in Japanese children's care homes, where early parental loss gave him a lived understanding of what grieving children carry.
In 2001, Cynthia and Hiro co-founded Kids Hurt Too Hawaii, a nonprofit delivering direct supportive services to grieving and traumatized children — an organization they built and led together for over two decades. That work became the proving ground for everything GriefCynergy now offers the world.
Together, their model goes beyond clinical technique — rooted in unconditional love, the Joining skill, and the conviction that no grieving or traumatized child should ever carry that weight alone.
GriefCynergy is their life's work — and the foundation of a global movement.
ENROLLMENT
Join the Movement
Step into a movement that is redefining what is possible for grieving and traumatized children. Join a global community of trusted adults who have chosen presence over protocol — and are changing lives because of it.
Transformation Begins Here
Everything you need to understand, practice, and carry the GriefCynergy model into the lives of grieving and traumatized children — and to do it as part of a global movement that is changing what is possible for children everywhere.
Complete 6-Part GriefCynergy Training Journey
Practical Skills for Real Moments with Grieving and Traumatized Children
Global Movement Community Access
Official GriefCynergy Practitioner Certificate of Completion
Your Path Into the Movement
Part 1: The Joining Experience — Free — 1 Hour
Part 2: The Practice of Presence — $97 — 2 Hours
Part 3: Transformed to Transform — $297 — 6 Hours
All sessions include lifetime access. Begin with Part 1 at no cost and continue at your own pace.
Ensure no child is never alone with their pain.
CLARITY BEFORE YOU COMMIT
Common Questions
Is this training suitable for parents, or only clinical professionals?
This movement is for everyone who supports grieving and traumatized children. Whether you are a parent, caregiver, educator, social worker, or mental health professional, the GriefCynergy paradigm provides practical tools to ensure no child is left alone with their pain.
How is the curriculum delivered?
All courses are live webinars that are designed to be accessible to our global community. When we open our membership portal, you will be able to engage with the courses through recordings of the webinars, join ongoing live forums and do practice exercises from anywhere in the world, on your own schedule.
Does this paradigm address trauma alongside grief?
Yes. Grieving children often experience compounding trauma. And, trauma results in tangible and intangible losses. Our approach integrates trauma-informed care with compassionate grief work, offering a holistic framework for holding space and facilitating healing.
Will I be able to connect with other practitioners?
Absolutely. Joining the course means joining a worldwide movement. You will have access to our global practitioner network to share insights, ask questions, and build meaningful professional relationships across borders.
How long do I have access to the materials?
When you join our membership network, you will receive lifetime access to the core curriculum and all future updates to these courses. The work of supporting grieving and traumatized children is ongoing, and your access to these resources should be too.
Still Need Clarity?
Our support team is here to help you decide if this training is the right fit for your practice.
AN INVITATION TO THE MOVEMENT
So No Child Is Ever Alone
Join trusted adults worldwide who are transforming how we support grieving and traumatized children. Become the presence that ensures no child is ever alone with their grief or trauma.
Secure enrollment • Global community access
GriefCynergy is a global movement co-founded by Cynthia L. White and Hiro Ito. Rooted in over 45 years of direct experience with grieving and traumatized children, we are redefining what grief work looks like — building a worldwide community of trusted adults committed to ensuring no grieving or traumatized child is ever alone.
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