Grief & Loss
In the Realm of Wounding & Healing
1: Start a grief journal to explore your feelings, memories, and reflections.
1: Start a grief journal to explore your feelings, memories, and reflections.Books & Journals
- How to Carry What Can’t Be Fixed – Journal by Megan Devine: This journal contains no clichés, timetables, or checklists of stages to get through; it won’t help you “move on” or put your loss behind you. Instead, you’ll find encouragement, self-care exercises, and daily tools to help you manage and explore your grief.
- The Grief Recovery Handbook – by Hansen & Friedman: An Action Program for moving beyond death, divorce, and other losses including health, career, and faith.
- Bearing the Unbearable – guided journal for Grieving – by Joanne Cacciatore: beautifully designed book offers 52 writing prompts for exploring grief and journaling about those whom we’ve lost. Writing about those we’ve lost can be part of a contemplative practice, alone or with therapists, family, friends, or with a grief support group.
Podcasts 🎧
- Grief Witnessed Podcast: a podcast about the kind of grief we don’t talk about enough and the power of being truly seen inside it.
2: Create rituals, altars, grief collages, and quiet spaces to honor yourself and others.
Books 📚
- The Wild Edge of Sorrow – by Frances Weller: Grounded in ritual and connection, this book welcomes each grief with care and attention, opening us to the feelings, experiences, and sacred knowledge that connect us to each other and ultimately make us whole.
- Sacred Rituals – by Belinda Recio: Creating Labyrinths, Sand Paintings, and Other Traditional Arts.
- Ritual as Remedy – Embodied Practices for Soul Care – by Mara Branscombe: Connecting with the pagan wheel of the year, the five elements, and the lunar cycle, soulstirring rituals and step-by-step healing protocols show a path towards a deeper, heart-centered living.
- Altars, Circles & Sacred Spaces – by EM Fairchild: strength of your Altar, Circle, and Sacred Space equates to the depth of your practice. Pick up your copy now and learn the basics of putting together an altar, casting a circle, and designating a sacred space.
Websites & Courses 📝
- Creating a Grief Altar: From a photo or a memento on a dresser to something more elaborate, designating a special place to remember a loved one can be healing
- How to Make a Home Altar for a Comforting Grief Ritual
- Grief Rituals and Memorial Ceremonies
- Things to Consider When Creating A Grief Ritual
- Elements of an Ofrenda: On this day (or days, as the celebrations begin from October 28th to November 3rd) it is believed that loved ones who have passed come visit us from beyond, or Mictlán which is the underworld from Aztec mythology.
3: When emotions and grief feel heavy, you might draw, play music, write a song, dance or simply shake your body to move through and with them.
Books 📚
- Trauma and Expressive Arts Therapy – by Cathy Malchiodi: describes powerful ways to tap into deeply felt bodily and sensory experiences as a foundation for safely exploring emotions, memories, and personal narratives. Rich examples illustrate the use of movement, sound, play, art, and drama with children and adults.
- Tending Grief – Embodied Rituals… – by Camille Sapara Barton: Embodied rituals for holding our sorrow and growing cultures of care in community.
- Essential Art Therapy Exercises – by Leah Guzman: offers a range of creative art activities to help you better understand yourself, develop control over your emotions, and aid the healing process.
- Painting Memories – Expressing Emotions through Art – by Alisa Clark: (Kindle edition) uncovers the truth that memories, feelings, our present moment, and our dreams can be captured and set free on our canvas. Alisa shares to guide “creatives” who wish to capture memories, emotions, and experiences as they explore their own creative process.
Videos 🎦
- Art Therapy with Sana – YouTube Channel: this is a great topic for a youtube channel and this one looks like so much fun with guidance for doable creative exercises on themes like: painting hope, gratitude, anxiety into art, art therapy journal prompts, brain healing, trauma healing and more…
Podcasts 🎧
- Songtown on Songwriting Podcast: this is a fun and inspirational podcast that tackles songwriting for passion, inspiration, or professional/indie release in many different ways. Short inspirational episodes. Check it out!
- Story-First Songwriting Podcast: helps you look BEYOND lyric structure and form AND focus on what’s important: the CONTENT, the MESSAGE and the EXPERIENCE that your lyrics give your audience. Look at how to hook, move, and impact your audience. Very cool. Fun way to integrate and tell a healing story through song!
Websites 🌐
- 100 Art Therapy Exercises: simple, doable, tangible art therapy exercises with examples and directions
- Songwriter Soiree: songwriting resources and events for anyone wishing to express themselves or their story through song
4: You don’t have to navigate grief on your own. Support can be found in many places – local or online groups, hospitals, spiritual communities, grief workshops and retreats… You might also connect with professionals who specialize in bereavement, art therapy, grief counseling, or trauma care.
Books 📚
- Tending Grief – Embodied Rituals… – by Camille Sapara Barton: Embodied rituals for holding our sorrow and growing cultures of care in community.
Videos 🎦
- Grief 2 Growth YouTube Channel: We like Brian Smith – thank you! This is a neat channel! Whether coping with loss, seeking mental health support, or pursuing self-improvement, this channel offers insights and guidance. Reframe tragedy, find meaning, and integrate experiences into a purposeful life.
Podcasts 🎧
- Grief Out Loud Podcast – from the Dougy Center: Grief Out Loud is opening up this often avoided conversation because grief is hard enough without having to go through it alone. A mix of personal stories, tips for supporting children, teens, and yourself + interviews with bereavement professionals.
Websites / Programs / Groups
- The Dinner Party Community: connect with others also experiencing grief and loss through structured dinner conversations that build community – virtual and in-person events available. A beautiful concept and a great resource for those experiencing loss.
- LGBTQ Loss Community: online and regional resources / events / info / training and more. For and By Members of the LGBTQIA community grieving the death of a loved one. A resource conceived, developed and launched by Volunteers of the public non-profit My Grief Angels – MyGriefAngels.org
- The Center for Loss & Bereavement: Local, Regional and National (US) resources for grief and loss. This is a great collection of resources for the US.
- Network of Hope – GRIEF SUPPORT: another great collection of orgs and programs for grief support in both US and International.
- GRIEF.COM: so many resources, materials, education, training, and more here for those in grief, for professionals and more…
5: Explore thoughtful books, podcasts, everyday coping strategies, and other resources to support you in times of grief and loss.
Books 📚
- Tending Grief – Embodied Rituals… – by Camille Sapara Barton: Embodied rituals for holding our sorrow and growing cultures of care in community.
- Grieving Is Loving – Compassionate Words for Bearing the Unbearable – by Dr. Joanne Cacciatore: This book is comprised of quotations from Bearing the Unbearable, and other sources as well, plus an enormous amount of new material from Dr. Jo. Especially well-suited for the grieving mind that may struggle with concentration, just 30 seconds on any page will empower, hearten, and validate any bereaved person—helping give strength and courage to bear life’s most painful losses.
- Bearing the Unbearable Guided Journal for Grieving – by Dr. Joanne Cacciatore: provides incredible support and guidance, as writing prompts, for anyone experiencing traumatic loss and grief.
- The Wild Edge of Sorrow – by Francis Weller: balm for the soul and a necessary salve for moving together through difficult times. Grounded in ritual and connection, this book welcomes each grief with care and attention, opening us to the feelings, experiences, and sacred knowledge that connect us to each other and ultimately make us whole.
Videos 🎦
- Grief 2 Growth YouTube Channel: We like Brian Smith – thank you! This is a neat channel! Whether coping with loss, seeking mental health support, or pursuing self-improvement, this channel offers insights and guidance. Reframe tragedy, find meaning, and integrate experiences into a purposeful life.
Podcasts 🎧
- Grief Out Loud Podcast – from the Dougy Center: Grief Out Loud is opening up this often avoided conversation because grief is hard enough without having to go through it alone. A mix of personal stories, tips for supporting children, teens, and yourself + interviews with bereavement professionals.
Websites / Programs / Groups
- The Dinner Party Community: connect with others also experiencing grief and loss through structured dinner conversations that build community – virtual and in-person events available. A beautiful concept and a great resource for those experiencing loss.
- LGBTQ Loss Community: online and regional resources / events / info / training and more. For and By Members of the LGBTQIA community grieving the death of a loved one. A resource conceived, developed and launched by Volunteers of the public non-profit My Grief Angels – MyGriefAngels.org
- The Center for Loss & Bereavement: Local, Regional and National (US) resources for grief and loss. This is a great collection of resources for the US.
- Network of Hope – GRIEF SUPPORT: another great collection of orgs and programs for grief support in both US and International.
- GRIEF.COM: so many resources, materials, education, training, and more here for those in grief, for professionals and more…