Coping with
Death
Coping with Death
Supporting Children Grieving a Death
Though death is a fact of life, it can be hard for anyone to experience this kind of loss, let alone a child. Helping children cope with death is a difficult process that involves empathy and patience.
How does death affect children?
For children, the process of grieving the death of a loved one can start with denial. The child may not be able to understand the concept of death and its implications, even to the point of disbelief. Grief may appear as feelings of guilt or responsibility. Young children may make attempts to search for their loved one in an effort to find them and bring them back. For a child, coping with the death of a parent is especially difficult, as other members of the family are in the process of grieving as well.
HOW DOES RAINBOWS PROVIDE SUPPORT?
Rainbows for All Children has helped more than 3.5 million youth over the past 38 years, and continues to serve all children, regardless of age, race, gender or financial ability. If you know a child grieving from a loss, click here to find Rainbows programming near you. The Rainbows program is free for all participants anywhere in the world that groups meet.
By joining the Rainbows community as a facilitator or a participant, you gain access to an effective and engaging curriculum, a community of peers for those experiencing a loss, and materials and training to help facilitators prepare.
Helpful Resources
Useful Links
https://good-grief.org/resources/
Good Grief
This organization offers information and support on grief.
Sesame Street in Communities
This page offers activities, articles, and videos for exploring grief with young children.
https://whatsyourgrief.com/childrens-books-about-death/
64 Children’s Books About Death and Grief
This website lists sixty four different children’s books about grieving, ages ranging from 3-12.
https://imaginationsoup.net/childrens-picture-books-grief-death/
Children’s picture books about death and loss.
https://www.healthfulchat.org/bereavement-chat-room/login.html
HealthfulChat
This website is peer health support community providing online chat rooms for people to talk about their grief.
https://www.griefincommon.com/
Grief in Common
This website is an online community designed to connect those who are grieving based on background and similar experiences for chats and opportunities to meet in person.
https://childrengrieve.org/ (soon to be https://nacg.org)
National Alliance for Children’s Grief
This organization “promotes awareness of the needs of children and teens grieving a death and provides education and resources for anyone who wants to support them.” – NAGC Mission Statement
https://www.beadproject.org.uk/
Books for children coping with loss and trauma: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3338031
The Centering Corporation
This organization provides educational resources for those grieving the death of a loved one.
The website Option B provides people with resources on grief and loss. (Also Option B is a great book!)
https://www.centerforloss.com/bookstore/how-i-feel-a-coloring-book-for-grieving-children/
Coloring books for kids.
Books for children coping with loss and trauma: https://www.nasponline.org/x33507.xml
One Fit Widow
This website has key information and tips for those who have been widowed
https://goop.com/work/relationships/the-hot-young-widows-club/
The Hot Young Widows Club by: Nora Mclnerny
“The Hot Young Widows Club is not just young women who have lost a husband. It’s a group of people from all over the world—men, women, gay, straight—who have lost their romantic partner. I don’t care if you were married or not. We’re here to help one another through this common experience without the platitudes the rest of the world offers us.”
Book: here
Podcast (Terrible, Thanks for Asking): here
RemembeRing
RemembeRing is an innovative new grief resource for celebrating love when saying goodbye to a beloved pet. Because our pets are dear friends and family members, they deserve to be honored like all loved ones, but contemporary culture lacks truly effective mourning traditions for healing pet loss. RemembeRing was created in response to this experience, with broad appeal across faiths, cultures, and ages (3+ years). RemembeRing is especially beneficial to families since pet loss is often a child’s first formative experience with death and they appreciate tangible therapeutic activities. Invented by a former art therapist and grief counselor, RemembeRing’s unique dual design is for both Holding On and Letting Go – the two essential needs of grieving. Each RemembeRing is sold as a Tribute Kit that is completed in few simple steps: the Center Token is separated from the Outer Ring; the Outer Ring is transformed into a keepsake frame for the pet’s photo (the part for Holding On); and the back of the Center Token is blank for a farewell message to the pet (the part for Letting Go). This token is meant to accompany the deceased or is kept in a place that’s significant and satisfying to the bereaved.
Articles and Educational Brochures
https://www.naturalbeachliving.com/managing-feelings-and-emotions-free-printables/
Natural Beach Living
Visual Cards for Managing Feelings and Emotions Free Printables
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2975921/
Problem Behavior in Children of Chronically Ill Parents: A Meta-Analysis
by Dominik Sieh
This academic article’s introduction provides a comprehensive overview of the emotional and behavioral effects of a parent’s chronic medical condition on the child.
https://youthlight.com/sample/activities_grieving_children.pdf
Activities for Grieving Children
by YouthLight, Inc.
This guide comprises of memory-making activities, grief processing activities, and other activities for grieving younger and older children.
https://dokumen.tips/documents/healing-activities-for-grieving-children-teens.html?page=2
Just for ME! Healing Activities for Grieving Children & Teens
by Ryan’s Heart NPO
Creative activities for children and teenagers to be done alongside parents to process death.
https://www.newyorklife.com/assets/docs/pdfs/claims/Bereavement-bklet-English.pdf
After a Loved One Dies—How Children Grieve And how parents and other adults can support them
by David J. Schonfeld, M.D., and Marcia Quackenbusy, M.S., MFT, CHES
This guide is geared toward parents and family, but others who work with children may also find it useful. Teachers, coaches, childcare providers, and other caring adults can offer better support to a child who has lost a loved one when they understand more about how children grieve.
http://www.madd.ca/media/docs/Helping-Children-Cope-with-Death.pdf
Helping Children Cope with Death
by MADD Canada
This informational article discusses the factors that can impact the grief process, and emphasizes the importance of talking about the deceased. Remembering loved ones and keeping their memory alive is helpful and healing. Many factors influence children’s views on death, such as age, religious beliefs, cultural and/or ethnic values, and their relationship to the deceased person. However, their reactions of their caregivers are of primary importance in determining how children will cope with death.
https://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/social/talking-to-kids-about-death/
Saying Goodbye: Talking to Kids About Death
by Christina Frank from Parents Magazine
This article gives parents and adults advice on how to talk to young children about death and grief and answers common questions they might have.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/garden/letting-children-share-in-grief.html
Letting Children Share in Grief
by Catherine Saint Louis from the NY Times
This article outlines the benefits of giving children the space and opportunity to grieve the loss of a loved one.
The Mistake I Made With My Grieving Friend
by Celeste Headlee
This articles discusses the best approaches on how to respond to a grieving friend. Most times, it is best not to share your personal experience with loss, as this could devalue your friend’s grief.
https://apps.nasponline.org/search-results.aspx?&q=death+and+grief
National Association of School Psychologists
This page has some articles about death and grief and how to address them and help give children cope.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17OPvzOcA2bgRbCwJi9drzuDryfBbMl6L/view?usp=sharing
“Coping with Grief and Loss” from Help Guide
Podcasts
https://refugeingrief.com/meganspodcasts/
with Megan Devine
Refuge in Grief podcasts on a variety of topics related to grief and loss.
Books
*Note: not all books only fall under the ages they are listed under. Some with a * can work for older ages as well.
The Healing Code: 6 Minutes to Heal the Source of Your Health, Success, or Relationship Issue
by Ben Johnson
Your healing kit for life—to recover from issues you know about, and repair the ones you don’t.
Buy the book here
This website has a list of picture books that help explain grief and death to children.
Ages 3-5
The Fall of Freddie the Leaf: A Story of Life of All Ages
by Leo Buscaglia
This beloved classic has helped thousands of people come to grips with life and death.
Buy the book here
Lifetimes: The Beautiful Way to Explain Death to Children
by Robert Ingpen
It lets us explain life and death in a sensitive, caring, beautiful way.
Buy the book here
Samantha Jane’s Missing Smile: A Story About Coping With the Loss of a Parent*
by Julie Kaplow and Donna Pincus, illustrated by Beth Speigle
Since Samantha Jane’s dad died, she has been sad and quiet, keeping to herself. One day, her neighbor Mrs. Cooper gently asks her about her missing smile, and Sammy Jane begins to open up about her grief, her worries, and her confusion. Sammy Jane’s mother joins her daughter, and helps her further with accepting and responding to her profound loss.
Where Are You? A Child’s Book About Loss*
by Laura Olivieri
Where Are You? is a kind and supportive text with beautiful illustrations designed to help children of all ages cope with the loss of a loved one. It is created with love and care so that even the youngest readers will find comfort during this stressful and difficult time.
How I Feel: A Coloring Book for Grieving Children*
by Dr. Wolfelt
The expressive, easy-to-color drawings clearly depict disbelief, fear, anger, loneliness, happiness, sadness, and other normal grief feelings. And the simple text accompanying the drawings provides grieving children with words to describe their new, sometimes scary feelings.
Grief is a Mess
by Jackie Schuld
Grief is a Mess is an illustrated book for grieving children and adults who need a healthy dose of understanding, comfort, and laughter. Through humorous animal illustrations, the book explores how grief is different for everyone and can change without warning. Having lost her mother to cancer, author/illustrator Jackie Schuld uses her illustrations to remind us to be kind to others and patient with ourselves as we find our way through the mess of grief.
Learn more about the book here: https://www.jackieschuld.com/grief-is-a-mess
Watch a family support group coordinator read the book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGo6lKnz1TI
The Goodbye Book
by Todd Parr
Through the lens of a pet fish who has lost his companion, Todd Parr tells a moving and wholly accessible story about saying goodbye. Touching upon the host of emotions children experience, Todd reminds readers that it’s okay not to know all the answers, and that someone will always be there to support them.
Watch Todd Parr read the book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-VnhNSw0l8
Sometimes, With Ghosts…
by Charlyn Wee
This is a story about facing your fears… a hardcover picture book for young and old alike.
Learn more about the book here: http://www.sometimeswithghosts.com/
Harriet’s Heartbroken Heart
by Lainie Belcastro
When Harrison dies, his twin sister Harriet doesn’t understand his passing and is angry, sad, frightened, and lost. But a return visit to a favorite place she and Harrison loved introduces her to a special lady bug who offers inspirational words to Harriet to help heal her broken heart.
Lifetimes: The Beautiful Way to Explain Death to Children
by Bryan Mellonie
A moving book about the beginnings and endings of life. It tells that dying is as much a part of living as being born. It helps us remember and understand death.
Caterpillars Can’t Talk: A Children’s Story About Love, Loss and Transformation
by Kris Fenton Siwek
Why do the people we love sometimes die? Why did they have to leave us, and can they come back? Young Andy wants to know. He’s sad and confused because his dad has died. So on a quiet day in the springtime, Andy goes for a walk in the woods behind his house to think about what has happened. In the woods, Andy meets Clyde — a talking caterpillar with stripes of black and yellow and white. Clyde the caterpillar helps Andy talk about his dad … about how much he misses him and about how much he loved him. Talking to Clyde helps Andy feel safer and stronger, and a little less sad. In this tender and heartwarming book by mother and artist Kris Fenton Siwek, Andy learns new ways to think about loss and he discovers that when we are our saddest, new friends and old memories can make us feel better. He also learns that caterpillars become butterflies and that people, too, have spirits that can live in our hearts forever. Caterpillars Can’t Talk provides parents, grandparents, teachers and counselors with a new and gentle way to talk about what we feel when someone we love passes away. It is a simple, sweet, heartfelt story that opens conversations and helps entire families heal.
Learn more about the book here: https://caterpillarscanttalk.com/
The Invisible String*
by Patrice Karst
The Invisible String delivers a particularly compelling message in today’s uncertain times that though we may be separated from the ones we care for, whether through anger, or distance or even death, love is the unending connection that binds us all, and, by extension, ultimately binds every person on the planet to everyone else.
Buy the book here
Ages 6-8
How Did Nonnie Get to Heaven*
by Arlene Michlin Bronstein
When the Brown triplets’ grandmother dies, they hear from everyone that she is now in Heaven. They have heard it is a wonderful place to live, but no one can tell them how she got to her new home. Using their imaginations, the children come up with delightful ways to understand this important journey. This book explores the life cycle event of losing someone you love. It allows for a child’s imagination and sense of wonder. It takes a sad event and helps the whole family reflect and heal.
When Aunt Mattie Got Her Wings
by Petra Mathers
Lottie the Chicken deals with the loss of Aunt Mattie in this gently sad and sweetly funny picture book that explores the death of a loved one.
Grief is Like a Snowflake
by Julia Cook
After the death of his father, Little Tree begins to learn how to cope with his feelings and start the healing process. With the help and support of his family and friends, Little Tree learns to cope by discovering what is really important in life, and that his fathers memory will carry on. This book offers a warm approach to the difficult subject of death and dying.
Not the End: A Child’s Journey Through Grief
by Mari Dombkowski
In this true story, a young girl tells how her family continued to grow and enjoy life even after the death of her father, demonstrating how turning the daily pages of our lives can help heal the grieving heart. It is a story of hope.
Learn more about the book here: http://www.nottheendbook.com/so/0LcqnjkO?cid=de31db30-03bb-4d76-94ef-%20f71727a7be4d#/main
Ages 8-10
After a Death: An Activity Book for Children
by Amy Barrett Lindholm, illustrated by The Children at The Dougy Center
This easy to use workbook is designed for children who have experienced any type of death. With a mixture of creative activities and tips for dealing with changes at school, home and with friends, this is a great tool for all grieving children. We‘ve included a variety of drawing and writing exercises to help children remember the person who died and learn new ways to live with the loss.
Comfort for the Grieving Soul
by Carolyn Jane Neill
Carolyn Jane Neill takes us on a journey through grief to help those experiencing it first-hand understand what it’s about, what to expect, and what they can do. She suggests practical ways to support those going through this life changing experience.
The Day Abigail’s Father Decided to Live with the Angels: Talking to a Child About Suicide*
by Jamie Gallo, M.S., LPC, MBA
Abigail is a happy seven year old girl with a nice mommy and a creative, but troubled, father. When Abigail’s father dies by suicide, Abigail has to come to terms with the death of her father. This book is appropriate for younger children who have experienced loss through suicide; although the messages contained in the book can be helpful to anyone who has a loved one who has taken their own life.
The Daffodils Still Grow: A Book for Grieving Daughters
by Sherri Elizabeth Tidwell
The Daffodills Still Grow is a full-color illustrated book tat portrays life after a loved one dies as seen from the observations of a motherless child.
Listen to the book being read aloud here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-W_ok28nI4
Emily Lost Someone She Loved
by Kathleen Fucci
Emily Lost Someone She Loved communicates real emotions children feel when they lose a loved one. It’s a book that can be read repeatedly, restoring faith in God and hope for the future.
If It Were Up to Us
by Shannon Everhart Collins
In If It Were Up to Us, Shannon Everhart Collins takes us on a journey to explore what our world would look like if there were no death. Collins gives us a humorous look at what our world would become if we were in control and no one we love ever died. She helps young children deal with death by learning to accept that God has a plan even when we don’t understand. She reminds us that we can trust God and His love for us even in difficult times of grief and sorrow.
The Fall of Freddie the Leaf
by Leo Buscaglia
This story by Leo Buscaglia is a warm, wonderfully wise, and strikingly simple story about a leaf named Freddie. How Freddie and his companion leaves change with the passing seasons, finally falling to the ground with winter’s snow, is an inspiring allegory illustrating the delicate balance between life and death.
Ages 10-12
Circa Now*
by Amber McRee Turner
Twelve-year-old Circa Monroe has a knack for restoring old photographs. It’s a skill she learned from her dad, who loves old pictures and putting fun digital twists on them. One day, her father receives a strange phone call requesting an urgent delivery, and he heads out into a storm. The unimaginable happens: a tornado, then a terrible accident, and Circa never sees her dad again. Circa notices something strange about the photos she and her father retouched—the digital flourishes added to the old photos seem to exist in real life.
Ages 12-14
Healing Your Grieving Heart for Teens: 100 Practical Ideas*
by Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph.D.
With sensitivity and insight, this series offers suggestions for healing activities that can help survivors learn to express their grief and mourn naturally. Acknowledging that death is a painful, ongoing part of life, they explain how people need to slow down, turn inward, embrace their feelings of loss, and seek and accept support when a loved one dies. These ideas and activities are aimed at reducing the confusion, anxiety, and huge personal void so that the living can begin their lives again.
Weird is Normal When Teenagers Grieve*
by Jenny Lee Wheeler and Heidi Horsley, Psy.D.
Teens grieve differently from adults and often get lost in the shuffle after the death of a loved one. Weird is Normal When Teenagers Grieve is unique because it is a self-help book for grieving teens written by an actively grieving teen. Author Jenny Lee Wheeler lost her father to cancer when she was fourteen and validates for her peers that they have the right to grieve in their own way and according to their own timetable, that their grief attacks might be different from those of adults around them, and that they aren’t going crazy if they see signs from their loved ones.
Ages 14-16
Straight Talk About Death for Teenagers: How to Cope with Losing Someone You Love
by Earl A. Grollman
If you are a teenager whose friend or relative has died, this book was written for you. Earl A. Grollman, the award-winning author of Living When a Loved One Has Died, explains what to expect when you lose someone you love.
The Healing Your Grieving Heart Journal for Teens
by Alan D. Wofelt, Ph.D.
In light of how difficult it us just to survive the teenage years, the grieving process can be especially difficult and overwhelming for teenagers. This diary affirms the grieving teen’s journey and offers gently, healing guidance.
Ages 16-18
You Are Not Alone: Teens Talk About Life After the Loss of a Parent
by Lynne Hughes
Words of reassurance and strategies for coping with the loss of a parent, by the director of the nation’s largest bereavement camp for children. Lynne Hughes and the kids of Comfort Zone Camp share the most difficult parts of their losses and offer their own experiences of what helps, what doesn’t, what stinks, and ways to stay connected to their loved ones.
Parents and Professionals
Healing the Hurt, Restoring the Hope
by Suzy Yehl Marta
Healing the Hurt, Restoring the Hope offers techniques to help children and teens resolve their grief once again and live a life filled with joy and hope.
A Parent’s Guide to Raising Grieving Children: Rebuilding Your Family After the Death of a Loved One
by Phyllis R. Silverman and Madelyn Kelly
When children lose someone they love, they lose part of their very identity. In this deeply sympathetic book, Phyillis R. Silverman and Madelyn Kelly offer wise guidance on virtually every aspect of childhood loss, from explaining death to a two-year-old to managing the moods of a grieving teenager. Drawing on groundbreaking research into what children are really experiencing, and quoting real conversation with parents and children who have walked that road, the book allows readers to see what others have learned from mourning and surviving the death of a loved one.
It’s Ok That You’re Not Ok
by Megan Devine
This book discusses how it’s ok to grieve and that everyone experiences grief differently. People who are grieving deserve better than what society is offering them; this book provides direction on how to cope with grief.
Option B
by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
This book is about facing adversity, building resilience, and finding joy.
Learning to Say Goodbye: When a Child’s Parent Dies
by Eda J. LeShan
Focusing on how to process and handle the grief associated with the loss of an individual close to you, Eda J. LeShan speaks to the heart while healing the mind. Readers who have experienced a deep and profound loss will find Eda’s insights to be helpful and soothing to a damaged soul.
Seven Choices: Finding Daylight After Loss Shatters Your World
by Elizabeth Harper Neeld
Elizabeth Harper Neeld delivers a book that aids in not only the loss of a special person, but the loss of concepts as well. Whether it’s the loss of dreams, relationships, purpose or someone close, Seven Choices is there to guide the reader along the path to healing.
How to Go On Living When Someone You Love Dies
by Theresa A. Rando, Ph.D.
Presenting a variety of methods to cope with the grieving process, Theresa A. Rando gently guides the reader along the path to healing. No matter what your approach is, you’re sure to find it in this book.
Beyond Grief: A Guide for Recovering From the Death of a Loved One
by Carol Staudacher
Combining personal stories with step-by-step methods for grieving, Carol Staudacher approaches the path to healing with sympathy and compassion. Her methods can help anyone with a loss they are still processing and for overcoming the hurdles presented along the way.
Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow
by Judith Viorst
Judith Viorst guides the reader through a grieving brought on by age and the loss of relationships. Viorst finds that the losses experienced due to growing up are pathways to true maturity, deeper perspective and a fuller wisdom about life.
The Journey Through Grief
by Alan D. Wolfelt Ph.D.
Alan D. Wolfelt has written Healing Your Grieving Heart, Healing a Teen’s Grieving Heart, and Understanding Your Grief. His book The Journey Through Grief helps guide individuals through their losses and puts them on the path to healing.
When Bad Things Happen to Good People
by Harold S. Kushner
Having gone through traumatic and heart-wrenching events in his own life, Harold S. Kushner talks about ways to reconnect with one’s spirituality and overcome extreme emotional pain that comes when someone loses an individual close to them.
The Gateway We Call Death
by Russell M. Nelson
Discusses death from a unique perspective of a medical doctor as an apostle.
Buy the book here
Future Widow: Losing My Husband, Saving My Family, and Finding My Voice
by Jenny Lisk
How do I tell my kids—just nine and eleven—that the doctors can’t fix their dad’s cancer? How do I navigate eight months of caregiving so my husband’s terminal illness doesn’t destroy the rest of us, too? Will my kids be “OK” someday? These are just some of the questions Jenny Lisk was asking herself when her forty-three-year-old husband, Dennis, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. This health crisis turned her world inward and upside down, and thrust her into a role she never expected—that of cancer caregiver. In between surgeries, ER visits, thousands of pills, and ultimately, hospice at home, Jenny kept her corner of the world updated through a CaringBridge online journal. In Future Widow, Jenny goes behind the scenes of her journey through those tumultuous and heartbreaking months. She reflects on the community who showed her how to be an ally in a crisis, her search for guides on how to parent grieving children, and the dual reality of having to choose—and getting to choose—what her future will look like. Through it all, she grapples with this fundamental question: Do I have what it takes to help my young family survive my husband’s terminal illness?
Learn more about the book here: https://pages.jennylisk.com/future-widow
Educational Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzvEwlhRN4Q
Walking with Grief
by Mindy Cassel at TedXCoconutGrove
Mindy is a licensed psychologist, thanatologist, and the co-founder and CEO of the Children’s Bereavement Center (CBC) in South Miami, Florida. In this Ted Talk, she speaks to how community can lead a child towards resilience, wisdom, confidence, and hope for the future after a death. She mentions the utmost importance of making connectors to those who were lost for children. Whether it be an object from the person who died, a picture, or some other memorabilia, she states that during the adjustment process after death, it is essential for children to retell their stories of their lost loved. Holding onto memories and talking about those who have died can be helpful and keep the child afloat as they battle the sea of grief.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zIFGl5tPQQ
Against Grieving in Silence
by Rachel Stephenson at TEDxCUNY
When loss enters our lives, understanding how to confront it can be difficult. Rachel Stephenson learned a valuable lesson after a difficult loss and shares her wisdom on what it means to grieve meaningfully.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsYL4PC0hyk
The Grieving Process: Coping with Death
by WellCast
There is no right or wrong way to deal with the loss of a loved one. The grieving process is rough—and it’s different for everyone. It’s not just a matter of coping with a loss, but coping with change—and that takes time.
https://www.refugeingrief.com/2017/10/12/am-nw-katu/
What *should* you say when someone dies?
by Refuge in Grief
Short video about what to say to someone who is grieving and the phrases to avoid. Tangible actions help someone work through the grieving process.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0649509/
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: Episode 1101: Death of a Goldfish
Mister Rogers discovers a dead fish in his aquarium, buries it, and talks about his boyhood feelings when his dog died. He assures children that memories can help, and that sadness isn’t forever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw
Brené Brown on Empathy
by Brené Brown
This short video discusses the difference between sympathetic and empathic responses. Using empathy with a grieving person is much better than sympathy.
General Resources
https://www.openstudioproject.org
Open Studio Project
The Open Studio Project, located in Evanston, IL,emphasizes the use of art to facilitate growth, healing and understanding.
Institute for Therapy Through the Arts
The institute uses art to conduct therapy sessions. Therapists only use empirically researched methods and provide them within a continuity of care model.
https://www.family-institute.org
The Family Institute by Northwestern University
This institute offers counseling for families who can’t afford therapy. Therapist of graduate-level therapist-in-training. Committed to strength and healing the whole family system by supporting children, adults, couples and families across their lifespan.
https://www.metrofamily.org/about-us/
Metropolitan Family Services
From early learning, afterschool and job readiness programs to counseling, mental health services and legal assistance.
Willow House
Non-profit, social service organization whose sole mission is to support children, families, schools and communities who are coping with grief and death of a loved one.
https://chicagoanalysis.org/therapy/child-grief-services/
Chicago Analytic Institute’s Child Grief Services
Financially accessible therapeutic services to children ages 2-17 and families who have suffered a profound loss from death, abandonment or other traumatic loss.
https://www.eriefamilyhealth.org/
Erie Family Health
Provides high quality medical, dental and behavioral healthcare to all regardless of ability to pay.
Camp Kesem
Ages 6-18
Operates free summer camps who have been impacted by a parent’s cancer.
https://elunanetwork.org/camps-programs/camp-erin/
Camp Erin
Ages 6-17
Largest national bereavement for youth grieving the death of a significant person in their lives.
https://www.auditoriumtheatre.org/education/hearts-to-art-summer-camp/
Heart to Art
Ages 7 to 14
Through interaction with young people who have experienced a similar loss, campers understand they are not alone.
Moving Your Mind
Stress free environments where we can all connect as teens through movement and creative outlets.
https://www.josselyn.org/about-us
Josselyn Center
Provides affordable mental health services that make lives better for our clients, their families and the community.
The Teachable Soul
By: Andrea Powles
Podcast that talks about Mental Health, Judgement and Trauma
https://www.coachingwithkrista.com/podcastlaunch/
The Widowed Mom
By: Krista St-Germain
“A place for those who have lost their significant other and are ready to start the next chapter of their lives.”
https://www.senseandserendipityblog.com/category/widowhood/
Sense & Serendipity
This blog has tips on how to continue on with the next chapter of life after being widowed.
https://www.childtherapytoys.com/
Evanston/North Chicago Yoga
Jenny Arrington:
https://www.therebelhuman.com/
Courtney Winkler:
Categories
Find More Resources
We provide resources for all forms of grief.
Death
Of all the children in America, around 15% will experience the death of a family member or sibling. Even though death is ultimately a fact of life, it can be hard for anyone to experience this kind of loss, let alone a child.
Separation/Divorce
There are about 1.25 million divorces per year in the United States. Of all U.S. children, 50% will witness the breakup of their parents’ marriage, and almost 50% of those children will also see the breakup of a parent’s second marriage.
Incarceration
One in 28 children will have a parent become incarcerated before their 18th birthday. Approximately half of children with incarcerated parents are younger than 10 years old.
Deportation
When a parent, caregiver or sibling is deported, or even when there is the threat of deportation, the whole family suffers.
Military Deployment
Parental deployment is a form of loss that 3% of American children experience. This can be a very difficult adjustment for children, who may not be able to see or speak to that parent regularly, and who also may experience a great deal of stress when worried about their parent or guardian’s safety.
Community Crisis
Community crises, such as natural disasters, pandemics or political unrest, cause confusing emotions for children. Rainbows’ programs can help children navigate difficult times and provide a sense of stability.
Significant Illness
A child coping with the significant illness of a parent, caregiver or sibling can face many challenges.
Find A Support Group
Rainbows’ programs help children grieving the loss
of a parent or guardian due to death, divorce/separation,
deployment, deportation, incarceration or trauma.
