Grief and Loss

Children experience grief in many ways and what it looks like can vary according to their developmental stage, their age and past life experiences.

Children can experience grief over things such as:

• The death of family member or friend

• Loss of a pet

• Family break up

• Moving to a new house and/or school

• Having a sick family member

• Loss from a natural disaster such as flood, fire, storm etc.

• Having a disability or illness

• Changing class or having a new teacher

• Loss of a favourite toy

When affected by loss children can experience many strong emotions such as: disbelief, fear, sadness, relief, anger, numbness, shock, anxiety or even a lack of emotions.

Grief can impact on the cognitive, emotional, physical, spiritual and behavioural aspects of a child’s life. Some children will become withdrawn whilst others may display challenging behaviour.

Parents/carers can support their child by:

Doing enjoyable activities together, help them to acknowledge and identify their emotions, let them know it wasn’t their fault, let them know they are loved, help them create something special to remember their loved one by, allow them to ask any questions as they try and make sense of their loss and give them age appropriate answers and information, maintain routine and inform the school so they can support your child while at school.

If you find you need support, or you want your child to talk to a counsellor call me to make an appointment. Nurture offers a range of therapeutic approaches depending on the client’s needs including incorporating aspects of play therapy approaches and sand play therapy which can provide a way of processing emotions without having to rely on words which some children find difficult due to their age and cognitive development.