Online Reading Articles

Grief: General

These thoughtful articles provide guidance and direction for anyone touched by grief.

1. The Journey Through Grief

2. The Mourner's Bill of Rights

Helping Yourself with Grief

Someone you love has died. You are now faced with the difficult, but important, need to mourn. Mourning is the open expression of your thoughts and feelings regarding the death and the person who died. It is an essential part of healing. The following articles provide many practical suggestions to help you move toward healing in your unique grief journey.

1. Too Much Loss: Grief Overload and Its Causes

2. The Grief of Dementia Care Partners

3. First Aid for Broken Hearts

4. Why Choose A Final Resting Place for Your Loved One

5. What's Your Love Language

6. Teeter-Totter of Resilience and Vulnerability in Grief

7. You Must Say Hello Before You Say Goodbye

8. You Must Make Friends with the Darkness Before You Can Enter the Light

9. You Must Go Backward Before You Can Go Forward

10. Mustering the Courage to Mourn

11. Love and Grief: In Communion and Greater Than the Sum of Their Parts

12. Will I Befriend My Feelings Or Will I Deny Them

13. Will I Grieve or Will I Mourn

14. Helping Yourself Heal When Someone Dies

15. Helping Yourself Heal When Your Child Dies

16. Helping Yourself Heal When Your Spouse Dies

17. Helping Yourself Heal When a Parent Dies

18. Helping Yourself When a Baby Dies

19. Helping Yourself Heal During the Holiday Season

20. Helping Dispel 5 Common Myths About Grief

21. Helping Yourself Live When You Are Seriously Ill

22. Helping Yourself Live When You Are Dying

23. Exploring the Uniqueness of Your Suicide Grief

24. Healing Your Traumatized Heart: Seeking Safety, Understanding, and Peace Part 1

25. Healing Your Traumatized Heart: Seeking Safety, Understanding, and Peace Part 2

26. Healing Your Grieving Body: Physical Practices for Mourners

27. The Spiritual Path to Healing: An Introduction

28. The Spiritual Path to Healing: Mourning Ideas, Part 1

29. The Spiritual Path to Healing: Mourning Ideas, Part 2

30. The Spiritual Path to Healing: Mourning Ideas, Part 3

31. The Spiritual Path to Healing: Mourning Ideas, Part 4

32. Dispelling the Misconceptions About Suicide and Grief and Mourning

33. The Capacity to Love Requires the Necessity to Mourn

34. Helping Yourself Heal When an Adult Sibling Dies

35. Helping Your Family Heal After Stillbirth

36. Healing Your Grief About Getting Older

37. Embracing the Sadness of Grief

38. Helping Yourself Heal When Someone You Care About Dies of a Drug Overdose

39. When Your Soulmate Dies

Helping Others with Grief

A friend has experienced the death of someone loved. How can you help? The following articles provide many practical suggestions for helping others with grief:

1. The Misconception of the Funeral as a Rite of Closure

2. Helping a Friend in Grief

3. Helping a Man Who is Grieving

4. Helping a Friend Who is Dying

5. Helping a Friend Who is Seriously Ill

6. Helping a Suicide Survivor Heal

7. Helping a Homicide Survivor Heal

8. Helping a Grandparent Who Is Grieving

9. Helping a Grieving Friend in the Workplace

10. Helping AIDS Survivors Heal

11. Helping SIDS Survivors Heal

12. Helping Your Family When a Member is Dying

13. Helping Your Family When a Member is Seriously Ill

14. Helping Your Family Cope When a Pet Dies

15. Helping Your Family Decide if Organ and Tissue Donation is Right for You

16. Helping a Friend or Family Member After a Cancer Diagnosis

17. Helping Your Family Heal After Miscarriage

For and About Grieving Children and Teenagers

Children and teenagers have special needs following the death of a friend or family member. The following articles provide wonderful insight in helping children and teens understand and express their grief.

1. Helping Children Cope with Grief

2. Helping Teenagers Cope with Grief

3. Helping Infants and Toddlers When Someone They Love Dies

4. Helping Children with Funerals

5. Helping Children Understand Cremation

6. Helping a Child Who is Seriously Ill

7. Helping a Child Who is Dying

8. Helping Grieving Children at School

9. Helping Bereaved Siblings Heal

10. Finding the Right Words: Guidelines on how to talk to grieving children about death

Funerals, Memorials, Cremation, and Related Topics

The days following the death of a loved one can be filled with sadness and confusion. The following articles can help you understand the importance of the rituals surrounding death.

1. Helping Your Family Personalize the Funeral

2. Helping Create a Meaningful Eulogy

3. Ten Freedoms for Creating a Meaningful Funeral

4. Why is the Funeral Ritual Important?

For Hospices and Other Caregivers

Caregivers have special needs of their own. The following articles are designed to help caregivers take care of themselves as well as those who are suffering from loss.

1. Companioning the Bereaved: An Introduction

2. Tenet 1: Companioning Principle

3. Tenet 2: Companioning Principle

4. The Awesome Power of "Telling The Story": Why I'm Proud to be a Grief Counselor

5. Caregiver as Gardener: A Parable

6. Companioning vs. Treating: Beyond The Medical Model of Bereavement Caregiving

7. Growing Through Grief: The Role of Support Groups

8. Responding to Problems in the Support Group Setting

9. The Bereavement Caregiver's Self-Care Guidelines