Supporting your family though loss and grief

Grief is a natural, emotional response to loss and unfortunately, an unavoidable part of family life. Often, we aren’t prepared for difficult situations and as a parent, you might be navigating your own grief as well. Our Specialist Family and Relationship Care practitioners offer information and strategies to help support you and your family during challenging times. 

Children can be deeply affected by change 

Children can experience feelings of grief as a result of many different life events. These include the death of a family member, friend or pet, as well as big changes and transitions that can produce a sense of loss. Furthermore, they can entail changes resulting from separation and divorce, breakups in friendships, moving to a new home or school, loss of a favourite toy, changing teachers or classes, or an illness or injury. 

We all grieve differently  

There is no right or wrong way to grieve and it’s important to understand all the different ways that people can respond to grief. Both adults and children are likely to experience a range of feelings including shock, sadness, disbelief, anger, panic, frustration, confusion, anxiety, longing, resentment, guilt, numbness.  

Grief can affect children in different ways: 

• Cognitively – They may find it tricky to concentrate, make decisions, find motivation or perform at school. 
• Emotionally – Children may experience intense and rapidly changing emotions. 
• Physically – Feeling physically unwell, a lack of energy or changes in their usual eating and sleeping patterns.  
• Spiritually – They may have lots of questions and curiosity around death and dying. 
• Socially – Children may withdraw from family and friends or become more dependent or clingy. 
• Behaviourally – They may exhibit challenging or demanding behaviours that are out of character for them.