Grief is in two parts. The first is loss. The second is
the remaking of life.
Anne Roiphe
Work With Me
Are you ready to get the Good Grief support you need to parent your child through the remaking of life after the loss of your child?
The first step is typically a phone call to discover where you are in your grief and to decide together the best place for you to start.
The programs outlined on this page are typically delivered online, with the exception of Grief Recovery Method programs, which are always delivered in person.
I'm availlable to deliver tailored in-person workshops and presentations upon request. Contact me to talk about possibilities.
The Good Grief Parenting Frameworka heart-led parenting approach
Heartbeat 1 - Good Grief Beliefs
Because much of what you learned about grief as a child and pass on as a parent is not helpful and may actually hinder healing, and the truth is that going through grief is how we heal.
Heartbeat 2- Continuing Bonds
Because "move on" is unhelpful advice, and the best way to live forward is to carry your loved one's memory with you because life ends but love doesn't. And because one of the deepest of human bonds is the sibling bond.
Heartbeat 3 - Essential Messages
Because children who don't look like they're grieving really are, and the sibling who has lost a sibling wonders what will happen to them and needs to know they're cherished.
Heartbeat 4 - Choice Actions
Because good grief is healing, but without choice actions to anchor good intentions, good grief beliefs, and essential messages, it's easy to revert to familiar, less helpful habits and miss out on the gift of good grief.
Services
Parenting After Child Loss
for parents of grieving siblings ages 1-10 yrs.
for parents of grieving siblings ages 1-10 yrs.
See Your Way Forward After Child Loss
See Your Way Forward After Child Loss (SYWF) takes parents through a discovery process to identify where in their grief journey they are now and why it's exactly where they're supposed to be. They learn what's true about grief, that what they're expericncing is normal, and that going straight through grief is how they'll see their way forward.
The 5-module, 7-week program includes lifetime access to all videos, weekly reflection activities, weekly group Zoom calls, and a private Facebook community.
You will learn:
The importance of self-care and how to take care of your needs
how to give your child what they need without denying your own needs
the unique needs of a bereaved sibling and how to meet those needs through the growing up years
how to nurture and navigate family relationships,
how to carry your deceased child forward rather than moving on
how to live forward toward a future bright with possibilities and even joy
Module 1
Loss, Grief, and Self-Care - telling your story, what is grief, the grief process, good grief mindview
Module 2
Family Experiences of Grief - parental grief, children's grief, sibling grief, bereaved parenting
Module 3
Getting To Good Grief - grief attitudes, myths, challenges, conversations, continuing bonds
Module 4
Good Grief Parenting - the sibling by heart, early childhood loss, essential messsages, emotions, coping strategies
Module 5
Living Forward - choice actions, meaning-making, the aftergrief, proactive parenting for life
Good Grief Parenting Group Coaching
The Good Grief Parenting 6-month group coaching program follows See Your Way Forward After Child Loss and goes deeper into the four heartbeats. It includes additional participant-chosen parenting topics to build resilience, foster children's healthy social-emotional development, instill healthy life skills, and establish the gift of good grief for a lifetime.
Good Grief Parent Community Calls
Watch the Facebook group, Instragram (@goodgriefparenting), or here on the Community page for announcements of upcoming Zoom events.
Join my Facebook Group
Good Grief 1-1 Coachingfor parents of grieving children ages 1-12 yrs.
Essentials of Good Grief
The Essentials of Good Grief individual coaching program lays the foundation for living well with grief. The good grief concepts introduced in this program are foundational for the Good Grief Parenting framework. Participants explore and reframe attitudes about loss and grief that impact their healing, their parenting, and their ability to live forward. They discover choices they may not have seen before, imagine new possibilities, and identify skills and next steps so that they can remake a hope-full future after loss.
The Good Grief Parenting Framework
The Good Grief Parenting Framework coaching program covers in more depth the four heartbeats (Good Grief Beliefs, Continuing Bonds, Essential Messages, and Choice Actions) that were introduced in See Your Way Forward After Child Loss. The advanced coaching program is available as a 1-1 or group option and includes additional parenting skills to build resilience and foster children's healthy social-emotional development. Particpants gain further skills to instill healthy life skills in themselves and their children and establish the gift of good grief for a lifetime.
Good Grief Short Courses
The Heart of Good Grieffor parents of young children ages 1-12 yrs.
Session 1
Honor Where You Are
Session 2
Adopt Good Grief Beliefs
Session 3
Establish Continuing Bonds
Session 4
Communicate Essential Messages
Session 5
Claim the Power of Choice Actions
Nurturing The Sibling By Heartfor caring adults of grieving siblings ages 1-10 yrs.
When parents suffer "the worst loss," the bereaved sibling is often a forgotten griever. Parents will realize how it feels to be a sibling by heart, what a young child loses with the death of their sibling, and how the sibling relationship endures for life. The sibling by heart identity has two parts: before the death of their sibling and after.
This course may be adapted and delivered as a group workshop.
Session 1
The Sibling By Heart Experience
Session 2
The Unique Needs Of The Sibling By Heart
Session 3
Seeing The Sibling By Heart
Workshops & Speaking
The Truth About Grief
Well-meaning adults who want to help children deal with loss often unintentionally pass along unhelpful beliefs about loss and grief that get in the way of healthy grieving. Caring adults will learn the truth about grief, explore your own beliefs and attitudes about grieving, recognize the many common beliefs that can hinder healing, and reframe them to promote healing.
When Children Grieve
Young children grieve deeply, yet their grief is often unseen. They lack the experience, language and comprehension to express what they are feeling. Caring adults will learn how children grieve differently than adults and what grieving children need from caregivers to cope well and grow through their grief.
Good Grief Conversations
One thing many adults get wrong is the belief that they shouldn't talk to children about grief in order to protect them from the pain of it. Children experience grief whether we talk to them about it or not, and the best thing caring adults can do is have conversations that help children make sense of what happened and what they're feeling. You will learn how to talk with even the youngest of grieving children and what they really need from you that may not be what you think.
Essential Messages That Heal
Caring adults will understand the messages children may be getting from their grief experiences and will learn messages you can give them that will heal. You will discover guidelines to help children learn healthy responses to grief and effective ways of dealing with loss. The goal is not for children simply to survive grief, but for them to learn lifelong tools that will help them thrive with it.
Nurturing the Sibling by Heart
When parents suffer "the worst loss," the bereaved sibling is often a forgotten griever. Parents will realize how it feels to be a sibling by heart, what a young child loses with the death of their sibling, and how the sibling relationship endures for life. The sibling by heart identity has two parts: before the death of their sibling and after.
This topic is also available as a 3-session self-paced course.
The Grief Recovery Method
Helping Children Deal With Loss® is a 4-week curriculum of the Grief Recovery Institute based on the book When Children Grieve and is delivered in-person only. The training identifies six myths about dealing with grief and replaces them with practical and helpful guidance for effectively dealing with grief.
In Helping Children Deal With Loss® caring adults discover guidelines to help children learn healthy responses to grief and effective ways of dealing with loss. The goal is not for children simply to survive grief, but for them to learn lifelong tools that will help them thrive with it.
For information about the Grief Recovery Method programs for adult grievers, contact me, or visit https://www.griefrecoverymethod.com/grms/michele-benyo.
Connect With Me
I help families heal and live forward through grief after the death of their child. With the Good Grief Parenting Approach parents get in touch with their parenting wisdom so they can be confident that they are helping their bereaved young child grieve well and can be hopeful about a future for their family bright with possibilities and even joy.
You turned my mourning to dancing and my sorrow to joy. Psalm 30:11
Get Started
Good Grief Parenting
Siblings by Heart
Children Grieve
Contact Michele
Get In Touch
michele@michelebenyo.com