Good Grief Parenting

Grief is in two parts.
The first part is loss. The second is

the remaking of life.

Anne Roiphe

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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, their sibling?

The first step is typically a phone call to discover where you are in your grief, to determine whether the support I offer is what you need right now, and to consider together the best next step for you to begin healing.

I deliver my coaching programs virtually, allowing me to support parents throughout the U.S. and around the world. When you decide to work with me, we can begin right away.

I'm available to deliver grief education workshops and presentations either virtually or in person and will work with you to tailor something for your group. Contact me to talk about possibilities.

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The Good Grief Parenting Framework
a 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- Enduring Bonds

Because life ends but love doesn't, and grief can jeopardize precious relationships unless you purposely preserve them, validate and honor one another, and carry forward your child's memory.
And because for your living child the sibling connection is a deep lifelong 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, cared for, capable of healing, and can look forward to good things.

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.

Good Grief Coaching

. . . so that young families forever changed by the death of a child
canlive forward toward bright possibilities in the presence of grief

Parenting While Grieving After Child Loss
For parents of bereaved siblings ages birth-10 years

See Your Way Forward After Child Loss

The program begins with See Your Way Forward After Child Loss (SYWF), a two-month discovery process for parents to identify where in your grief journey you are now and why it's exactly where you're supposed to be. You learn what's true about grief, that what you're experiencing is normal, and that going straight through grief is how you'll see your way forward.

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
how to navigate and nurture family relationships in the presence of grief
how to carry your deceased child forward rather than moving on
to envision and believe in a future bright with possibilities and even joy

Parenting for the Journey

Following See Your Way Forward After Child Loss, Parenting for the Journey focuses on the Good Grief Parenting Framework, equipping parents with parenting strategies, tools and practices to build a strong foundation for family healing and wellness. Parents learn ways to create a family culture and environment that builds resilience, fosters reciprocal caring relationships, promotes children's healthy social-emotional development, instills healthy life skills, and establishes the gift of good grief for a lifetime.

You will learn:

how to establish routines and practices that prioritize self-care for all family members
how to give your child what they need without denying your own needs
how to meet the unique needs of a bereaved sibling through the growing up years
how to nurture mutually respectful 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

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Good Grief Education

. . . so that caring adults can learn the truth about grief and what
children need to grieve well and grow up whole and happy after loss

Workshops & Speaking Topics

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. Learn the truth about grief, identify many common beliefs that can hinder healing, and reframe them in ways that promote healing and hope.

The Essentials of Good Grief

Learn how grief is actually good and why the good grief concepts that are foundational for the Good Grief Parenting Framework are essential for living well with grief. Explore and reframe attitudes about loss and grief that impact healing, parenting, and one's ability to live forward after loss of any kind. Through the lens of good grief, discover previously unseen choices, imagine new possibilities, and identify tools and next steps to take toward a hope-full future after loss.

When Children Grieve

Young children grieve deeply, yet their grief is often unseen. Caring adults will learn how children grieve differently than adults and what grieving children need from caregivers to feel secure, cope well, build resilience, and grow through their grief.

Good Grief Conversations

Many adults believe that they shouldn't talk to children about grief in order to protect them from the pain of it—but children experience grief whether we talk to them about it or not. The best thing caring adults can do is invite honest, age-appropriate conversations that help children make sense of what happened and what they're feeling. Learn how to have good grief conversations that help children cope and heal.

Essential Messages That Heal

Children experience so much in the midst of grief that they don't understand. It's easy for them to pick up messages that disrupt their sense of self, sense of security, and understanding of the world. Adults can be intentional about giving children essential messages that affirm them and validate their experience and feelings. Essential messages teach children healthy responses to grief and effective ways of dealing with loss.

Nurturing the Young Bereaved Sibling

When parents suffer "the worst loss," the bereaved sibling is often a forgotten griever, especially if they are very young. Yet the loss of their sibling will deeply impact them for the rest of their life. When parents consider how it feels to be the child who lives, all that a young child loses with the death of their sibling (including the parent they knew before their sibling died), and that the sibling relationship endures for life, they can better nurture their bereaved child.

Tailored Presentations by request

Individual Sessions on any of these topics by request

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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/.

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Remake your life after loss with Good Grief Parenting.

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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

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