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Explore the multifaceted responses to loss, from emotional to philosophical aspects, and learn how children and adults navigate the grieving process. Discover strategies to help children cope with ambiguous and traumatic grief and differentiate between complicated grief and depression. This insightful guide provides actionable tips to support individuals dealing with loss. Contact Patrick Norton for more resources and assistance.
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What To Do When Mufasa Dies Patrick Norton
What is Grief? • Universal human experience • Multifaceted response to loss • Emotional • Cognitive • Physical • Social • Cultural • Philosophical • Unique! • Healthy!
What does it look like? • Again, grief is unique and influenced by many different factors • Sadness • Anger • Guilt or Regrets • Fear • Physical Complaints
Grief Spurts • Adults often have the ability to have one foot in grief, and one foot out. Children jump into and out of grief.
Invisible Grief • Grief versus Mourning • Many adults struggle if children are not visibly grieving • Difficult to accurately perceive how a child is grieving
Cyclical and Dynamic • Developmental Level highly influences grief process • Regressive behavior is common
If it wasn’t hard enough • Ambiguous Grief and Loss • Traumatic Grief • Complicated Grief
Ambiguous Loss • Custody Changes • Moving • Friends moving • Losing Pets • Divorce • Incarceration • Special items breaking or losing them • Military Deployment • Cognitive impairment (Alzheimer's or Dementia, etc) • Disability • Children (and adults) may experience loss that is not caused by the death of a loved one • Ambiguous loss may interfere with a “normal” grieving process • More significance to closure • Resilience is crucial
Traumatic Grief • Trauma and Loss are different experiences • Trauma is a reaction to real or perceived risk of harm to self or loved ones • Loss is a response to being unable to access someone or something that is important • Grief may be experienced as a result of trauma or loss
Traumatic Grief • May be difficult to distinguish symptoms of grief from symptoms of trauma in children • Severe, prolonged, and interfering symptoms may be indicative of trauma • Intrusive images (including nightmares) • Significant avoidance of thinking or talking about the person that died, cause of death, or places, activities • Negative personal beliefs or mood • Significant and pervasive behavioral changes in appetite, sleep, concentration or startle response
Complicated Grief • Complicated grief is persistent acute grief • May last months or years • Differentiated from depression, although symptom presentation may be similar
How Can We Help? • Activity Time! • Find a Partner!
The Man beats the Gun • The Gun beats the Bear • The Bear beats the Man • If you Tie, you Die!
Helping Children Cope with Grief • Take Breaks • Let children express their feelings • Talk about and remember the person who died • Give them good information • Provide routine and structure • Include children in funerals and rituals
No-Nos • “I know how you feel” • “It will be okay” • “Try not to think about it” • “Be strong” • “You’re the man of the house now” • “You should feel…..”
Yes-Yeses • “What was _____ like?” • “What do you miss the most?” • “What is the hardest part for you?” • “I care about how you are feeling” • “Is there anything I can do in the classroom to help?” • “Is there anything in the classroom you would like to change to feel more comfortable?”
For more information… • Patrick Norton • Program Coordinator – Family and Community Services • pnorton@glenwood.org • Pinterest: Patrick Norton
