What is grief?Grief is a natural reaction to the loss of a loved one. When someone close to us dies, we experience many different feelings-sadness, loneliness, fear and even anger.
While time helps heal many wounds, children and teens often need more than time to help adjust to life after the death of a loved one. They need a safe environment to explore and understand their feelings, and they need guidance throughout the grieving process.
If a child or teen you know has recently experienced the death of a loved one, you can help. First, learn the warning signs of intense grief. Then, pay close attention to their words and actions. Does he/she seem to be having difficulty understanding or expressing his/her emotions? Does he/she seem confused by what he/she is feeling? If so, please call The Sharing Place at (801) 466-6730, to set up a confidential appointment. Together, we can find a way to start the healing.
Common signs of intense grief may include:
The death of someone close can jar us as if by a sudden, sharp blow. The impact of the loss and “goneness” of the person can feel like an earthquake inside our bodies. The shock we feel can mitigated with a numbing of the impact, yet the blow strikes all the same. The bigness of the blow generates in our bodies a surge of energy to come to meet it. This surge of energy we call the big energy of grief.
Death is an abstract concept to children, often their first experience with a death is processed according to their developmental stage. Typically, the younger the child, the more concrete their thought process is and the more their body expresses: hence, the BIG ENERGY of grief.
Anonymous teen
