1. Angela Matteson
Joy
Care free
Innocent
Funny
Spontaneous
Adventurous

2. 5% of children experience the death of
parent by 16 years of Age
40% will experience a death of a peer
20% will have witness a death
National Center for School
Crisis and Bereavement

3. AChild inGrief
And the Parent’s Opportunity

4. What is Grief?
Separating from Loss
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression Acceptance

5. How to Recover?
“To recover from trauma, it must be expressed in some
way in order for it to be positively transformed”
- Cathy A. Malchiodi, Creative Interventions
Marilyn Barbra Mark
Shock and paralyzed Tried to manifest
relationship
Found desired interests

6. Grieving children don’t need to be “taught” how to
grieve as much as be “allowed” to grieve and to
make their own meaning
- Donna L. Shuurman, Lessons Learned from
Grieving Children
Involve with outside activities
Practice makes it familiar

7. AllowingGrief
Instructional
Conversation
Plant a Garden
Read Books
Draw Pictures
Let them Play
Reminisce
Life should be as natural as death

8. WhatareTherapists
doing?
Storytelling
PlayTherapy
Positive recovery
happens when
emotions are expressed
“Play therapy and the therapeutic use of stories allow
children to distance themselves from painful themes and
deal with them symbolically”
- PlayTherapy and theTherapeutics use ofStory

9. WhatCanYou Do?
Parent to Child
Be There
Express
Encourage