Activity: Grief Talk Over the Holidays
Navigating grief during the season of family and holidays is difficult. Talking about these experiences and feelings can help. To support these conversations, we invite you to use these two worksheets to reflect & share together as a group or family.
This activity can be applied to all types of grief, including ambiguous loss, such as strangement, incarceration, familial substance misuse, dementia, mental illness, divorce, immigration-related separation, losses connected to foster care or adoption, the emotional toll of chronic illness, or other non-death losses.
Grief Talk
For this activity we invite you to print and share page one of this worksheet with your group or family. You can take turns choosing and responding to a prompt of your choice. Another option is to cut out each conversation starter box and place them in a hat or jar. You can then take turns pulling out a prompt and sharing your reflections. Remember that each participant can have the right to pass or participate at any time.
Stop, Start & Continue
For this activity, we welcome you to print & share page two of this worksheet to reflect on what traditions you want to hold on to, let go of, and create. Recognizing that each grief experience is unique and evolves over time, we invite you to share openly, respect differences, and give permission to yourself and others to opt in and out of traditions that others may want to hold on to.
*A special thanks to Eluna’s Camp Erin Online Programs Manager, Kelly Petersohn, LCSW, for developing and sharing this excellent resource!
