General Grief Resources
Alica Forneret - http://www.alicaforneret.com/
Alica Forneret is a writer and facilitator creating spaces for people to explore their grief. She is fiercely committed to making sure that we have more conversations about grief, death, and dying - whether that’s at home, at work, or with strangers on the bus. Alica is a member of the BC Women's Health Foundation’s Young Women's Council, an Associate board member of Our House Grief Center, and hosts Dead Moms Club events in Canada and the US. Alica’s written work has been featured on the pages of popular magazines and books, including (but not limited to) Modern Loss, Grief Dialogues, Vancouver Magazine, Loam, and Kinfolk. And her story and voice have been featured on CTV News, Grief Out Loud, InStyle, and more. You can find her writing her newsletter The Mourning Herald from coffee shops in Vancouver, running workshops with Reimagine in NYC, and hosting Death Over Dinner events across the United States and Canada.Blog: www.alicaforneret.com/blog
Newsletter - The Mourning Herald: www.alicaforneret.com/newsletter
Allison Gilbert - http://www.allisongilbert.com/
Allison Gilbert is one of the most thought-provoking and influential writers on grief and resilience. The author of numerous books including, Passed and Present: Keeping Memories of Loved Ones Alive, she serves on the Board of Directors for the National Alliance for Grieving Children and the Advisory Board for Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, the preeminent national organization providing grief support to families of America’s fallen heroes.
ARCHANGELS - www.archangels.me
ARCHANGELS is a platform recognizing and honoring caregivers for the critically important work they do caring for a family member or loved one. Because caregivers are often in “survival mode” and unaware of help that is available, ARCHANGELS provides a frequently updated list of state-by-state resources here: archangels.me/resources, as well as a “Library of Care” here: archangels.me/helpful-information which includes links to resources about managing stress and mental health when caring for someone who is very ill.
Claire Bidwell Smith - www.clairebidwellsmith.com
Claire is a therapist specializing in grief and the author of three books about grief and loss. Her most recent book is Anxiety: The Missing Stage of grief. Claire offers online grief support, courses, meditations and virtual discussions about grief.
Crisis Text Line - https://www.crisistextline.org/
Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support. To speak with a trained listener, text HELLO to 741741. It is free, available 24/7, and confidential.
Grief Coach – www.grief.coach
Our personalized text messages help you stay connected and supported, as you grieve. Even from a distance. We'll text you resources and tips, all year long, to help you feel less alone. If your friends want to help, but aren't sure how, we'll text them suggestions too.
Grief Dialogues - www.griefdialogues.com
Grief Dialogues erases the stigma surrounding dying, death, and grief. Using theatre, visual art, film, music, podcasts, poetry, and narrative, Grief Dialogues opens new conversations between grievers, those with terminal or chronic illness, and their health care providers. We believe out of art comes understanding, compassion, and empathy for all involved in grief.
Grief Dialogues created Grief Dialogues Health Care Education (GDHCE), established to create and deliver short plays, for health care providers, followed by a moderated discussion with this audience usually includes CE. GDHCE uses theatre as the artistic expression most likely to reach an audience on a personal level. Theatre is the ultimate empathy generator allowing individuals and society to face the untold, unheard, and often misunderstood tales of life and death.
Good Grief - www.good-grief.org
Good Grief provides free support to children, teens, young adults, and families after the death of a mother, father, sister, or brother through peer support programs, education, and advocacy.
Grief is the Word: A Compendium of Grief Resources
A 21-page resource guide of helpful grief research, literature, media links, and grief quotes (compiled by Danna Schmidt with Waypoint Ceremonies. https://waypointceremonies.com/services/resources/grief/
Heal Grief - http://www.healgrief.org/
HealGrief®, a social support network that is there when everyone else goes away, and the real grieving begins. Everything we do is inspired by our core belief that no one should ever grieve alone. HealGrief® provides the tools and resources to guide one’s journey with grief into a healthy personal growth.
Hope Edelman - www.motherlessdaughters.com
Hope Edelman is the internationally bestselling author of Motherless Daughters, Motherless Mothers, and The Aftergrief. She is a world-renowned expert on early mother loss. Her books have been published in 15 countries and 12 languages and she is a sought-after speaker in the bereavement field. Through the Motherless Daughters brand she leads retreats, workshops, online courses, virtual support groups, and one-on-one coaching for women who have lost their mothers as well as for any adult bereaved as a child. In 2020 Hope received a Community Educator award from the Association of Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) for her 25+ years of work with motherless women.
Megan Carmichael - www.dailylifeanddeath.com
Megan Carmichael works with individuals and businesses to develop tools and share ideas that help people navigate the intersection of death & our daily lives. In addition to writing about the experiencing of parenting through grief & loss, speaking about economic trends within the US deathcare industry and working with various independent business owners operating in the end of life space, she offers advanced planning and at-need funeral arrangements for families along California’s central coast. Megan and her husband own a private cremation garden in the Mojave desert through their company, California Scattering Services.
Megan Devine - www.refugeingrief.com
Psychotherapist Megan Devine believes that making the world a better place starts with acknowledging grief, rather than seeking to overcome it. She advocates for a revolution in how we discuss loss – personally, professionally, and as a wider community. She runs the Writing Your Grief online community, connecting grieving people all around the world, and provides training resources for professionals and organizations. Megan is the author of the best-selling book, It’s OK that You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief & Loss in a Culture that Doesn’t Understand. Her best-known work, the animated “how to help a grieving friend” video, distills a complex issue into simple, actionable steps in just over seven (adorable) minutes. Gaining over 35 million views in its first few months, the animation is now used in training programs all around the world. Her latest collaborative project, Speaking Grief, is out in 2020 from PBS.
Modern Loss – www.modernloss.com
A website offering candid content, resources and community on loss and grief.
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization - www.nhpco.org
Founded in 1978, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization is the nation’s largest membership organization for providers and professionals who care for people affected by serious and life-limiting illness. Its broad community of members includes local hospice and palliative care providers, networks serving large regions of the United States, and individual professionals.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline - https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call 1-800-273-8255.
New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care - www.zencare.org
The New York Zen Center is an educational non-profit organization dedicated to transforming the culture of care through contemplative practice, meeting aging, sickness and death with wisdom and compassion through education, care and Zen practice. The Zen Center’s offerings are through our three pillars. Care: Grief and Bereavement support for individuals and groups, Clinician & Family Support Groups, Contemplative Based Resilience Training for Clinicians & Caregivers, and Community Groups for LGBTQIS, 12 Step meetings, Elder Support, and Community Rituals and Celebrations. Education: Medical Education, Foundations in Contemplative Care, Symposium on Palliative and End of Life Care, Certificate in Contemplative Care, ACPE Accredited Chaplaincy Training, and Master in Pastoral Care and Counseling. Zen Practice: Practice Periods, Daily Meditation Training, Retreats, and Formal Zen Study
Open to Hope – www.opentohope.com
Open to Hope’s Mission is centered on helping people find hope after loss. OpentoHope’s vision is to provide an online forum to support people who have experienced loss: to help them cope with their pain, heal their grief and invest in their future. OpentoHope.com is an online website where people can share inspirational stories of loss and love. We encourage our visitors to read, listen and share their stories of hope and compassion.
Option B – www.optionb.org
OptionB.Org is dedicated to helping you build resilience in the face of adversity—and giving you the tools to help your family, friends, and community build resilience too. They released a free excerpt from Option B with a new forward about resilience during a crisis - find it at https://optionb.org/bookexcerpt. On their social channels, they are sharing expert advice, including a series of Facebook Lives with thought leaders like Joe Primo (CEO of Good Grief), who discussed grieving and supporting others who are grieving during the pandemic. And their "Option B: Coping with grief" group on Facebook provides a place for you to connect with others who have lost loved ones.
SAMHSA’s National Helpline - http://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline
SAMHSA’s National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders.
The Compassionate Friends: Supporting Family After a Child Dies - www.compassionatefriends.org
The mission of The Compassionate Friends: When a child dies, at any age, the family suffers intense pain and may feel hopeless and isolated. The Compassionate Friends provides highly personal comfort, hope, and support to every family experiencing the death of a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, or a grandchild, and helps others better assist the grieving family.
The Dinner Party – www.thedinnerparty.org
The Dinner Party is a platform for grieving 20- and 30-somethings to find peer community and build lasting relationships. We screen, train and support a growing network of peer hosts, and connect them to 12-15 people nearby, who share a similar age and loss experience.
THE HUMAN JOURNEY®- www.The-Human-Journey.com
THE HUMAN JOURNEY® is a facilitated ritual that addresses anticipatory grief. The experience can be conducted either online or in person, and by either a professional or a volunteer with group facilitation skills. The purpose of The Human Journey®, which comes in the guise of a board game, is to help families in a way both playful and meaningful to cultivate belonging and to expand members’ ability to make meaning in the face of loss. Family members also build skills in asking each other questions that matter and in listening well to the answers. In the course of the THJ® experience, participants gather what keeps them together as a family, surface and share in a safe way the spiritual resources they’ve each found helpful in adulthood, and collectively envision a shared future that carves out the ability to see beyond the death of their loved one—so that the death is not the “end of the story.” Practically, THJ® can be conducted in a single two-hour session or in four parts when participants may not have the concentration to do a lot at once; each of the four parts has a “payoff” so that, even if participants never pick up the next session, they have a positive experience. Conductors can be trained online in two two-hour live webinars. https://www.the-human.journey.com .
The Karuna Project - www.thekarunaproject.com
Claudia Coenen is a thanatologist and certified grief counselor with experience in anticipatory grief, bereavement and vicarious trauma. She develops creative tools to use in grief processing including The Karuna Cards and is the author of Shattered by Grief: Picking up the pieces to become WHOLE again and The Creative Toolkit for Working with Grief and Bereavement: A Practitioner’s Guide with 30 activity sheets (release date July 23, 2020). Claudia is in private practice in Hudson, NY and is seeing clients via video from the corner of her sitting room.
The Order of the Good Death - www.orderofthegooddeath.com
The Order was founded in 2011 by mortician and best-selling author, Caitlin Doughty. This nonprofit organization provides resources, support and information about death and dying through their website, YouTube Series, a podcast, articles and events. The Order works to protect and inform the public about their rights and choices surrounding death and the law, and seeks to address and support other nonprofits that work to counter the disparities in deaths experienced within marginalized communities. Order director, Sarah Chavez created this Covid-19 Toolkit, which is continuously updated with facts, resources, and support surrounding dying, death, funerals, and grief under Covid-19.
Too Damn Young – www.toodamnyoung.com
A community + resource for teens and young adults who are navigating grief.
What’s Your Grief - http://www.whatsyourgrief.com/
To put it simply, this website is about grief. That probably sounds oversimplified, but grief is a complex, heavy, frustrating, scary, enormous…ahem, big topic. It starts with a death and envelopes everyone from family to friends, to friends of family and friends. Not only is grief an emotional, logistical, and existential nightmare, but it is taxing. It requires us to navigate the world without someone important, deal with complex feelings and emotions, and figure out ways to move forward when everything seems kind of bleak.
We are Baltimore-based mental health professionals with 20+ years of experience in grief and bereavement. More importantly, though, we have both experienced the death of a parent and have dealt with life after that loss. Neither of us knew what resources were available to us at the time, and we fumbled through the darkness alone. Later we wondered why should anyone have to feel alone when so many of us have been through grief ourselves? For this reason, we are committed to delve into anything and everything grief-related and to provide a place where people can come to support and be supported.