Helping Children with Loss

Now in a fully updated second edition, this professional guidebook has been created to help adults provide emotional support for children who have experienced the loss of somebody they know, or something they loved.

Written in an accessible style and with a sensitive tone, Helping Children with Loss provides adults with a rich vocabulary for mental states and painful emotions, paving the way for meaningful and healing conversations with children who are struggling with difficult feelings. Practical activities provide opportunities for conversation and will empower the child to find creative and imaginative ways of expressing themselves when words fail.

Key features of this resource include:

Targeted advice for children who defend against feeling their painful feelings by dissociating from grief

Tools and strategies for helping children cope with loss, including engaging activities to help children explore their feelings in a non-threatening way

Photocopiable and downloadable resources to help facilitate support


Written by a leading child psychotherapist with over thirty years’ experience, this book will support children to develop emotional literacy and connect with unresolved feelings affecting their behaviour. It is an essential resource for anybody supporting children aged 4-12 who have experienced loss.