Creative Ways to Help Kids Heal from Loss
Play therapy interventions for grieving children provide a safe and natural way for kids to express emotions they can’t yet put into words. Through stories, sand, art, movement, and imagination, children begin to process the pain of loss in developmentally appropriate ways. As therapists, educators, and caring professionals, we understand that children often play out what they cannot talk out. These creative, evidence-based approaches invite healing, connection, and hope—meeting each child where they are, one gentle session at a time.
Using play therapy interventions for grieving children allows us to enter their inner world gently — through stories, sand, art, and imagination — and help them make sense of overwhelming emotions. For heart-centered therapists and caregivers, these interventions honour both the science and the soul of child therapy: they create safety, connection, and meaning through creativity.
1. Storytelling
Storytelling opens a doorway to conversations that might otherwise feel too hard to have. Through books and imaginative stories, children can project their experiences onto characters who share similar losses.
Therapists might use:
- Commercial books focused on grief and loss
- Therapist-created stories tailored to the child’s developmental stage
- Mutual storytelling, co-creating with the child to rebuild safety and control
Recommended Books:
- When Someone Dies — Andrea Dorn
- The ABC of Grief
- Lifetimes
- Why I Feel Sad
- The Goodbye Book
- The Invisible String
- What Happens When a Loved One Dies
- The Memory Tree
- The Dead Bird — for pet loss
- Losing My Best Friend — for pet loss
Tip: Avoid books that are too abstract or lengthy for young readers. Look for stories with clear language, gentle imagery, and endings that offer hope.
2. Sandtray Play
In sandtray therapy, children express their grief symbolically through miniature worlds they build in the sand. These scenes reveal deep emotional truths — the “before and after” of their world, their memories, and their hopes.
Sample prompts:
- “Create what life was like before and after your loved one died.”
- “Show one of your happiest memories together.”
- “Show how someone helped you this week.”
- “What hope looks like now.”
- “The legacy your loved one left behind.”
The tactile, sensory nature of sand offers comfort and containment, helping children give shape to emotions that feel too big to say aloud.
3. Letter Writing
Writing letters to a loved one can help children communicate unfinished thoughts, feelings, or memories. This activity validates continuing bonds — the idea that love doesn’t end, even when life does.
Prompts might include:
- “I miss you because…”
- “Here’s what’s changed since you died.”
- “If I could talk to you today, I’d say…”
- “This is how I felt when you left.”
- “Goodbye.”
Therapists often end grief work with a Goodbye Letter, a gentle ritual of closure.
Download a sample Goodbye Letter template here.
4. Journalling
Journalling helps older children and teens organize their grief and find words for experiences that once felt too painful.
Prompts:
- How did you learn about your loved one’s death?
- What’s your last memory together?
- What’s something you wish you could forget?
- What did your loved one do that made you laugh or feel safe?
Writing provides emotional release and helps young people see their own growth over time.
5. Pretend Play
Children rehearse and process grief through pretend play — a natural form of storytelling and mastery.
They may replay or anticipate:
- Visiting a loved one before they died
- Hearing the news of death
- Attending a funeral or cultural ritual
These reenactments allow children to integrate their experience and regain a sense of agency in the face of loss.
6. Games
Games make space for grief while keeping therapy accessible and engaging.
Examples:
- Grief Jenga: Color each block by emotion —
- Blue = sadness
- Yellow = happiness
- Red = anger
- Purple = memory
As the child removes a block, they share a moment connected to that emotion. The falling tower can symbolize how grief disrupts life — and how we rebuild afterward.
- Commercial Games:
- The Memory Box
- The Good Mourning Game
- The Talking, Feeling, Doing Grief Card Game
- Healing Hearts: A Game for Children About the Journey Through Grief
- Totika Loss and Recovery Deck
7. Art & Creative Expression
Art helps children communicate what can’t be said. Through color, texture, and symbolism, grief finds safe expression.
Ideas:
- Sculpt and paint a broken heart
- Create a memory jar or memory box
- Draw a favorite moment with the loved one
- Use collage to show “before” and “after”
These projects often become keepsakes of love and remembrance.
8. Music, Movement, and Sound
Music reaches emotions that words and even art can’t always express. For grieving children, music and movement activities can safely release emotions like sadness, anger, fear, or loneliness through rhythm and sound.
Ideas for Music & Movement:
- Play instruments like drums, shakers, or xylophones to represent emotions — “What does your sad sound like? What does mad sound like?”
- Use movement (dancing, stomping, swaying) to embody how grief feels in the body — and how it changes when they play or move.
- Song exploration: Older children or teens can find songs on YouTube or playlists that reflect how they feel or remind them of their loved one.
- Soothing sounds: Create a “comfort playlist” with songs that bring calm or hope during difficult moments.
Music gives children permission to feel deeply and experience emotional release in ways that are natural, physical, and restorative.
💚 For Teachers, Therapists, and Community Professionals
Grieving children often show their pain through play, not words.
If you’re a teacher, therapist, estate lawyer, social worker, or early childhood educator supporting a child who’s experienced loss, please consider sharing our child play therapy services with their family.
Together, we can help children make sense of grief in a safe, healing space.
👉 www.helpforfamilies.ca
Help for Families Canada – Counselling & Consulting
Closing Reflection
Every child’s grief story is different — but what remains the same is their need for connection, validation, and safe expression. Play therapy interventions for grieving children honour their natural way of healing, allowing hope to return gently over time.
At Help for Families Canada, our child and family therapists provide compassionate, evidence-based grief support that helps children move from confusion to understanding — and from silence to story.