30 Days of Journaling for Grief and Loss
Journaling Can Help.
Journaling is an incredibly useful tool for people who want to explore and express their grief through writing. The physical and psychological value is proven — but it can be hard to know where to begin.
Journaling offers a simple coping tool that requires only a pen and paper. It doesn’t force you to ‘talk it out’ if you don’t want to. And perhaps most importantly, grief journaling has many psychological and physical benefits.
Despite the upsides to journaling, it’s an underutilized coping skill. Even people who think they’d like to write or journal ultimately don’t because they’re worried they won’t be good at it or believe they don’t have the time. We believe in the therapeutic value of writing, but knowing where to begin and integrating the practice into your day-to-day life (if that’s something you desire) can be challenging.
We created this course to help you get started with grief journaling. Through 30 days worth of grief lessons and prompts, we will help you begin to process your experiences, ask questions, seek answers, and build up your coping toolbox. We’ll also provide support and direction to establish and maintain your journaling practice.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Why utilize writing and journaling?
There are many benefits to writing and journaling, including benefits to your physical and mental health. We like writing because it…
- Combats avoidance
- Has physical and mental health benefits
- Can be practical and constructive at times or artistic and creative
- Can help reduce ruminative thoughts and improve sleep
- Plus other benefits we’ll discuss in the course
How does this course help establish a journaling practice?
Despite knowing the benefits of journaling, finding the motivation to journal sporadically can be challenging, much less keeping up with a regular practice — especially when grieving.
We created this course to help you get started on the path to journaling about grief, to gain greater insight into your own loss, and provide you with the support and direction you need to stick with it for at least 30 days.
What is the structure of this course?
In this grief journaling intensive, participants receive 30 days of journaling prompts. On 15 days, you’ll also receive lessons on grief, coping, support and relationships, connecting with your loved one, etc.
Though journaling prompts may seem simple, those included in this course are based on psychological perspectives, coping techniques, and themes common to the grief experience.
What if I’m unable to journal every day?
We used the word “days” above because, ideally, participants will tackle one prompt daily, but this is by no means a requirement. When you’re grieving, some days are better than others, and it’s up to you whether you feel like completing two prompts in one day, one prompt every other day, or any other approach.
This cause is self-guided, which means it’s up to you to guide yourself through. You decide when to log on, you choose when to read lessons, and you choose when to journal. You are free to move from lesson to lesson and prompt to prompt at your discretion.
Get Started Now!
About the Instructors
Eleanor Haley, MS, and Litsa Williams, MA, LCSW-C are the mental health professionals who co-founded the organization What’s Your Grief, and authors of the popular grief book What’s Your Grief? Lists to help you through any loss
We’ve never believed in a one-size-fits-all approach to coping with grief. As a society, we’ve started to embrace the idea that grief is unique to the person experiencing it. Yet, grief support has been slow to catch up, often offering the same suggestions like support groups, therapy, and books. Not that these things aren’t helpful to many – they are! But they aren’t for everyone, and even those who utilize them often find they need additional tools.
We (the founders of WYG) both experienced parental loss in early adulthood, and, at the time, we found that conventional approaches to grief support didn’t feel like they were “for us.” We looked for alternatives at the time with little success, only to resign ourselves to the idea that we were on our own.
Years later, when we found ourselves working in the field of grief and bereavement, we realized we weren’t the only ones. Many people want creative, flexible, outside-the-box resources that meet needs beyond traditional grief support. So, we decided to create them.
This course is part of our effort to provide people with creative, accessible, relatable, and evidence-informed grief support that you can tap into from the comfort of home, in your PJs, at your own time and pace. We believe in journaling as an outlet for coping with grief, whether you write sporadically or establish a daily practice. We hope you’ll give it a try.