As adults, we have experienced the grief and pain of losing someone important or dear to us. Even many children have known those feelings, through the passing of a grandparent or a beloved pet. Grieving takes many forms, some obvious and others more subtle. Helping a child grapple with these feelings requires different approaches, but always takes compassion, sensitivity, and patience.
Leah Bengel lost her mother when she was just twelve years old. Now, as a licensed social worker and Clinical Coordinator with the Henry Ford SandCastles program, she is helping other young people learn the cope with grief and thrive even after experiencing the trauma of loss.
Henry Ford SandCastles is a special place for children and families to interact with peers who have experienced the death of a loved one. They offer a preventative program aimed at helping children and teens cope with loss healthily. They also teach skills for making positive choices and foster young people’s self-esteem.
“Every person grieves differently.” Ms. Bengel respects each person’s unique experience with grief. She offers the children she works with different “tools” that can help them work through their pain. Leah still cherishes the Memory Box and book of feelings that she made as a child after losing her mother. In fact, she still keeps these tools in her metaphorical back pocket for hard times.
“Grief following a loss is a natural, healthy, and normal expression of love lost.” Peggy Nielsen of Henry Ford SandCastles also joins to explain why kids need empathetic and unjudgmental support to cope with grief in a healthy manner. She shares how children may address grief differently depending on their age and life experience, citing instances of young children who return to the grief advocates in her program for further support when they reach adolescence and re-examine their earlier loss.
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