If your teenager is coping with grief, you may be looking for healthy ways to support them. You may find yourself searching for coping techniques to teach them, especially during the holidays when feelings of grief and loss may be especially painful. 

At Lightfully Teen, we provide professional support for teens navigating mental health issues, including complicated grief, which is now known as prolonged grief disorder. This is a form of grief due to the loss of a loved one that has become overwhelming and begun to interfere with a person’s daily life. This is often recognized in adults, but teenagers can also experience prolonged grief as well. They may need additional support to find a path forward. For insight into their experience with grief, your teen can use this prolonged grief quiz.

Explore 5 strategies for supporting your teenager through grief

When your teenager is experiencing grief, your support can help them move through the experience more easily. It can also teach them healthy coping skills and help them connect with your family more. Here are five ways you can be there for your teen in their grief:

• Practice active listening.

Active listening is an intentional way of listening during conversation. When you do this, you prioritize understanding your teenager over planning what you will say next. You might do this during a quiet time when you’re alone together during the holidays. Try to give them your undivided attention and ask open-ended questions. Before you respond, consider what might be helpful for your teen to hear. You may paraphrase their words to see if you are understanding what they intend to communicate.

• Teach them healthy coping skills.

Your teen may find their grief overwhelming, and they may not know how to cope with it in a healthy way. Going through grief during what may usually be a joyful time can be especially hard to deal with. You can share coping skills that have worked for you in difficult times. Plus, you can read this blog article to find out about a few coping skills that you can share.

• Build support within the family.

You can help your teenager connect with the family and reduce feelings of loneliness, which may come with the loss of an important friend or loved one. Some strategies include communicating openly, providing opportunities for support and acknowledging your teenager’s strengths. You can give them opportunities to get involved with the family’s holiday celebrations. You can learn more in this blog article on loneliness in teenagers.

• Support honest communication.

When your teenager is going through something, they may want to keep it to themselves. They might think that their feelings would be a burden on others in a usually celebratory time, or they might be concerned about your reaction. They may have unhealthy coping mechanisms that they are uncomfortable bringing up. This could lead to being less than honest. You can learn more about fostering honest communication in this article. You can also lead by example.

• Respond to positive behavior changes with encouragement.

If your teenager has been using unhealthy coping mechanisms like self-isolating, you may be delighted to see them change. Try to resist the urge to say something like “Look who finally decided to join us!” when your teenager reconnects with the family or moves to more healthy coping mechanisms. Instead, let them know that they are welcome in the family’s religious or cultural holiday traditions. Encourage their positive changes.

Could your teenager be experiencing prolonged grief?

Following the loss of a loved one, your teenager may:

• Have significant stress about being separated from a loved one. They may feel that they can’t manage life without someone.
• Feel extreme emotional pain, sadness, despair or depression. They might lean on unhealthy mechanisms for coping with grief.
• Experience flare-ups of conditions like depression or anxiety. Symptoms that have faded may reappear or new symptoms could arise.
• Struggle with basic school activities, relationships or personal hygiene. Keeping up with daily life, let alone holiday events, may feel like too much for them.
• Continue experiencing symptoms for six months or longer. To them, their grief could feel like it might not end.

Lightfully can provide support through several levels of care. We offer an Intensive Outpatient Program and a Partial Hospitalization Program.

All of our treatment providers draw from our Precision Care Model (PCM). PCM is data driven, evidence based and customized to each person. It addresses difficulties with thoughts, emotions, behavior and relationships.

Change is possible. When you’re ready to take the first step, reach out to our Admissions Concierge Team. We’ll take the next steps together, toward the fullest, brightest version of your teenager’s future.