National Grief Awareness Day 2024

As National Grief Awareness Day (August 30th) approaches, consider making time to reflect on your relationship to grief/bereavement. For more information on what National Grief Awareness Day is, click here to read more!

In navigating loss of any kind, there are a variety of ways to acknowledge, celebrate or further process bereavement - regardless of what is no longer in one’s life. Here are a few approaches you can try and talk to your therapist or community about from a multimodal expressive arts therapy perspective:

• Visual Art. Consider making a drawing, collage, or sculpture that represents your person. If they were creatives who dabbled or had a robust art-making background, consider taking a class or watching and implementing a YouTube video of the creative modality they explored regularly. Or if their body of work is still available, try making space for their work in your home or office.

• Music. Make a playlist of favorite songs of or about your person. If they enjoyed vinyl records, explore a local record store and buy a low-cost vinyl record of a genre they would have enjoyed. If they were a musician themselves - explore their musical interest/instrument or listen to a recording of them playing as a way to reflect on the relationship.

• Dance/Movement. If your person was an athlete or loved to walk/hike/bike, explore places they would have liked to go or try the sport they engaged in. It’s not about whether you’re proficient in the activity, but rather take it as an opportunity to contemplate your connection with them through being in your body.

• Theater/Drama. Do you remember their favorite movie, tv show, podcast, play, musical or podcast? Maybe a table top role-player or board game? Consider learning more about their media consumption and watch that show to see a story they would have appreciated or engage in an activity that brought them joy through friendly competition or collaborative storytelling.

• Bibliotherapy/Creative Writing. Who was your person’s favorite author or poet? You could make time to read or listen to your person’s favorite book or anthology or write creatively in the style of prose they would have appreciated. If your person was a writer, consider reading that work and sharing it with your community.

Remember: Be cognizant of your own boundaries while remembering if the bereavement was very recent that exploring these approaches can be very activating or triggering - so please explore these ideas with caution. Regardless of how you use this resource, take this process slow, offer patience to yourself and consider how in using any of these ideas that what is more important is the process you pursue rather than the product/outcome that emerges in the creative process.

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Lou Lim, LMHC, REAT is a licensed mental health counselor and registered expressive arts therapist (REAT) with a master's degree in Expressive Therapy and Mental Health Counseling from Lesley University. He is a member of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association and on the committee for REAT credentialing. He has 13 years of experience in counseling and expressive therapy working with children, adolescents, teenagers, adults, and retirees.

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