GriefGuide

Compassionate guidance for navigating loss — yours or someone else's

Guidance for navigating grief — whether you're grieving yourself, supporting someone who is, or both. Covers what's normal, how to be with the pain, what to say (and not say), and when to seek more support.

Overview

Grief is one of the most universal human experiences and one of the least understood. People often don't know what they're feeling is normal, or feel pressure to grieve 'correctly.' Those trying to help often don't know what to say and end up saying things that hurt. GriefGuide offers warm, non-prescriptive guidance tailored to your specific situation — the type of loss, when it happened, and what you're experiencing. It works for the grieving person, for someone trying to support a grieving friend or family member, or for both.

How to use it

  1. Select who this is for — yourself, someone you're trying to help, or both
  2. Choose the type of loss if relevant — grief over a job is different from grief over a death
  3. Select when it happened — guidance shifts depending on timeline
  4. Share as much or as little as you're comfortable with in the text field — the more context, the more personal the guidance
  5. Add your country for locally-relevant support resources
  6. Click 'Get Guidance' — the response is tailored to what you shared

Example

Scenario: Someone shares that their father died suddenly three weeks ago. They're functional at work but cry at home. They keep thinking they need to call him. Family is telling them to be strong for their mom.

Result: Opening: Three weeks after a sudden loss like this, what you're describing — staying functional in public while the grief surfaces when you're alone — is one of the most common patterns, and one of the loneliest. That moment of reaching for the phone is something many people describe after losing a parent... Guidance: 'On sudden loss' — sudden deaths don't give us time to prepare, and the shock can delay grief in ways that feel disorienting; 'On being strong for others' — being there for your mom and grieving your own father are not mutually exclusive, but you can't do either well if you're suppressing everything; practical suggestions: let yourself have the cry when it comes, consider finding one person who you don't have to be strong for.

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