GriefGuide

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

Guidance for a loss — whether you're grieving yourself, supporting someone who is, or both. It stays close to what you tell it: what it heard, a few things that may help, words if you need them, and one gentle next step.

Overview

Grief is one of the most universal human experiences and one of the least understood, and much of what gets offered in response is either a script or a verdict. GriefGuide does neither. It stays anchored to what you actually tell it — it will not name an emotion you did not mention, decide that what you are experiencing is normal or abnormal, or place you at a stage. What it returns is short by design: what it heard, one or two things that may help make sense of it, at most three proportionate suggestions, words you could actually say if language would help, and exactly one gentle next step. It works for the person grieving, for someone trying to support them without making it worse, or for both at once.

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. Get your guidance — it is built from what you shared, and stops there

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: What I hear: your father died suddenly three weeks ago, you are getting through the working day, and it arrives when you get home. You keep reaching for the phone. Your family has asked you to be strong for your mother. Making sense of it: reaching for the phone is not a mistake you are making — it is a habit that was built over decades and has not caught up yet. Being there for your mother and grieving your own father are not the same task, and being asked for the first does not cancel the second. What may help: let the crying at home be the thing that happens rather than the thing you manage; consider one person you do not have to be strong in front of. One gentle next step: pick that one person, and tell them only that you would rather not be strong around them. Note what it does not do — it does not tell you that what you feel is normal, name an emotion you did not mention, or guess what your father would have wanted.

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