Grief in children and adolescents may appear through repetition in play, regression, irritability, existential questioning, body based symptoms, or changes in relational engagement. These responses often reflect the natural effort to make sense of loss. Therapists must distinguish normative grief from trauma related activation and pace expressive work carefully to prevent emotional overwhelm.
This 90-minute workshop explores seven distinct functions of play in supporting grief across early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. These functions include maintaining continuing bonds, supporting emotional expression, restoring a sense of mastery and control, creating story and meaning, allowing relief and return to daily life, integrating memory, and strengthening connection with supportive others. Developmental differences in symbolic capacity and narrative ability will be examined to strengthen clinical judgment.
