Playing to heal: The impact of bereavement camp for children with grief.

Abstract

Child bereavement is a difficult topic to explore and study because of stigmas in discussing death, and because of restrictions in doing research with young children. Thus, research in childhood bereavement is limited. This study focused on children who attended a bereavement camp after the traumatic loss of a loved one. The purpose was to understand the participants' grief experiences. This research study used phenomenological inquiry and analysis methodology. Five female participants were interviewed for this study. In addition, participants created a sandtray world to convey their experiences at bereavement camp. The essence of participants' experiences as revealed through verbal interviews was posttraumatic growth. In addition, the essence of participants' experiences as revealed through their sandtray worlds was gaining a sense of support. Results of this study extend bereavement research to include the experiences of children. Further, implications for mental health professionals, counselor educators, and bereavement camps are emphasized.

Serving together: Play therapy to foster attachment for grieving military families.

“…Play behaviors in grieving children can span the continuum; however, are frequently connected to the painful experience of loss and the coinciding need for nurturance , rescue , and repair . For example, Salinas (2021) reported similar grief-related play behaviors in her study on children who attended a bereavement camp after experiencing a traumatic loss of a loved one. Furthermore, her findings suggested that “play had a significant impact on children’s ability to cope with their losses and process their grief” (p. 46).…”

“…Existing literature supports play therapy for grieving children (Gonzalez & Bell, 2016; Salinas, 2021; Turner, 2020), however, there is a paucity of literature that specifically addresses grieving children in military families. Without evidence, clinicians must rely on related literature connected to grief and the experiences of military families.…”

Grief Walking in the Sandtray

“…Sand therapy has long been regarded as an intervention that assists the client with processing many experiences, including grief and loss. It provides therapeutic distance to upsetting or traumatic memories (Salinas, 2021). "The tactile, nonverbal experience promotes awareness of deeply personal emotional issues within a safe, therapeutic environment" (Webber & Mascari, 2008, p. 1).…”

Hidden Pain: Children Who Lost a Parent or Caregiver to COVID-19 and What the Nation Can Do to Help Them

“…Some camps involve a surviving parent, though most focus exclusively on the child. [73][74][75][76] Relevant research is largely focused on short-term indicators of psychological and social well-being rather than broader and downstream metrics of more interest to policymakers but offer meaningful insight into that limited set of outcomes. Camps enable children to better articulate their feelings of loss and grief and think of their feelings as "normal."…”

“…In others, the child exhibited significant mental health concerns prior to program enrollment, and the parent had hoped that the camp would address this higher-level problem. 76…”