Grief and Loss

Your Most Memorable Dream — There are some dreams you find hard to forget. What makes these dreams so memorable? This worksheet can help you find out. PDF (quick, 1015)

Are You Grieving Too Long? — This assessment tool will help you determine if a client has Complicated Grief Disorder, a condition where extreme grief over the loss of a loved one is continuing longer than would normally be expected. The tool contains criteria for this condition, as well as an assessment worksheet for clients to help them understand the symptoms of this disorder. Form Type: PDF (0815)

How to Deal with Grief — Basic facts on dealing with grief. (PDF)

Tips on Helping Kids With Grief — This fact sheet from the National Association of School Psychologists gives parents basic tips about helping their children handle grief. Form Type: PDF

Recognizing the Symptoms of Child Abuse And Neglect — This fact sheet was developed by the Child Welfare Gateway and should be given to anyone who works with children. It defines the various types of child abuse and neglect according to Federal guidelines, and can be helpful in detecting signs of abuse or neglect.

Thinking About Emotions Game — This worksheet is designed to help people think and talk about their feelings. Players pitch a penny on the worksheet and then talk about the feeling where the penny lands. The game can be played in a small group or even by an individual. (emotional intelligence, depression, communication, social skills, 0317)

Tolerate Stress-Mini-Poster — This mini-post is a humorous reminder that life can be hard at times but we can learn to tolerate our difficulties. PDF (DBT, emotional intelligence, 0616)

Daily Gratitude — This mini-poster can be used to help remind people of the importance of gratitude in their lives. PDF

Remembering a Lost Loved One — This worksheet is designed to help people dealing with a loss find positive ways to remember the people they lost. (grief, mourning, 0120)

Pausing During a Distressing Situation: The REST Technique — This worksheet helps people deal with overwhelming emotions by using the REST technique (relax, evaluate, set an intention, take action). It is designed to help people regain control over their emotions. (DBT, emotional regulation, 1119)

See the Big Picture — This worksheet is designed to help people regulate emotions by seeing the big picture rather than on just focusing on the negative aspects of a situation. The exercise is designed to help people evaluate problems accurately and objectively. (DBT, emotional regulation, 1019)

Practicing Radical Acceptance — This worksheet, derived from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), is designed to help people accept the reality of difficult situations that cause overwhelming emotions. The technique asks people to stay in the present and be self-aware, rather than trying to avoid emotions, blame others, and so on. (grief, bi-polar, depression, addiction, 1019)

Has Your Grief Turned Into a Problem? — This worksheet is designed to help people understand if their grieving has turned into a psychological problem that needs to be addressed (grief, loss, death, 0919)

Relying on Your Problem Solving Ability Even When You Feel Hopeless — This worksheet is designed to stimulate coping mechanisms in people who feel hopeless, even to the point of being suicidal. The intention of the worksheet is to encourage people to develop a problem-solving attitude. The worksheet asks people to try out five popular problem-solving strategies and then see how often they can be used on a day-to-day basis. (problem-solving, executive functioning skills, coping skills, suicide, depression, 0919)

Practicing Self-Compassion While You Grieve — This worksheet teaches people mindful self-compassion as a way to less their suffering while they grieve. (death, mourning, grief, loss, healing, 0819)

Separating Positive and Negative Strategies for Coping with Grief — This worksheet is intended to help people dealing with a loss identify the positive and negative ways they are coping with a loss and to change negative coping strategies to more positive ones. (grief, loss, death, healing, 0719)

Accepting Your Feelings When You Grieve — To identify the common feelings that accompany grief and to learn strategies to accept them. (healing, mourning, loss, death, 0719)

Mood Diary — This simple Mood Diary can help clients keep track of their predominant mood each day, what influenced their mood, and what they did in response to their mood. (0219, emotions, log)

Recognize and Appreciate Your Resilience — This worksheet is designed to help people understand the concept of resilience and focus on the character traits that make them more resilient. (Solution-Focused, positive psychology, self-esteem, 1118)

Creating a Personal Grieving Ritual — This worksheet is designed to help you think about personal rituals which can help you through your grieving process. You might choose to do a ritual every day, or you might only perform rituals on the anniversary of your loss. That is entirely up to you. Use the second worksheet to help you determine if rituals are helping you through your grieving process. (grief, loss, 0718)

Practicing Compassionate Self-Care — This worksheet helps people learn to treat themselves with more compassion, much like they would treat a loved one in need. (depression, self-care, 0517)

How Do You Want to Be Treated? — This worksheet is designed to help people think about how others can help them with their psychological problems. The worksheet asks them to think about both the things that they want from others as well as the things they don’t want. (depression, social skills, communication, 0417)

What Has Helped You? — This worksheet asks clients to consider anything that might have helped them in finding solutions to their problems, whether it was something they learned in therapy or something they learned on their own, such as self-help books, advice from a friend, sudden insights, and so on. (0217)

Learning to Accept Reality — Learning to accept reality is an important part of living in the present. Distorting reality can lead to depression, anxiety, disappointment in your relationships and more. This worksheet has three parts to help people understand how they distort memories from their past, events in the present, and thoughts about their future. PDF (DBT, CBT, Thought-Changing)

Seeking Awe — This worksheet is designed to help people experience the positive effects of awe. PDF (CBT,ACT, happiness, values, depression)

Loving Kindness Meditation — This worksheet is designed to teach people the technique of Loving Kindness Meditation. Research suggests that this simple meditation can have a long term effect on people’s happiness. PDF (ACT, meditation, happiness, depression, 0616)

How Do You Deal with Emotional Pain? — This worksheet can be used to help people record the thoughts, feelings, sensations, and memories that caused them emotional pain as well as to note what behavioral responses are triggered and whether these were positive or negative. PDF (0316, DBT, Emotional Regulation)

Building Your Support System — This worksheet is designed to help people think about the people in their support system and the kinds of support they might be missing. PDF (0116)

Thinking in Full Color — This worksheet is designed to teach to avoid looking at their problems with absolute (black and white) thinking. Absolute thinking distorts reality and limits choices. People are asked to identify a problem, think of four “black and white statements” that pertain to that problem, and then change those thoughts to “full color.”

Understanding Your Moods — This worksheet is designed to help people be more aware of their moods and realize that they have the power to change them. PDF

Just Scribble — This worksheet can be used for two purposes: to help people relax when anxious or stressed and to help people think about their feelings. PDF (1116, relaxation, insight)

Just 3 Words — This worksheet is designed to help people gain insight into their values and how they incorporate them into their daily lives. PDF (1112, ACT)

Make a Movie of Your Life — This worksheet is designed to help people think about and communicate important aspects of their self-image. The worksheet asks a people to name a movie about their life and draw a picture of the most important scene. PDF (quick, Narrative Therapy, 1015)

Looking At the Timeline of Your Life — This worksheet suggests five activities that can help people get a “bird’s-eye view” of their lives as they note events and milestones at different ages. Suggestions for the worksheet include: listing positive events at different stage of life, listing influential people at different stages of life, anticipating future milestones and more. PDF (1015)

Be Aware of Your Strengths — This worksheet is designed to help people see how their character strengths can be important in seeing solutions to daily problems. PDF (ACT, 1015)

Take A Step Toward Something That Scares You — This form can help people see that they don’t have to avoid the things that scare them. The best way to conquer a fear is to approach it in small steps. Form Type: PDF (Anxiety, Quick, 0915)

Create A Mandala — This simple art therapy exercise can help people get in touch with the feelings and can be used with clients to start a conversation about their self-image. Many therapists use this activity as part of a healing process. (Art Therapy, quick, 0815)

Write Down Your Most Powerful Dream — This worksheet asks people to write down a powerful dream from the past. It also asks them to think about how the dream affected them. Form Type: PDF (Quick, NLP, Emotional Intelligence, 0815)

Take A Break — This worksheet encourages people to take a day off from their stress and dedicate that one day to relaxing. Form Type: PDF (Quick, Solution Focused)

Do Something Different — This simple behavior assignment can help people who feel they are stuck in unhealthy patterns. Form Type: PDF (0815, quick assignment)

Creating A Personal Mission Statement — This worksheet is designed to help people clarify their purpose in life. The worksheet includes a serious of questions to help people develop a meaningful personal mission statement in just a few sentences. Form Type: PDF (0715)

Finding Joy and Balance In Your Life — This worksheet describes a daily technique to help people be mindful of the positive things in their lives. This technique is particularly important for people who are stressed and depressed, but it should also be considered a resiliency tool which can help you find daily happiness in your life. Form Type: PDF (0615)

Suicide Prevention Checklist — When you have clients who are suicidal, you naturally want to make sure that you are doing everything you can to insure their safety. This checklist is designed to remind therapists of the critical steps to think about for these clients. Form Type: PDF

Feeling Better Through Spiritual Awareness — This worksheet is designed to help individuals who wish to bring spirituality into their lives as a way to help them with emotional problems and enrich their day-to-day lives. Type: PDF (0515)

The Cost of Avoiding Difficult Feelings — Some people spend a lifetime trying to avoid the things that cause upsetting thoughts, feelings, sensations, or memories. This can help them manage their symptoms, but it can simultaneously lead to a very restricted and unhappy life. This worksheet is designed to help people identify the things that upset them, think about the things they do to avoid being upset, and think about what life would be like if they could overcome their symptoms. This worksheet can be used as a prelude to Mindfulness and other techniques that help people accept and overcome their symptomatic behaviors. (CBT, DBT, 0415).

Dealing With Shame and Guilt — This form is designed for people who blame themselves as solely responsible for a particular situation or event. The form is intended to help relieve the shame and guilt that make life unbearable. Form Type: PDF (CBT-0415)

Looking At the BIg Picture — This worksheet is designed to help people put their problems into perspective. The worksheet takes an art therapy approach, asking people to draw their small problems in little frames and the important things in their lives in the big frame. This worksheet can be a good opening to introduce a discussion about values. Type: PDF (0215)

The Grounding Technique — Grounding techniques are often recommended for clients who feel overwhelmed by their thoughts and feelings. This pdf includes a worksheet to help clients practice this technique and a link to a video demonstration of the technique. File Type: PDF (1214)

Accepting Unpleasant Experiences — This worksheet, derived from Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), is designed to help people accept unpleasant internal experiences, and not use them as an excuse to avoid life-affirming situations. Type: PDF (1114)

If the Problem Were A TV Show — This worksheet is a Narrative Therapy technique which can be used to help clients get more perspective on their presenting problem and see that they have the power to change their “life story" Type: PDF (1114)

The Tree of LIfe — This exercise is designed to help clients communicate positive aspects about their lives. The technique is derived from Narrative Therapy. Type: PDF (1114) Type: PDF

Creating A Gratitude Journal — This research based form can be used to treat mild-depression and help people through difficult times. Form Type: PDF

Identifying Your Support System — This worksheet is designed to help people identify a support system of individuals they can contact in times of emotional distress. PDF

Making Positive Statements About Yourself — This worksheet encourages people to make positive statements about themselves. Form Type:PDF

Controlling Your Moods — This worksheet is designed to help people see that they can influence their moods, positively or negatively, through their activities. Form Type: PDF

Grief Journal — This form is designed to help people keep a journal of their feelings after a loss.

Sorting Out Feelings About Your Loss — This form is designed to help people better understand their feelings after a loss. PDF

Emotions Below The Tip of The Iceberg — This worksheet is designed to help people identify emotions that they hide from others. Form Type: PDF

Understanding Loss — This worksheet is designed to help people work through their grief. PDF