Grief worksheets

Compassionate worksheets for loss, complicated grief, and continuing bonds.


Modern grief work has moved away from the rigid stage models of the 1960s. Contemporary approaches emphasize oscillation between loss-focused and restoration-focused activity, the importance of continuing bonds, and the wide range of normal grief trajectories.

The worksheets here support that view: there is no schedule grief is supposed to follow.

All Grief worksheets (16)

DBT

Radical Acceptance Reflection

A worksheet for practicing acceptance of a reality you cannot currently change without endorsing it.

Grief Stress Trauma
SOLUTION-FOCUSED

Coping Question Reflection

A SFBT-style reflection on how you have managed to keep going despite difficulty — what resources are in play?

Stress Grief
POSITIVE-PSYCHOLOGY

Letter to Yourself From a Compassionate Friend

A guided expressive writing exercise in which you write to yourself as a kind friend would.

Self Esteem Grief
POSITIVE-PSYCHOLOGY

Resentment Inventory

A reflection worksheet for itemizing long-held resentments and weighing what carrying them costs.

Anger Grief
POSITIVE-PSYCHOLOGY

Continuing Bonds Worksheet

A reflection worksheet for articulating how a relationship with someone you've lost continues to shape your life.

Grief
POSITIVE-PSYCHOLOGY

Grief Letter Exercise

A guided letter-writing exercise to a person who has died, with optional response from their imagined voice.

Grief
CBT

Anniversary Reaction Plan

A worksheet for naming and planning around predictable grief triggers — birthdays, holidays, anniversaries.

Grief
CBT

Dual Process Mapping

A worksheet derived from the dual-process model of grief — what loss-focused and restoration-focused activity looks like for you.

Grief
POSITIVE-PSYCHOLOGY

Memory Box Inventory

A planning worksheet for assembling a deliberate physical or digital collection of memories of the person who died.

Grief
CBT

Roles and Identity After Loss

A reflection worksheet for the identity work that often follows the loss of a close person.

Grief
POSITIVE-PSYCHOLOGY

Anger Forgiveness Letter

A letter-writing exercise drawn from REACH forgiveness research, written to be read or kept.

Anger Grief
POSITIVE-PSYCHOLOGY

Two-Letter Forgiveness Exercise

A two-step letter exercise — one as the hurt party, one to that party — for self-led forgiveness work.

Relationships Grief
POSITIVE-PSYCHOLOGY

Self-Forgiveness Worksheet

A four-step worksheet (responsibility, remorse, restoration, release) for self-forgiveness.

Self Esteem Grief
CBT

Holiday Coping Plan

A worksheet for predicting and pre-deciding your responses to predictably hard moments during the holiday season.

Depression Grief
CBT

Chronic Illness Identity Worksheet

A reflection on the identity work involved in living with a chronic illness diagnosis.

Depression Grief
CBT

Trauma Anniversary Plan

A pre-anniversary worksheet for naming the date, the anticipated reactions, and the supports you want in place.

Trauma Grief