A Grief Counseling Group Design for Hispanic Children

The loss of a loved one happens to most every person at some time in their lives. When this loss occurs for children, they may not have the proper skills or life experience to effectively cope and heal their grief. Repressed grief can potentially result in an explosion of pent up, misunderstood emotions. If a child’s repressed or misunderstood grief is not effectively addressed, dysfunction and pathology may plague them into their adult years. Hispanic children may have specific cultural impacts on their grieving process. To address this issue, a grief counseling intervention was designed to help Hispanic children heal the emotions of grief and loss so they may have the opportunity to develop into healthy adults. Each group counseling session is briefly explained, and each concludes with hypothesized objectives. Although the group sessions keep Hispanic children in mind, just as death and grieving are a part of everyone’s life, it is believed most children across cultures can benefit from this program.