Mental Health & Wellbeing: Therapy, Mindfulness, Self-Care

Your grief is intertwined with mental health and while grief itself is not a diagnosable illness, it can heighten risks of depression, anxiety, or complicated grief. Taking intentional steps for your mental wellbeing is not a sign of weakness...it’s a way to stay present in your life, to build resilience and to honour yourself.

Therapy & Professional Support

• Grief counseling / bereavement therapy: Therapists with specialisation or experience in grief can offer tailored tools and a safe space to process complex emotions.

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Can help you challenge unhelpful thoughts (e.g. guilt, blame) and reframe negative thinking patterns.

• Group therapy / support groups: You can gain insight from others, see different ways people cope and reduce isolation.

• Trauma-informed therapy: If your grief is entangled with trauma (sudden loss, complicated relationships), a trauma-informed lens can help.

• Online or teletherapy: Particularly helpful if access to in-person services is limited; many therapists now offer virtual sessions.

  
  

Mindfulness & Presence

• Mindfulness meditation: Even 5 minutes a day can help you notice your thoughts and emotions without being consumed by them.

• Body scans & breathing: Simple practices help you reconnect with your physical self, grounding you when grief feels overwhelming.

• Walking mindfulness: Taking slow walks and noticing each step, or nature-based awareness can ease the mental burden.

• Acceptance-based practices: Rather than resisting pain, you can learn to be with it, not giving it permission, but not expending energy fighting it either.

  
  

Self-Care: Rituals of Nourishment

• Physical self-care

  
  

    * Sleep hygiene: keep regular sleep routines where possible

  * Nutritious meals: even small, simple steps toward balanced food

  * Gentle movement: walks, yoga, stretching...not to “fix” you, but to stay connected with your body

  
  

• Emotional self-care

  
  

  * Set gentle boundaries with people, commitments, or triggers

  * Give yourself permission to rest, to cry, to slow down

  * Seek joy in small things, music, art, nature, books

  
  

• Creative / expressive self-care

  
  

    * Journaling, drawing, photography, letting your inner world speak

  * Music, dance, crafting as a form of release

  
  

• Routine + flexibility

  
  

    * Some regular daily practices can anchor you

    * Also allow flexibility, grief is unpredictable and your needs will shift over time