Why You Should Create a Ritual to Honor Your Grief

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again—grief is something every individual navigates throughout their life. However common grief may be, it’s important to remember that there is rarely a linear path to healing and processing the pain and emotional distress that can come with loss.

Each person will handle the experience of grief in different ways. While one person may be able to make significant progress in processing their grief in six months, another grieving individual may need additional time and extra layers of support.

It’s also important to consider how grief can be present even if you haven’t experienced a death loss. It’s possible to experience grief after moving to a new city, ending a friendship or romantic relationship, experiencing a shift in routine, or some other kind of life transition.

The truth is, just about any experience of a significant change in your life could produce feelings of grief and sadness.

Our Los Angeles’ grief therapists have found that there are some common symptoms that individuals who are experiencing grief share. If you’re interested in learning more about what grief is and the different ways it can show up, we wrote a blog all about it and you can read it right here.

What Is a Grief Ritual?

A grief ritual could be any activity or practice, done alone or with others, that allows you to create an intentional and sacred space to celebrate, meditate, or simply remember someone or something you are grieving.

It’s simply a way to pause, remember, and perhaps make meaning of a particular loss.


Examples of Grief Rituals

  • Cooking a favorite recipe that reminds you of a loved one of a specific place

  • Lighting a candle to mark an anniversary or special date

  • Writing a letter or journal entry

  • Gathering with someone, or a group of folks, who might be sharing the loss and share your favorite memories and stories

  • Creating a space filled with photos, moments, and other items that hold a memory

Now that you’ve seen some examples of grief rituals, you may have some inspiration for how you can create a meaningful ritual or practice that you can integrate into your own grief process. So let’s say you recently relocated to Los Angeles from another city, you might be feeling the emotional impact of leaving your hometown and starting fresh. Consider lighting a candle and looking through photos of your favorite stomping grounds or perhaps try to recreate a dish from your favorite restaurant there.

A great rule of thumb when creating a grief ritual is to keep it simple. The point is to develop a practice that helps you to carve out time and space to allow your thoughts and feelings to belong—just as they are.

The Therapeutic Benefits of Grief Rituals

While we could talk all day about how meaningful grief rituals can be, it’s worth noting that there are some therapeutic benefits for individuals who incorporate them into their routine, in some cases in addition to working with a Los Angeles grief therapist.

Here are a few ways grief rituals can be helpful:

  • Can lower levels of stress and anxiety related to the experience of grief

  • May help to restore a sense of autonomy or control

  • Could allow for a new sense of purpose and meaning

  • May allow an individual to more deeply experience and process their emotions

Integrating Therapy and Grief Work

If you’re currently working with a grief counselor in the Los Angeles area, you could consider sharing your grief ritual with your therapist. And if you don’t have a grief ritual or aren’t sure how you want to honor your loss just quite yet, a therapist can support you as you invent your own practice to honor your grief experience.

In fact, in the past, some of our clients who have worked with grief counselors at Highland Park Holistic Psychotherapy have found it incredibly powerful to share photos and songs that have been meaningful in their grief process and it’s allowed for some powerful healing to take place.

Connect with an Experienced Grief Therapist in Los Angeles

Working with a therapist in Los Angeles who specializes in grief counseling can be a powerful way to integrate ritual into your healing process. If you’re interested in connecting with one of our clinicians who specialize in grief therapy, contact us to schedule a free consultation!

P.S. - We offer virtual sessions, so we welcome all California residents to reach out and get connected!

Jenny Walters