ABSTRACT
Grief support programs that include interventions such as creative writing, music, and the visual arts are helpful in assisting adolescents in their attempt to achieve an emotional balance on their journey through grief. Adolescence is a particularly difficult time of life to experience loss. Teenagers are faced with the monumental task of integrating their need for nurturing while breaking away in search of independence. The inclusion of the arts in a group support setting for adolescents creates a safe expressive place to share feelings and concerns that would otherwise go unaddressed. Creative arts-based programming offers grieving teens an avenue of expression that other forms of intervention do not. The physical act of involvement in the arts often allows adolescents to release unspoken pain, thereby creating a foundation for healing.
