ABSTRACT
That moment of loss when someone the child has loved deeply leaves or dies can herald a complex mix of agonising feelings: despair, futility, anger, fear, shock, emptiness, to name a few. The strength of the feelings and the pain of the grief can, at times, feel too much to endure. When working with children who are suffering the pain of loss, we need to be very aware of the whole range of feelings and mental states they may be experiencing. Terrible shocks are something most of us have to manage at some time in our life. Yet the parenting and education we receive provide us with few, if any, resources to know how to cope well with shocks. Children often give the impression that after the loss of a loved one, life resumes as normal.
