Inside outside self-portrait worksheet for therapy sessions
Summary
Download our free grief letter template to help clients navigate non-linear grief symptoms and process painful emotions effectively.
Use the provided sentence completion prompts to guide clients through organizing complex thoughts and expressing unsaid feelings.
Integrate this versatile goodbye letter template into clinical homework, handouts, or group therapy sessions to build meaningful healing rituals.
Save this downloadable resource directly into your digital practice management software to streamline documentation and administrative workflows.
Understanding the emotions related to grief and processing loss can be especially difficult for clients.
This article provides tips on how to use a goodbye letter template with sentence prompts to support clients in saying goodbye to their loved ones.
We’ve included a free downloadable grief letter template that you can download and save to your electronic health record (EHR) to use in your practice.
Symptoms of grief
While everyone experiences grief at some point in their lives, grief is deeply personal.
However, many people experience some of the following symptoms:
Psychological distress
Shock
Overwhelm
Profound sadness
Self-neglect
Suicidal ideation*
Remorse
Frustration
Confusion
Yearning
Dwelling on the past
Regret
Grief about future experiences
Denial
Apprehension about the future
*Suicidal ideation requires prompt clinical intervention. If a client expresses thoughts of suicide, conduct a thorough risk assessment and refer to appropriate crisis resources as needed.
While most people find a way to cope with the loss of their loved one over time and can re-engage with their lives after several months to a year, there is no “normal” timeframe to process grief.
Despite the commonly referred to stages of grief model, there are no prescriptive stages of grief. This model was misinterpreted from the work of psychologist Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, who wrote about these stages in her book “On Death and Dying” when describing the process of terminally ill patients coming to terms with dying. Critics, including Kübler-Ross, highlight that grieving is not linear.
However, if a client continues to experience distressing symptoms, they may have complicated grief or grief-related depression, which requires prompt clinical intervention due to increased risks.
What is a grief letter?
Letter writing is an effective therapeutic tool for processing complicated emotions and reducing psychological distress, particularly in grief therapy.
Writing grief letters can help clients process their grief and cope with the loss of a loved one by:
Offering a structured way to engage with their grief rather than feeling helpless or overwhelmed
Acknowledging their loss
Providing an opportunity to express their emotions
Organizing complex thoughts and feelings about their loss
Promoting sharing anything left unsaid or resolving unfinished business
Encouraging a continuing bond with the deceased
Creating a coherent narrative around the loss
Creating meaning by reflecting on memories of the deceased, their significance, and their impact on the client’s life
Reading the letter aloud, burning it, keeping it in a memory box, or burying it with the deceased can help create a grieving ritual
Providing closure
For children, letter writing can help to acknowledge and express their feelings, find an ongoing connection to their loved one, and come to terms with their loss.
Grief letter therapy prompts
Writing a grief letter can feel daunting, especially when grief comes in a wave of emotions. Additionally, younger children may struggle to identify their feelings.
This is where grief sentence completion prompts can help, such as:
When I think about losing you, I feel ________________
I’m thankful for ________________
What I miss most about you is ________________
I wish I could tell you ______________
You taught me how to ________________
One of my favorite memories of you is ________________
I wish I had time to ________________
I feel most sad about ________________
I want you to know that ________________
I am worried about the future without you because ________________
I will remember you by ________________
The thing that changed most about losing you was ________________
Saying goodbye feels ________________
How to use the grief letter template
Therapists can use our grief letter template in several ways:
Psychoeducational prompt: The template could illustrate ways to process grief.
Handout: Give the worksheet to the client to remind them of what you discussed during therapy.
Homework: Suggest the client use the goodbye letter template and prompts between sessions and share their progress at their next therapy appointment.
Goodbye letter to therapist: If the client struggles with endings, you could use the worksheet as part of transitioning care.
Group therapy: If you are facilitating a grief group, you could combine grief-related worksheets, such as a grief fact sheet or stages of grief worksheet, and use this farewell letter template as a grief exercise to support the participants' healing process.
Sources
American Psychological Association. (2022). Grief.
Furnes, B., & Dysvik, E. (2010). A systematic writing program as a tool in the grief process: part 1. Patient preference and adherence.
Larsen L. H. (2024). Letter Writing as a Clinical Tool in Grief Psychotherapy. Omega.
Nordal, KC. (2020). Grief: Coping with the loss of your loved one. American Psychological Association.
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