The Unique Path of Grief: Trauma Responses in Children and Adolescents Post Suicide Loss

In this course, marriage and family therapists and registered play therapist supervisors Mary Ruth Cross and Leslie Baker introduce the complex intersection of traumatic grief, child development, and suicide postvention. They explore why suicide loss can generate trauma responses in children and adolescents, how grief presents differently across developmental stages, and what clinicians should assess when formulating treatment. The course also offers practical, real-world applications through play therapy, sand-tray, guided imagery, memorialising practices, and meaning-making interventions that help young clients regulate distress, maintain adaptive bonds, and gradually integrate loss into their developing sense of self.