Navigate Through the Darkest Moment: A Guide to Helpful Grief Resources

From Our Executive Director

Over the past several months, our community has carried an extraordinary amount of grief. As an organization rooted in compassion and support, we continue to witness the quiet strength of families walking through unimaginable heartache.

This blog post is offered with deep respect for the tenderness of this season. It is a reflection on grief—how it shapes us, how it lingers, and how we can make space for one another in the midst of it.

Whether your grief is recent or long-held, visible, or private, please know you are not alone. Below are several resources and hopefully helpful avenues if you are in need of support.

With love and care,

Kristina Robertson

Executive Director, Project 4031

Grief Camps & Retreats in Fort Worth

Grief retreats offer a unique opportunity for concentrated healing and connection in a supportive, often natural, setting. These specialized programs provide a temporary escape from daily routines, allowing individuals and families to immerse themselves in therapeutic activities, connect with others facing similar losses, and focus entirely on their grief journey.

• Grief Camp by Camp El Tesoro de la Vida: A week-long resident camp for children ages 7-17. A combination of 90% of traditional fun camping activities and 10% structured grief-oriented program. Certified professional counselors lead small group sessions and are on-site at all times to provide counseling and support. Scholarships are available for application.

  
  

• Camp Morning Star by Camp John Marc: A 3-day camp that serves families of patients who have died in the last year from Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, TX. It provides families with an opportunity to process their experiences with grief, meet families who have experienced loss, and enjoy activities as a family.

• Camp Sunrise by Christian Works: A free weekend bereavement camp for children ages 6 to 17. Licensed counselors and trained facilitators lead children and teens through fun, high-energy activities, which provide healthy ways to express feelings and help develop coping strategies for their journey toward hope & healing.

  
  

• A Memory Grows Retreat: A 4-day retreat with multiple sessions throughout the year for parents suffering child loss. Specific retreats are offered for loss due to suicide, homicide, and fentanyl. The registration fee is $350, and grants are available to cover a large portion.

Grief Support Groups

If you do not have the luxury to go for a retreat, joining a support group and connecting with others who understand your experience can also be incredibly healing. Fort Worth offers a variety of support groups tailored to different needs, either online or in person.

The WARM Place 

Mainly for children, the grief support center provides a safe environment and their families to express and share their grief. All programs are free to participate in. 

• Group Nights: Designed for children aged 3 ½ – 18 to acknowledge their grief alongside their peers. The groups are led by trained volunteers and monitored by licensed mental health professionals, featuring a potluck dinner, fun activities for children, and a simultaneous caregiver group for parents and caregivers.  

  
  

• Pre-K Program: Offered in spring and fall every Wednesday from 12 to 1 pm, the 10-week programs aim to help children ages 3½ – 5 heal after the death of a loved one. 

  
  

• Young Adults Group: Meeting every Wednesday from 7 to 8:30pm, these grief groups focus on young adults of 19-25 years old by offering them the necessary support along their grief journey. 

  
  

• Virtual Groups: If you cannot make it in person, try joining a virtual group! Led by trained volunteers, the biweekly virtual groups support K-12 children and their families with activities and peer support. 

GriefShare 

The Christian-based support groups meeting weekly at various churches across the Fort Worth area. Each meeting covers an important topic, such as loneliness and sadness, self-care, and questions for God. During the 13-week session, participants benefit from advice from counselors, pastors, and healthcare professionals. While some locations charge a $10-25 registration fee for workbooks and refreshments, some locations offer the service for free or offer scholarships to cover all or part of the cost. 

Currently, the support groups are available in the following churches across Fort Worth: 

• First Baptist Church – Lakeside 

• North Fort Worth Baptist Church 

• All Saints Church – Crestline 

• International Harvest Christian Fellowship 

  
  

For a full list of future support groups, other possible locations and virtual sessions, please visit their website.  

The Compassionate Friends – Fort Worth Chapter 

The Compassionate Friends is a national wide organization dedicated to support families that experienced the death of a child regardless their age.  

• Chapter Meetings: The organization hosts chapter meetings in Arlington Heights United Methodist Church, allowing bereaved parents, grandparents or siblings to share their grief with each other. Participants are also welcome to celebrate the month of their loved ones’ birthdays by sharing photos and desserts.  

  
  

• Special events: Annual special events such as a butterfly release in June and a special memorial service in November will also be hosted. 

Grief and Loss Center of North Texas

A nonprofit organization that provide free grief support groups to people of all ages.

• SAM's Place: SAM stands for "Same As Me," a free monthly in-person support groups for kids from kindergartners through high school seniors and their families. The children groups are led by trained Volunteer Group Facilitators and parent/guardian group is led by Laurie Taylor, their executive director.

  
  

• Virtual adult support groups: various free monthly adult support groups covering different themes, including child loss, spouse/partner loss, Family and Friends Group, Homicide Loss, Young Adult Group and more.

Cancer Support Community North Texas

The organization offers various free support groups led by licensed medical professionals for the families of deceased cancer patients. For more detail, contact them via their website.

• Living with Loss: The ongoing support group is for anyone whose loved one has died of cancer. Living with loss and moving forward is the main theme of this group.

  
  

• Grief Busters: The six-session support group is designed for children ages 4-12 who have lost a loved one or friend to cancer. It provides a safe space for processing emotions through activities and crafts.

  
  

• Bereavement Workshop: The six-session grief workshop applies to anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one to cancer, covering topics like myths of grief and healing.

Grief Therapy

Beyond traditional talk therapy, specialized approaches like art and music therapy can provide unique avenues for personal expression and healing, particularly when words feel insufficient.

• Art Therapy by The Art Station: Therapists utilize different methods of treatment depending on client needs. Services provided include: assessments, individual, family, couples and group counseling, school-based groups, and community-based groups, applicable for people of all ages. Financial assistance may be provided based on availability.

• Southwestern Music Therapy: After assessing the strengths and needs of each client, the qualified music therapist provides the indicated treatment including creating, singing, moving to, and/or listening to music. Therapists are available to travel to where the client is the most comfortable.

Grief Podcasts 

For those who prefer to listen and learn, several podcasts offer insightful and comforting perspectives on grief. They provide a unique format for personal stories, expert advice, and a sense of connection. Some of the most well-known grief related podcasts include:

• Grief is the New Normal: Grief is the New Normal is the podcast that refuses to sugarcoat loss—because grief isn’t a problem to fix, it’s a reality to live with. Hosted by Dr. Heather Taylor, a licensed psychologist with over a decade of experience in grief and trauma, this show dives deep into the messy, nonlinear, and very real ways grief impacts our lives.

  
  

• Everything Happens: Bestseller author and Duke Professor Kate Bowler is an expert in the stories we tell about success and failure, suffering and happiness. She had Stage IV cancer. Then she didn’t. And since then, all she wants to do is talk to funny and wise people about how to live with the knowledge that, well, everything happens. We especially recommend the following episodes: A Heart that Works is a Heart that Hurts - with Rob Delaney and Don’t Come Out Empty Handed – with Rabbi Steve Leder.

• Griefcast: Hosted by Cariad Lloyd, a British actress, comedian, and writer, Griefcast combines grief experiences with comedy. For each week, Cariad shares an hour-long conversation with a public figure discussing their grief journey, including many fellow comedians. With a delicate balance of grief and humor, the multiple award-winning podcast currently has 10 seasons with 190 episodes.

• All There Is: Led by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, this podcast invites a diverse array of guests to share their personal experiences with loss. Through open and heartfelt conversations, listeners gain different perspectives on death, the grieving process, and how individuals celebrate the life and memory of those they have lost. It's a space for honest dialogue about a universally challenging experience.

Books For Adults

Literature offers solace, validation, and insight, whether you're grappling with anticipatory grief due to a terminal diagnosis, processing a recent death, or seeking to understand the long-term impact of sorrow.

The following selection of books provides diverse perspectives from personal memoirs, scientific explorations, and therapeutic guidance, each designed to help adults find their own path through the complexities of loss, offering comfort, understanding, and strategies for building a life that honors both sorrow and enduring love.

You may be able to use the Libby APP to borrow an e-book or audiobook from your local library for free.

• Getting Grief Right: Finding Your Story of Love in the Sorrow of Loss, by Patrick O’Malley: Patrick O’Malley’s story about the loss of his infant son and how his inability to “move on” challenged everything he was taught as a psychotherapist: our grief is not a mental illness to be cured, but part of the abiding connection with the one we’ve lost. Illuminated by O’Malley’s own story and those of many clients that he’s supported, this book explores grief not as a process of recovery, but as the ongoing narrative of our relationship with the one we’ve lost―to be fully felt, told, and woven into our lives.

  
  

• It’s OK That You’re Not OK, by Megan Devine: Having experienced grief from both sides―as both a therapist and as a woman who witnessed the accidental drowning of her beloved partner―Megan writes with deep insight about the unspoken truths of loss, love, and healing. She debunks the culturally prescribed goal of returning to a normal, “happy” life, replacing it with a far healthier middle path, one that invites us to build a life alongside grief rather than seeking to overcome it.

  
  

• The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss, by Mary-Frances O’Connor, PhD: Neuroscientist and psychologist O’Connor has devoted decades to researching the effects of grief on the brain. Based on O’Connor’s own trailblazing neuroimaging work, research in the field, and her real-life stories, The Grieving Brain combines storytelling, accessible science, and practical knowledge that will help us better understand what happens when we grieve and how to navigate loss with more ease and grace.

  
  

• As Long as You Need: Permission to Grieve, by J.S. Park: In his nearly decade of service as a chaplain at a major hospital with a designated level one trauma center, from the ER to deliveries to deathbeds across every sort of illness and injury imaginable, J.S. Park has provided meaningful counseling for people in all walks of life and death. Now, through his book, he wants to assure you that, while everybody else might rush past your pain, grief is the voice that says, take as long as you need.

  
  

• A Heart that Works, by Rob Delaney: In 2018, Rob Delaney’s two-year-old son, Henry, died of a brain tumor. A Heart That Works is Delaney’s intimate, unflinching, and at times fiercely funny exploration of Henry’s beautiful, bright life and the devastation of his loss—from the harrowing illness to the vivid, bodily impact of grief and the blind, furious rage that followed through to the forceful, unstoppable love that remains. In the madness of his grief, Delaney grapples with the fragile miracle of life, the mysteries of death, and the question of purpose for those left behind.

  
  

• Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, by Susan Cain: Bittersweetness is a tendency to states of long­ing, poignancy, and sorrow; an acute aware­ness of passing time; and a curiously piercing joy at the beauty of the world. With Quiet, Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an un­tapped power hidden in plain sight. Now she em­ploys the same mix of research, storytelling, and memoir to explore why we experience sorrow and longing, and how embracing the bittersweetness at the heart of life is the true path to creativity, con­nection, and transcendence.

  
  

• Grief Day by Day: Simple Practices and Daily Guidance for Living with Loss, by Jan Warner: Explore the stages of grief with a collection of quotes, musings, meditations, and more that are tied together by a weekly theme, allowing you to reflect on each concept in depth. Work through topics like loneliness, grief attacks, exhaustion, hope, love, and creating meaning. You'll find opportunities to write, draw, meditate, do breathing exercises, and more as you learn to live fully with your grief.

  
  

• The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief, by Jan Richardson: When Jan Richardson unexpectedly lost her husband and creative partner, the singer/songwriter Garrison Doles, she did what she had long known how to do: she wrote blessings. These were no sugar-coated blessings. They minimized none of the pain and bewilderment that came in the wake of a wrenching death. With these blessings, Jan entered, instead, into the depths of the shock, anger, and sorrow. From those depths, she has brought forth words that, with heartbreaking honesty, offer surprising comfort and stunning grace.

• Healing After Loss: Daily Meditations for Working through Grief, by Martha Whitmore Hickman: The classic guide for dealing with grief and loss. Day-by-day reflections to find solace in our own lives, and comfort in the connection of sharing these meditations with countless others. The short, poignant meditations given here follow the course of the year, but it is not a necessity to follow them chronologically. They will strengthen, inspire, and give comfort for as long as they are needed.

• Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy, by Sheryl Sandberg & Adam Grant: After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build. Option B combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere . . . and to rediscover joy.

Books For Children

For children, understanding and processing grief can be especially challenging. These selected books are great tools to start the conversation and help young hearts navigate loss, whether through metaphors of connection or direct, compassionate explanations about death and grieving.

You may be able to use the Libby APP to borrow an e-book or audiobook from your local library for free.

• The Invisible String, by Patrice Karst: A best-selling picture book for kids 3-7, telling a simple yet touching story: even when you are physically separated from your loved one, you are still connected with them by an invisible string. Parents, educators, therapists, and social workers alike have declared The Invisible String the perfect tool for coping with all kinds of separation anxiety, loss, and grief.

  
  

• A Kids Book About Death, by Taryn Schuelke: Made for kids 5-9, this book dives right into the weighty topic that most adults prefer to avoid thinking or talking about: death. It explains the practical aspects and gracefully navigates the nuances of emotion and community that surround something we all experience.

  
  

• The Grief Rock, by Natasha Daniels: Sometimes grief can feel like a heavy weight you are carrying around. It can be difficult to explain how you feel or know how you will cope with carrying the grief rock around. Perfect for kids 3-12, this gentle story explores how grief is filled with all the love we have for someone important in our lives.

  
  

• What Does Grief Feel Like?, by Korie Leigh: Gentle and reassuring, What Does Grief Feel Like? shares the many ways people can grieve when a loved one dies and validates children’s unique grief experiences. Open-ended questions throughout the book invite children 3-8 to share what they are thinking, feeling, and going through.

• Why do things die?, by Katie Daynes: A beautiful and gentle look at the circle of life, using Christine Pym's gorgeous animal characters to explore the emotions and facts around death, with questions such as Is it ok to talk about dying? What happens when someone dies? Can I shout and cry and hide away? and How can I stop feeling sad? For age 3+.

Lighting the Path Through Grief

Project 4031 is committed to supporting terminal patients and their families. Our support allows families to focus on creating meaningful memories, sharing precious moments, and finding peace during a difficult time. The path ahead may feel uncertain, but you don’t walk it alone. These gentle offerings are here to walk beside you—one quiet step, then another—through today, and into tomorrow. 

About Us:

Project 4031 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that offers no-cost services to terminally ill children and adults to strengthen their end-of-life stories. We provide assistance by helping struggling families meet basic needs through financial support and fulfilling last dreams. Our goal is to provide a better quality of life and allow someone to end life well. Based in Fort Worth, Texas, Project 4031 has been serving the North Texas community since 2011.