After a traumatic loss, sometimes there are no words for what we are feeling. Artmaking can give us another way to come back to the present moment, and express what is difficult to say. By doing so, we gently make space for our grief.

In this month’s blog, I share how I use art therapy with suicide grief survivors—and introduce the simple Scribble Drawing, an art therapy practice with roots reaching back to the earliest days of the profession.

This writing is about meaning-making following suicide loss. The moment the call comes, or discovery happens, meaning-making begins. It evolves, changes, and deepens. It’s pushed away, embraced tighter…eventually becomes something that can be lived with. There is no time limit to this process. Grief, and subsequent meaning-making, never goes away because love for our person never goes away.

Discovering Dr. Alan Wolfelt's Companioning philosophy transformed my understanding of grief support and shaped the work I offer today. Rather than viewing grief as something to overcome or fix, companioning invites us to honor the unique journey of loss with patience, presence, and compassion. In this post, I share how this approach differs from traditional treatment models and why it has become the foundation of my work with suicide loss survivors.