How to care for grieving students

Bonni Stachowiak explores how to care for grieving students.

• Respect confidentiality… to a point
• Point them toward their resources
• Avoid assumptions… if you can
• Be human
• Don’t lower course requirements; let them earn their degree, not receive it through pity
• Recognize the pain of the neutral zone (coined by Bridges in his book: Transitions: Making sense of life’s changes)
• Avoid personalizing dishonesty

• Process your own grief

One wonderful book for processing one’s grief and going through transitions is William Bridges’ The Way of Transition: Embracing Life’s Most Difficult Moments.

We resist transition not because we can’t accept the change, but because we can’t accept letting go of that piece of ourselves that we have to give up when and because the situation has changed. – William Bridges