Suicide Grief and Loss
There is healing in talking about our feelings and comfort in knowing we are not alone.
If you’ve found this page, we’re so sorry you’re here. We’re here to support you. We are a community of parents and caregivers who have lost their child to suicide and we’re here to provide a caring, non-judgmental, confidential space to support you as we navigate this journey together.
We acknowledge that although we may share a common experience, our situations and stories are unique, and we each have different ways of feeling, thinking, and coping. We are here to support each other on our path to healing, wherever you are in your journey.
Peer Support Group
The Healing Path
This support group provides a safe and non-judgmental peer support environment for parents surviving their child, youth, or adult child’s suicide.
In our group:
- We create a compassionate, non-judgmental space
- We share our stories when we’re ready
- We laugh and cry together
- We say our children’s names
- We get to know each other’s children
- We sit in silence when we need it, holding space for the pain we carry
Join us on your path to healing.
Meetings take place on the second Monday of each month from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at Hospice Northwest in Thunder Bay.
For more details, email thehealingpath@pcmh.ca.
The Jaida Project
In 2023, Children’s Centre Thunder Bay introduced PCMH to The Jaida Project and its support group, The Healing Path, in hopes of building connection and peer support for parents who have lost their child to suicide. This collaboration connected The Healing Path to PCMH’s Peer Support Program and a partnership was formed. Through this partnership, we continue to elevate the importance of talking about mental health and breaking down stigma so that no family experiences the loss of a loved one to suicide, but if they do, they can find others to connect with and walk the path together to healing.
Bereavement Resources
Books
Bridge Over The River Why: A Guide for Those Who Have Suffered the Loss of a Child to Suicide
By David Cooper and Deborah Cooper
70 pages
✓ short chapters
Dying to Be Free: A Healing Guide for Families after a Suicide
By Beverly Cobain and Jean Larch
144 pages
A Survival Guide: Facing Life After Suicide Loss: A Guide to Help You Through The Early Days and Beyond
By Melissa Bottorff-Arey
65 pages
✓ short chapters
Aftermath: Picking Up the Pieces After a Suicide
By Gary Roe
244 pages
✓ short chapters
The After Journey: A Survivor’s Guide After the Death of a Loved One by Suicide
By Jenny Bruell and Harry Bruell
89 pages
✓ short chapters
Finding Peace Without All The Pieces: After a Loved One’s Suicide
By LaRita Archibald
248 pages
It’s OK That You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand
By Megan Devine
280 pages
How to Carry What Can’t Be Fixed: A Journal for Grief
By Megan Devine
216 pages
Understanding Your Suicide Grief: Ten Essential Touchstones for Finding Hope and Healing Your Heart
By Alan Wolfelt
194 pages
Books
Bridge Over The River Why: A Guide for Those Who Have Suffered the Loss of a Child to Suicide
By David Cooper and Deborah Cooper
70 pages
✓ short chapters
Dying to Be Free: A Healing Guide for Families after a Suicide
By Beverly Cobain and Jean Larch
144 pages
A Survival Guide: Facing Life After Suicide Loss: A Guide to Help You Through The Early Days and Beyond
By Melissa Bottorff-Arey
65 pages
✓ short chapters
Aftermath: Picking Up the Pieces After a Suicide
By Gary Roe
244 pages
✓ short chapters
The After Journey: A Survivor’s Guide After the Death of a Loved One by Suicide
By Jenny Bruell and Harry Bruell
89 pages
✓ short chapters
Finding Peace Without All The Pieces: After a Loved One’s Suicide
By LaRita Archibald
248 pages
It’s OK That You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand
By Megan Devine
280 pages
How to Carry What Can’t Be Fixed: A Journal for Grief
By Megan Devine
216 pages
Understanding Your Suicide Grief: Ten Essential Touchstones for Finding Hope and Healing Your Heart
By Alan Wolfelt
194 pages
The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations
Life after suicide loss is nothing short of a wasteland of the leftover pieces of your shattered heart, of your former self. Join host Melissa, a mother who lost her 21-year-old son Alex to suicide in 2016, as she has real conversations with other loss survivors, healers, and mental health experts. In these conversations, she explores the relevant topics and asks the hard questions we all need to talk about and hear answers to. Nothing is off limits as she delves into areas such a trauma, hope, healing, self-care, stigma, grief, and mental health.
Melissa believes that we learn to live with our grief, not get over it, and only through real, honest talk and mindful choices can we move forward in this new life (one we never wanted). Along with finding the comfort of a community and hope for a little brighter tomorrow, you too just may begin to fill your own ‘grief toolbox’ with some good, solid tools to help you find, even learn to love, your (new) self along the way.
Articles
Additional Reading
After a Death by Suicide: Brochures, Booklets, Handouts
SOS: A Handbook for Survivors of Suicide
Suicide Loss Survivors Resources
Suicide Grief in Children and Adolescents
How You Can Support Those Living with Suicide Loss
Toolkit for People Who Have Been Impacted by a Suicide Loss
Toolkit for People Who Have Been Impacted by a Suicide Attempt
The Healing Path
✓ In-person group
✓ Open group (drop-in)
✓ Free
✓ Meetings take place on the second Monday of each month from 6–8 pm
✓ Location: Hospice Northwest in Thunder Bay, ON
Distress Centres of Toronto
✓ Virtual groups
✓ Open groups (drop-in)
✓ Closed groups
✓ Phone helpline
✓ Free
The Leftover Pieces
✓ Virtual groups
✓ Free
✓ Paid
Local Support Groups
✓ Virtual groups
✓ In-person groups
✓ Free
Retreats
A Memory Grows
Retreats presented by A Memory Grows connect parents who have experienced similar losses. Our children are celebrated and the relationship that we continue to share with them is nourished. Time is also intentionally set aside for rest, relaxation, and reflection. A Memory Grows offers four-day retreats throughout the year for infant, child, and adult child loss, as well as specific retreats for suicide, homicide, and fentanyl loss.
The Leftover Pieces
This retreat offers a one-of-a-kind immersive spirit-connection and support-based healing experience exclusively for mothers grieving the loss of a child. Alongside your host Melissa, you will be joined by various spiritual practitioners. This is an opportunity for spiritual growth after the loss of a child by suicide. The goal is for moms to leave feeling empowered and more connected to their own soul, nature, each other, and their child in spirit.