He felt incomplete and doubted that he would ever become whole without a man to love him. It was not just the loss of his father he grieved but that he had no uncle, grandfather or other man to step in and guide him. As we talked about the picture he was able to expand his feelings into clear a verbal expression - he wanted another dad. For a dependent child, losing a caregiver or other family member is frightening. Feelings related to fear are stored in an area of the brain where fight or flight survival responses are stored.
Art helps a child access fear-based memories.
Once a fear is creatively expressed though art, a child can be helped to discover ways they can feel safer and less threatened. That's why having your children draw is a good way to help your child. Not only will drawings about grief help your children now, journals of their work will remind them of their feelings during the most difficult times of grief. Each article in this series proposes a family project. The structure of each project is the same, only the focus or topic differs.