Grief resources for whatever kind of loss
Books, podcasts, talks and free Australian services for grief and loss, including baby loss and losing someone to suicide. Everything here is something we have used or been sent by someone who has. Nothing is sponsored and nothing needs a login. Some links may earn us a small commission. It never changes what we pick. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
52 grief resources
Griefline
Free grief counselling by phone and moderated online forums for people who would rather type than talk.
Red Nose, formerly Sands
Miscarriage, stillbirth and newborn death support, including for partners and grandparents. Sands merged into Red Nose, so this is the current service.
It’s OK That You’re Not OK, Megan Devine
Grief as something to carry, not fix. The book to hand someone instead of saying the wrong thing.
Griefcast
Cariad Lloyd talks to comedians about the people they have lost. Sad and very funny, often in the same minute.
The 3 secrets of resilient people, Lucy Hone
A resilience researcher who lost her daughter. Practical, not inspirational.
What is grief if not love persevering
The Marvel scene people send each other. Ninety seconds, oddly effective.
Grief Australia
Free counselling, fact sheets and a national bereavement line for any kind of loss.
The Dinner Party
Peer tables for people in their twenties and thirties who have lost someone. Online, worldwide.
Grief Works, Julia Samuel
A psychotherapist on what actually helps, told through her clients’ stories.
Terrible, Thanks for Asking
Nora McInerny lets people answer that question honestly. The antidote to being asked how you are.
Beyond closure, Nancy Berns
A sociologist arguing that closure is invented, and that chasing it makes grief harder.
Red Nose Grief and Loss
Support after the death of a baby or child, 24 hours a day, for as long as you need it.
The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
The first year after her husband died, written without a single comforting cliché.
Grief Works, Julia Samuel
The psychotherapist talks with someone who is grieving, one person per episode. Unhurried and kind.
We do not move on from grief, we move forward with it, Nora McInerny
Fifteen minutes that give people permission to still be sad.
StandBy Support After Suicide
Free, ongoing support for anyone bereaved or affected by suicide.
Notes on Grief, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Short, exact, and finishable in one sitting when concentration is gone.
Grief Out Loud, Dougy Center
Produced by a children and family grief centre. Promises to be platitude and cliché free, and is.
The Grieving Brain, Mary-Frances O’Connor
What neuroscience knows about why loss feels the way it does.
Shapes of Grief
Grief therapist Liz Gleeson lets people tell it in their own words. Good for finding language for your own.
Bearing the Unbearable, Joanne Cacciatore
Short chapters for the worst nights. Written for the bereaved, not about them.
Grief Encounters
Two Irish hosts opening up the conversation about loss, without solemnity.
On Grief and Grieving, Kübler-Ross and Kessler
Where the five stages came from, and why they were never meant as a timetable.
Grief and Light
A bereaved sister on sudden loss, secondary losses, and what to do with the pieces.
Option B, Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
On resilience after loss, with the research behind it.
Baby Loss, Grief and Love
Hosted by a counsellor specialising in pregnancy, birth trauma and baby loss at any stage.
H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald
Grief, a goshawk and the outdoors. Not a self-help book, and better for it.
Good Mourning
Two friends who lost parents young talk grief with warmth and very dark humour.
When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
A neurosurgeon writing while dying. For anyone sitting beside someone.
What’s Your Grief
Grief educators answer the questions people are too scared to ask out loud.
Levels of Life, Julian Barnes
Thirty pages on the death of his wife that say more than most whole books.
All There Is with Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper sorts through his mother’s belongings and talks loss with guests. Tender and raw.
A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis
Written after his wife died. Short and unflinching.
The Grief Gang
Amber Jeffrey on losing her mum, and conversations that make grief feel less lonely.
The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander
A poet’s memoir of her husband’s sudden death, and the love that came before.
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wake
Kathy Burke asks guests how they would like their funeral. Funnier than it has any right to be.
Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner
Food, family and losing her mother. A memoir people press into friends’ hands.
Death, Sex & Money
The things we think about a lot and talk about too little. Big on loss and starting over.
The Wild Edge of Sorrow, Francis Weller
On the many kinds of grief and why it needs company.
Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch
Lisa Keefauver on the grief nobody warns you about, including the non-death kind.
Finding Meaning, David Kessler
The sixth stage of grief, from the co-author of On Grief and Grieving.
Lost & Found, Kathryn Schulz
Losing her father and finding her partner, in the same short stretch of life.
Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter
A short, strange novel about a family after a death. Read it in one sitting.
When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chödrön
Buddhist teachings for the times when everything comes apart.
Everything Happens for a Reason, Kate Bowler
And other lies she has loved. A historian on her cancer diagnosis. Funny and sharp.
Grief Is Love, Marisa Renee Lee
On living with loss rather than getting over it.
The Other Side of Sadness, George Bonanno
The research on resilience after loss. Reassuring for anyone worried they are grieving wrong.
The Invisible String, Patrice Karst
A picture book about being connected to people we miss. Much used with kids.
Ask Me His Name, Elle Wright
On baby loss, and learning to live alongside it.
Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom
Weekly visits with a dying professor. The original bestselling book about what matters.
The Iceberg, Marion Coutts
An artist’s account of her husband’s illness and their last two years together.
Being Mortal, Atul Gawande
A surgeon on ageing, dying and what we owe the people we love at the end.
Where to start with grief
There is no right way to grieve and no timeline to finish by. Grief can arrive in waves years later, and it is not only about death: a diagnosis, a breakup, a miscarriage or losing a job can all bring it on.
Some people want to read about it, some want to hear other people talk about it, and some want neither. That is why this page mixes books, podcasts and talks. It’s OK That You’re Not OK by Megan Devine is a good first book because it does not try to fix you. Griefcast is a podcast that manages to be funny about death without being flippant.
If you are supporting someone who is grieving, the most useful thing is usually to keep showing up, long after the funeral, and to say their person's name.
When it is more than this page can help with
In Australia, Griefline (1300 845 745) offers free grief support, and Red Nose Grief and Loss supports anyone affected by the death of a baby or child. If you have lost someone to suicide, StandBy Support After Suicide is there for you.
How we choose
Everything here is something we have used or been sent by someone it helped. Nothing is sponsored, and none of it replaces advice from a GP or psychologist.