In this episode I talk to the first of several professionals in the field of childhood and adolescent grief, Jana DeCristafaro from The Dougy Center in Portland, Oregon. Jana is also the host of Grief Out Loud, a great podcast about grief and early loss. The Dougy Center was founded on the idea that grieving teens know how to support each other, in ways that adults might find challenging. Jana explains how this works from the perspective of working directly with adolescents, in their peer-to-peer support groups. "How do we know if a teen is grieving? We know someone in their life died," says Jana. She also talks about how she and her colleagues help adults understand that grief can take many forms and look very different in different kids. She also talks about how parents and community members can gain confidence in their ability to support grieving teens. We talk about grief in the larger culture right now, how that's changing, how it isn't, and how finding the language to talk about it is so important. On that point, Jana mentioned the book "Finding the Words," by Colin Campbell.

Music by Josephine Wiggs from her Album "We Fall."

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