How to Navigate Grief During the Holidays: A Gentle Guide for Tender Hearts
Gentle, trauma-informed tools for honoring your grief, creating new traditions, and finding support through the holidays.
1. Introduction: When the Season Feels Tender Instead of Joyful
The holiday season is often painted as a time of celebration — glowing lights, gathering with family, traditions that bring warmth. And yet, if you’re grieving, this time of year may feel very different.
You might feel the ache of missing someone deeply, the heaviness of the first Christmas without a loved one, or the quiet tenderness of navigating a season that no longer looks or feels the same. Even if your loss is not recent, this time of year has a way of stirring emotions: longing, anger, guilt, numbness, or even unexpected moments of joy that feel complicated to hold.
If this is your experience, please know: You’re not alone, and nothing you’re feeling is wrong.
Grief doesn’t move in straight lines — especially during the holidays. Holidays carry expectations, rituals, and memories that touch the places where love and loss live side by side.
This is where gentle, somatic grief support can help. Coaching offers a compassionate, body-based, trauma-informed space to navigate grief during the holidays with care, intention, and grounded support. Think of it as a companion walking with you — helping you soften around the edges, breathe into what feels overwhelming, and stay connected to what matters most: your own heart.
Nature reminds us that we can hold both stillness and movement — a true companion for grief during the holidays.
2. Why the Holidays Can Amplify Grief
The holidays tend to bring grief closer to the surface — sometimes quietly, sometimes in a wave that catches us off guard. Here’s why:
Rituals and traditions stir old memories.
Holiday rituals can feel like reminders of what (or who) is missing. A favorite dish no one cooks anymore. A stocking that stays folded. An empty chair at the table. These seemingly small details can bring forward a deep longing for the person or life chapter that is no longer here.
Cultural pressure to “be joyful.”
Messages everywhere — commercials, music, social gatherings — suggest we should feel merry and bright. But grief doesn’t respond to pressure or expectations. When your internal world doesn’t match the external one, the disconnect can feel isolating or even shame-inducing.
The end-of-year reflection deepens introspection.
As the calendar turns, many people look back on the year — which often brings unresolved emotions to the surface. This can include grief from life transitions like caregiving burnout, identity shifts, retirement, relocation, or relationship changes.
Your body remembers.
Grief lives in the body. Certain dates, scents, songs, or memories activate the nervous system in ways that feel like “a wave out of nowhere.” Somatic grief healing reminds us that these responses aren’t failures — they’re your body doing what it knows: remembering.
If your grief feels heavier right now, there is nothing wrong with you. The season simply touches tender places.
3. Healthy, Heart-Centered Ways to Honor and Remember Loved Ones
There is no “right way” to grieve during the holidays. There is only your way — what feels true, supportive, and nourishing for this season of your life. Below are some gentle, body-based, trauma-informed practices to help you honor your loved one, ground your nervous system, and create meaning in ways that feel safe and authentic:
Create a new ritual.
This could be as simple as lighting a candle each evening, placing an ornament on the tree, making their favorite recipe, or taking a quiet walk while thinking of them. Rituals bridge the worlds of love and loss.
Write a letter — from the heart, without edits.
Write to your loved one, or to the version of yourself that existed before the loss. Let your words be messy, tender, and honest. This kind of reflective writing is deeply healing for grief and trauma healing.
Set aside a moment of remembrance.
You might choose a specific day or time to look at photos, listen to a meaningful song, or simply breathe with your hand over your heart. Pausing intentionally can prevent grief from building silently beneath the surface.
Give yourself permission to change traditions.
You may choose to pause a tradition, simplify it, reimagine it, or create a new one entirely. Your needs matter, and honoring those needs is an act of love.
Connect with supportive community.
If you feel called, consider joining a gentle online workshop, a cozy Zoom grief support group, or a grief healing retreat. Being witnessed — even for just an hour — can help soften the loneliness that often accompanies holiday grief support.
Above all, remember: Your grief is valid. Your love is valid. Your way of honoring your person — or your former self — is enough.
4. How Coaching Can Support You Through the Season
Coaching offers something unique during the holidays: a trauma-informed, embodied space to explore what’s rising — without judgment, pressure, or expectation. In my approach to grief coaching and somatic support, we work with the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. This is especially powerful for someone navigating grief during the holidays, when emotions can feel unpredictable and overwhelming. Coaching can help you:
Hold space for your emotions without becoming overwhelmed.
We use grounding practices, gentle somatic tools, and body-based grief healing to help regulate your nervous system.
Create rituals that feel meaningful and supportive.
Together, we explore what remembrance, connection, or comfort looks like for you — especially if this is your first Christmas without a loved one.
Find clarity in making holiday decisions.
You may wonder: Should I go to this gathering? Skip this tradition? Travel or stay home? Coaching helps you discern what would feel most aligned and sustainable.
Rebuild connection with your own inner wisdom.
Grief often disconnects us from ourselves. Coaching provides space to gently rebuild trust with your body, your needs, and your intuition.
Receive non-judgmental companionship.
Many clients come to coaching because they want a grounded, present, and embodied guide. Someone who listens. Someone who understands the terrain. Someone who walks with them. This is the heart of trauma-informed grief support — and the center of my work.
5. A Gentle Invitation: Receive Support This Holiday Season
If this season feels tender for you, or if your grief feels heavier than usual, you don’t have to hold it all alone. Along with one-to-one embodied sessions, online workshops, and Zoom grief support groups, I also offer my Grieving Through the Holidays Guided Course — a gentle, self-paced companion to help you find steadiness, remembrance, and breath during a difficult time.
👉 Click here to schedule a free discovery call.
We’ll explore what you’re carrying, what you need, and what kind of support would feel most nourishing this season. You deserve care, connection, and a space that honors your whole self — especially now.
Dawn M. Geoppinger, Trauma-Informed Grief & Embodiment Coach
Dawn M. Geoppinger is a Trauma-Informed Grief & Embodiment Coach based in Portland, Oregon, with a strong foundation of over two decades of professional experience in public administration, education, and the nonprofit sector. She specializes in grief education, somatic movement, breathwork, and mindfulness, integrating evidence-based approaches such as somatic practices, post-traumatic growth and woman-centered principles to help clients reconnect with themselves, regulate their nervous systems, and honor the full spectrum of loss and healing. Through her practice, The Embodied Grief Journey™, Dawn provides compassionate, expert support both in person and online—creating safe, nurturing spaces for individuals to explore grief, resilience, and embodied healing.
If this holiday season feels heavier than you expected, I’m here to support you. Through somatic, body-based grief coaching and online gatherings, you can find steadiness, connection, and a place to breathe again.
👉 Click here to book a free discovery call.
Let’s gently explore what you’re carrying and what you need to feel supported in the weeks ahead.
