HELD — A Healing After Loss Workbook

Your HELD workbook includes:

• 68 beautifully designed A4 pages
• Gentle education about grief and different forms of loss
• A green, amber and red capacity check
• A personal safety and support map
• A one-minute orienting practice
• A practical grief-wave plan
• Guided reflection prompts and fillable journal pages
• Emotional and body-awareness exercises
• Secondary-loss and life-change mapping
• Support-request scripts and boundary prompts
• Memory, longing and continuing-bond exercises
• Gentle reflections for anger, guilt, regret and unfinished words
• A two-part private letter exercise
• Remembrance ritual planning
• Significant-date and anniversary support
• Belongings and decision-making reflections
• Identity, routine, relationship and future-planning pages
• A personalised difficult-day plan
• A grief support plan
• A significant-dates and triggers plan
• Printable grief communication cards
• Printable permission cards
• Professional and South African crisis-support information

HELD is not a timed challenge, step-by-step course or set of grief stages. The workbook is divided into three supportive areas that you may explore in any order.

PART 1: MAKING SPACE

Name the loss, recognise what has changed and notice how grief is affecting your emotions, body, routines, needs and available capacity.

This section includes practical support planning, personal permissions, grief-wave preparation and language for requesting help or setting boundaries.

PART 2: REMEMBERING & HONOURING

Explore what mattered, preserve meaningful memories and make space for longing, love, anger, relief, guilt, regret and other mixed feelings.

This section includes unfinished-word prompts, private letter exercises, continuing-bond reflections, remembrance rituals and planning for significant dates or belongings.

PART 3: LIVING WITH WHAT REMAINS

Consider how loss may have affected your identity, relationships, routines, boundaries and imagined future.

This section gently explores ordinary life, connection and solitude, moments of relief, personal values and small future choices—without requiring closure, optimism or a new version of yourself.

Begin with the introductory safety and support pages before moving into deeper reflection. After that, choose the section or page that feels most relevant and manageable.

You may complete one prompt, one page or no writing at all. Skip exercises that feel unhelpful, repeat supportive pages and take as much time as you need. There is no completion deadline and no correct order.

Keep your support map and difficult-day plan accessible. Consider arranging additional support before working with memories or experiences that feel particularly intense, traumatic or complicated.

Your capacity matters more than completing every page.

HELD has been designed for digital and printed use.

Type directly into the interactive fields, complete the checkboxes and capacity scales, or print the entire workbook—or selected pages—for handwriting.

For the best fillable experience, download the file and open it in the free Adobe Acrobat Reader application. Some browser-based PDF viewers may not save completed fields correctly.

• Format: Fillable and printable PDF
• Length: 68 pages
• Page size: A4
• Language: English
• Delivery: Digital download
• Physical product: None will be shipped
• Recommended application: Adobe Acrobat Reader

Colours may appear slightly different depending on your screen, printer, ink and paper settings.

After completing your purchase, you will receive access to the digital PDF download.

Download the workbook to your device and save a clean original copy before beginning. If you intend to type into the workbook, create a separate working copy so your unused original remains available.

HELD may be supportive following:

• The death of a partner, family member, friend or community member
• Pregnancy, infant or fertility-related loss
• The death or disappearance of a pet or animal companion
• Separation, divorce, estrangement, betrayal or the end of a relationship
• Illness, injury, disability or changes in health and ability
• Loss of employment, home, role, identity, faith or community
• Migration or a significant life transition
• The loss of an expected future, plan or sense of belonging
• A loss that other people may not recognise or understand

Your loss does not need to be recent, publicly acknowledged or easily explained to deserve care.

You may wish to have:

• A device with a PDF reader or a printed copy of selected pages
• A journal and pen if working by hand
• A private or supported place where you can pause easily
• Water, a snack, tissues or a comfortable layer
• The contact details of someone you trust
• A plan for what you will do after deeper reflection
• Access to professional or emergency support if needed

You are always welcome to keep your eyes open, change position, shorten an exercise, leave a prompt unfinished or stop.

Do not use reflective exercises as a substitute for immediate human support.

Put the workbook aside and seek urgent help if you:

• Are in immediate danger or cannot stay safe
• May harm yourself or someone else
• Have taken an overdose or require urgent medical care
• Feel severely disoriented, emotionally flooded or unable to meet immediate needs
• Are experiencing intense flashbacks, panic, dissociation or intrusive memories
• Need crisis intervention, trauma treatment or qualified professional care

The workbook contains South African emergency and crisis-support information. Contact details may change, so verify current information when support is needed.

“Healing after loss” does not mean forgetting, finishing grief, achieving closure or returning to who you were before.

HELD does not ask you to follow stages, forgive before you are ready, find gratitude, create meaning from the loss or transform pain into a positive lesson.

You may feel sad, relieved, angry, numb, connected, tired, unchanged or more aware after completing a page. More than one feeling may be present at the same time. None of these responses determines whether you are grieving correctly.

Your purchase is licensed for personal use only.

You may print a copy for yourself, but you may not copy, share, forward, upload, reproduce, resell or distribute the workbook or any part of it.

Practitioners may not reproduce or distribute the workbook to clients, groups, workshops, courses or training programmes without written permission from Elemental Healing.

Due to the digital nature of this product and the immediate access provided after purchase, all sales are final unless otherwise required by applicable law.

Please review the product information carefully before purchasing. If you experience a technical problem with your download, contact Elemental Healing for assistance.

HELD is intended for wellness education, spiritual self-care and personal reflection following loss. It is not grief therapy, psychotherapy, trauma treatment, medical or mental-health advice, crisis intervention, diagnosis, legal advice or financial guidance.

This workbook does not diagnose depression, post-traumatic stress, prolonged grief disorder or any other condition. It does not replace medical care, psychotherapy, bereavement counselling, trauma support, prescribed medication or emergency assistance.

Stop any exercise that causes severe distress, panic, dissociation, intrusive memories, emotional flooding or urges to harm yourself or another person. Seek appropriately qualified professional or emergency support whenever needed.