What is Peer Healing?

Most grief practitioners will agree that teens are one of the most difficult age groups to get through the door and consistently engage. While 1 in 35 individuals have lost a parent before the age of 16 (US Census 2019), many teens still experience social isolation due to stigma around discussing loss with their peers.

Peer Healing provides a space for grieving teens to process loss and engage with others who understand their experiences. Unlike existing teen grief interventions which tend to be outdated, this evidence-based grief group places today’s bereaved teens at the heart of the design process. Peer Healing is an adaptation of the Family Bereavement Program (FBP) created by Dr. Irwin Sandler and his team at Arizona State University. FBP is a rigorously-tested, evidence-based, effective curriculum from the 1990s that has been shown to improve coping skills and wellbeing. Dr. Sandler generously worked alongside the Peer Healing team to lend his expertise while the curriculum was adapted and tested through a human-centered design process. Once Peer Healing had become an initial prototype, Dr. Jesse Boring helped the Peer Healing team integrate expert and user feedback into the model to create the curriculum. Dr. Boring’s expertise in inventive curriculum design and psychology pushed Peer Healing to be dynamic, affirming and fun.

Peer Healing integrates enjoyable and contemporary activities focused on community building, strategically introduces technology like Zoom and Kahoot!, and has a timeline which fits teens’ busy schedules. It emphasizes the importance of incorporating the needs of bereaved teens, to ensure they feel heard, and to truly be a resource for them. Based on feedback from bereaved teens, we adopted a peer-led model in which the curriculum is co-led by a peer and an adult support – an adult with a Masters in a mental health field. This new 10-week skills-based, interactive bereavement curriculum utilizes techniques from behavioral methodologies to build community, cohesion, communication skills, and mindfulness.

The History of Peer Healing

2019

Amelie, about to enter high school and questioning her own grief journey, connects with Alexis, a clinical social work student who also lost a parent at a young age. Amelie envisions what today’s teens need for grief support and Alexis uses her clinical training and personal background to help her create it

2020

Amelie & Alexis begin a multi-year research project of adapting existing grief support models to be relevant to technologically savvy, engaged teens. The pandemic pushes them to create a completely virtual support group model.

2021

More passionate collaborators join the Peer Healing team from around the country. Amelie begins presenting the peer support grief group model at conferences.  

2021

Peer Healing launches to provide an online space where teens can connect, support each other and heal their grief in community.

See Where Peer Healing is in Use