Lesson 1 10 min

Welcome: You Don't Have to Do This Alone

Understand how AI can support you through grief — what it helps with, what it can't replace, and how this course meets you where you are.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably carrying something heavy. Maybe it’s fresh — days or weeks old. Maybe it’s been months and you thought you’d feel better by now. Maybe you’re preparing for a loss you can see coming. Whatever brought you here, you’re welcome to move through this course at whatever pace feels right.

This course won’t fix your grief. Nothing does — grief isn’t a problem to solve. But it can help you carry it.

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this course, you’ll have:

A framework for understanding what you’re experiencing (and why “stages” of grief are misleading)
Practical tools for the overwhelming tasks that surround a loss
AI-supported journaling and reflection prompts for processing emotions
Communication templates for the messages you need to send but can’t find words for
Guidance on supporting others who are grieving — children, friends, family
A path toward meaning-making that honors your loss

How This Course Works

Each lesson covers a different aspect of navigating loss. You don’t have to complete them in order — skip to whatever feels most relevant right now.

Course structure:

Lessons 2-3: Understanding grief and surviving the first days/weeks
Lessons 4-5: Practical tasks and emotional processing
Lessons 6-7: Supporting others and rebuilding meaning
Lesson 8: Your personal path forward

What to Expect

AI helps with:

Organizing practical tasks when your brain can’t focus
Drafting communications when you don’t have the words
Providing journaling prompts when you need to process at 3 AM
Researching what’s “normal” when you’re worried about your response

AI does NOT replace:

Human connection — friends, family, community
Professional grief counseling or therapy
The healing that only time and processing can provide
The irreplaceable comfort of being truly understood

✅ Quick Check: When is AI most helpful during grief — for emotional processing, practical tasks, or both? (Answer: Both, but in different ways. For practical tasks, AI is directly useful: organizing paperwork, drafting communications, creating checklists. For emotional processing, AI is a tool — it provides journaling prompts and structure, but the processing itself happens in you. The most valuable use: handling practical demands with AI so you have more emotional bandwidth for the human work of grieving.)

Key Takeaways

Grief has no timeline — anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong, however well-intentioned
AI helps carry the practical and communicative load that surrounds grief, giving you more space for emotional processing
This course is not therapy — if grief is significantly impairing your daily functioning, professional support is the right step
You can move through this course in any order — start with whatever feels most relevant to where you are right now
The Dual Process Model shows that healthy grief oscillates between loss focus and restoration focus — feeling “okay” sometimes doesn’t mean you’re not grieving

Up Next

In the next lesson, you’ll learn about grief — not the textbook version, but the messy, non-linear reality of what you’re actually experiencing, and why understanding the patterns helps you navigate them.

Knowledge Check

1. Someone tells you: 'It's been 6 months — you should be over it by now.' How should you think about this?

They're probably right — 6 months is a long time Grief has no timeline. Research consistently shows that grief doesn't follow a predictable schedule. Some people feel functional after weeks; others are deeply affected for years. Both responses are normal. The idea that grief should be 'finished' by a certain date comes from misconception, not science. What matters isn't how long you grieve, but whether you're gradually able to function — even imperfectly — in daily life Cut them out — they don't understand

2. It's 2 AM and you can't sleep because you keep replaying memories. What's a constructive use of AI in this moment?

Ask AI to simulate a conversation with your deceased loved one Open a journal prompt with AI: 'I can't sleep because I keep thinking about [person]. Help me write about what I'm feeling right now — not to fix it, just to get it out of my head and onto a page.' Writing externalizes racing thoughts, making them easier to process. AI provides the structure (prompts, follow-up questions) while you provide the content (your real feelings). This isn't therapy — it's 3 AM companionship when you need to get thoughts out of your head Don't use AI — put the phone away and try to sleep

3. Your friend lost a parent last month. They seem fine — going to work, socializing, even laughing. Are they not grieving properly?

They might be in denial — grief should look sad Grief looks different for everyone. Some people grieve outwardly (visible sadness, withdrawal, crying). Others grieve privately or oscillate between grief and normal functioning. The Dual Process Model shows that healthy grief naturally moves between loss-focused moments (sadness, yearning) and restoration-focused moments (work, socializing, even joy). Laughing at lunch doesn't mean they're not crying at night. Never judge someone's grief by its visibility They're handling it better than most people

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