Shari B. Kaplan, LCSWIntegrative Mental Health

When Grief Feels Overwhelming: Finding Ground in Nature #mentalhealthawareness

13 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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In this excerpt, Shari B. Kaplan, LCSW, explains the importance of grounding techniques for individuals experiencing intense grief. She emphasizes that grounding helps people stay connected to their bodies despite overwhelming pain. Kaplan recommends using natural environments—such as trees, forests, oceans, lakes, dirt, or grass—as concrete ways to ground oneself. She frames this practice within a broader metaphor: just as we are part of an external ecosystem, we also contain an internal ecosystem, and connecting with nature can harmonize the two, fostering emotional stability and relief.

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We talk about grounding in psychology and how important it is to ground. And men, women, siblings, anyone who is going through a kind of grief where it's very hard to be living in your body with the level of pain that goes on, and maybe use nature, whether it's the trees and the forest or the ocean or sitting by a lake and sitting in the dirt, on the grass, like being— Yes. to connect with nature because, like, we are one with this ecosystem around us as much as we have an ecosystem within us.