Exploring Grief Through Photography

Online Course

Your grief story is one of a kind. It’s unique to you, your relationship with the person who has died, how you learn to live with your grief, and how you carry your loved one with you into the future. This course is specifically designed to help you tell your grief story by focusing on you, your deceased loved ones, and how you continue to honor, love, and remember them.

The coping benefits of photography:

Coping comes in all shapes and sizes. It can be big – like taking the initiative to see a therapist – and it can be small –like exercising for 30 minutes a day or journaling for 10 minutes every night. We love photography as a grief coping tool because it’s a versatile medium that can be healing in many different ways. Consider the following:

  • Photography provides a respite from grief.
  • Photography can be used to explore and express emotion.
  • Photographing symbols and reminders of deceased loved ones can help maintain closeness.
  • Photography keeps memories alive.
  • Photography can capture symbols of hope and strength.

You guys run a grief website, what experience do you have with photography?

The course instructors are Eleanor Haley and Litsa Williams, founders of What’s Your Grief, PhotoGrief, and Grief in Six Words. Both Litsa and Eleanor have experience with photography and have written extensively on the topic of using photography to explore grief. They are mental health professionals who collectively have nearly twenty years of experience working in grief and loss. If you want to get a feel for their work please check out PhotoGrief, What’s Your Grief on Instagram, or Eleanor Haley’s ‘Mother Daughter Life’

General concepts covered in this course will include:

  • How to explore, express, and communicate your experiences using photography
  • Ideas and inspiration for photographing grief
  • Basic photography tools and techniques

Please see additional FAQs below.


Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start?
The course starts whenever you're ready! This course is self-guided, which means it is up to you to "guide" yourself through. You decide when to log on, you choose when to read lessons, and you choose when to journal. You are free to move from lesson to lesson at your discretion.
Who should take this course?
Anyone interested in using photography as a creative outlet for coping with grief. All skill levels are welcome.
What can I expect from a WYG online course?
We hope you'll find our courses informative, engaging, and useful. We want all participants to end the class feeling they've discovered new ideas and new ways of looking at grief, grief support, and grief-coping. Further, we strive to equip participants with practical tools, useful resources, and creative outlets for coping with grief.
What kind of camera do I need for this course?
All you need is a camera, it doesn’t matter what kind. A digital camera with manual settings will allow for more flexibility, however, you can create some pretty great images with a smartphone and apps like VSCOcam, Instagram, and a handful of others.

Your Instructor


What's Your Grief
What's Your Grief

Hello, we are Litsa and Eleanor, the co-founders of the website, What's Your Grief. Thank you for joining our online learning community. We hope some of what you find here will help you understand grief an grief coping a little bit better.  

We are what we like to refer to as 'grief friends.' We both have backgrounds in mental health and plenty of experience working in the field of grief and bereavement. But what we ultimately bonded over was our shared experience of losing a parent to cancer in early adulthood. All our webinars and online courses are based on the ideas and information we've found most helpful in our personal grief, and in our daily work with grieving people.  

We teach all our webinars and courses, so we should probably tell you, we prefer to talk about grief and loss in realistic and regular ways. If you're looking for transformative butterflies and sympathetic head tilts, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place. Sometimes we're serious, and sometimes we joke, sometimes we're matter of fact, and sometimes we're philosophical. No matter what, though, we believe your experience with grief should always be recognized and respected, not patronized.


Course Curriculum


  Welcome to Exploring Grief Through Photography
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  Section One: Photographing Symbols
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  Section Two: Photographing Emotion and Helpful Techniques
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Get started now!