Play Therapy for baby loss siblings in the East Midlands
We’re proud to offer free play therapy sessions for siblings affected by baby loss in the East Midlands.
At Forever Stars, we have seen firsthand the impact that losing a baby can have on the whole family. Adults and children are affected by what is an incredibly traumatic experience.
Children are impacted by this experience in many ways. They may experience sadness, anger or anxiety, and if they are old enough to understand, they may have lots of difficult questions.
Baby loss can also impact parental mental health and place financial and relational strains on the whole family, all of which have a ripple effect on children.
How does baby loss impact siblings?
- Ask lots of questions that are hard to answer
- Anxiety about leaving parents for school or extracurricular activities
- Don’t understand what has happened
- Don’t want to talk about the new baby or anything to do with them
- Don’t know who to talk to as don’t want to make things harder for their parents
- Become angry easily
- Sadness at the loss of all the excitement around having a new baby
- Jealousy or resentment as parents' attention is not on them
- Don’t know how to express their grief, so don’t talk or share what they are feeling
- Struggle to focus at school
If you feel your child has been impacted in any of these ways or others, then they are not alone.
Every child who is affected by baby loss experiences some of these at some point in their grief journey. There isn’t anything wrong with your child; they are also grieving like you.
We have found that often there is no support available for siblings to begin to process what they are going through, or what they have been through, and parents struggle to know where to look for the help or support they need.
What is Play Therapy?
In 2025, our Talking through Tears campaign enabled us to begin offering free play therapy sessions for siblings affected by the loss of a baby, either by miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death.
As part of our ongoing support to families who have experienced the loss of a baby, we are now offering Play Therapy sessions for siblings in our dedicated Play Therapy room at the Serenity Centre in Beeston, Nottingham.
Play is children’s natural way of exploring the world, learning, making sense of experiences and testing out new ideas.
Through play, they can rehearse real-life experiences and try out new ways of responding and behaving. Play also allows us a window into a child’s world, how they are seeing situations and what life is like for them from their perspective.
Through play, they may be able to express themselves in a way they can’t in words.
During play therapy, the therapist gets to know the child, builds a safe therapeutic relationship with them and helps them to express, explore and understand their emotions in a way and at a pace that feels comfortable to them.
Our play therapist uses a toolkit of resources to work with children, which includes art, puppets, sand and stories.
Information for parents
Is play therapy for your child?
If you are a parent who has experienced baby loss either recently or a number of years ago, you may have other children impacted by this loss.
We know that many parents find it really hard to grieve the loss of their baby and help their children process their own emotions, too.
We hope that by offering funded Play Therapy sessions that are easy to access and available to any family who has experienced the loss of a baby, we will be able to help support you at this difficult time.
How could play therapy help your child?
Your child may not know or have the words to express what they are thinking or feeling, and you may have noticed their behaviour has become different, more challenging or perhaps more withdrawn.
You may have noticed your child is more anxious and is finding it hard to leave you to go to school or clubs.
Play Therapy allows children to work through their experiences and explore their emotions because play offers children a safe context to do this.
In the play therapy room, there is a tool kit of resources which include art materials, clay, a sand tray, symbols, puppets and musical instruments. Each session, the child chooses what they want to do that week from the range of resources available, and the play therapist plays with and alongside your child to explore themes and stories through whatever medium they have chosen from within the toolkit.
Every child is offered at least 15 sessions, one session per week, at our Serenity Centre in Beeston. This allows plenty of time for your child to get to know the play therapist and feel safe to explore their experiences and emotions.
How will I be involved in the play therapy process?
If you make a referral to our play therapist, you will be invited to an initial meeting at the Serenity Centre, before the sessions begin. During this meeting, you will be able to meet our play therapist, share as much or as little of your experience as you feel able to and discuss the impact you feel this has had on your child.
Some small goals will be set with you during this session to help the play therapist know how they can best support you and your child.
Everything that your child does in the sessions is confidential, unless there are any safeguarding concerns. This means that they can share whatever they want with you about the sessions, but the play therapist will not share weekly reports on what they have been doing.
After a few weeks, you will be invited to a review meeting where you can share ways in which you feel the sessions are helping your child and if there are any new concerns or goals that you want to discuss.
For professionals
How do I make a referral?
If you are concerned about a family or a child, following the loss of a baby, then you may want to signpost them to our Play Therapy service.
Our play therapist will contact them to arrange a short phone assessment, and if they would like their child to have play therapy sessions, they will be invited to an initial meeting with the play therapist at the Serenity Centre in Beeston.
Is there a cost to families for these sessions?
We know that when families experience baby loss, there are lots of strains on their time and finances, and we are pleased to be able to offer these sessions free of charge, thanks to the generous donations and fundraising by our supporters.
How long after baby loss can a family access this service?
We don’t place a time limit on when this service is available for families. We know that for some, the immediate aftermath of the loss is an incredibly challenging time, and they may want to access our support straight away. For others, there may be months or years before they want to or feel able to reach out for help.
Our play therapy sessions are available to any sibling, regardless of how long since the baby loss.
We have also worked with rainbow baby siblings who are processing the loss of a sibling who died before they were born.
Helpful resources for siblings experiencing the loss of a baby
Books specifically exploring the theme of baby loss
- Wynter’s Wish by Taylor Bowers and Sarah Andrews
These books are not specifically about baby loss but may help explore different themes and emotions that arise for children and young people who are experiencing this type of loss.
- My Many Coloured Days by Dr Seuss: Explores different feelings and how we might feel different things on different days
- The Hare-Shaped Hole by John Docherty and Thomas Docherty: The story of friendship and how loss can impact us
- Sad Book by Michael Rosen: Explores his own experience of death and loss and what sadness looks like for him
- The Rabbit Who Listened by Cori Doerrfeld: A book about the power of just being present and acknowledging emotions without trying to fix them.
- The Huge Bag of Worries by Veronica Ironside
Links to other helpful sites
Sands >
Children’s activity workbooks on the Sands website - helpful prompts but allow for free expression (available in different languages).
Winston’s Wish >
Ebooks for exploring children’s emotions.