Grief has terrible timing. It may wake you at 3:00 a.m., appear during a routine grocery trip, or make you cry because someone left a coffee mug in the “wrong” place. Although friends and relatives may sincerely want to help, they do not always understand why loss continues to hurt long after the funeral is over.
That is where online grief support groups can make a meaningful difference. These communities connect grieving people with peers who recognize the strange mixture of sadness, anger, guilt, exhaustion, relief, confusion, and occasional laughter that can follow a death. Instead of explaining your emotions from scratch, you can speak with people who already understand the basic language of loss.
This guide looks back at nine of the best online grief support groups available in 2022. The selections include general discussion forums, scheduled video meetings, professionally facilitated programs, faith-based courses, and communities designed for particular losses. Because services can change, this should be treated as a historical 2022 comparison rather than a guarantee of current availability.
How We Selected the Best Online Grief Support Groups
No single support group is best for every grieving person. Someone mourning a spouse may need a different community from a college student grieving a parent, while a person who dislikes video meetings may prefer an anonymous discussion board.
For this list, we considered the following factors:
- Accessibility: Could members participate from home and use the service at practical times?
- Community focus: Did the group clearly identify the people and types of loss it served?
- Privacy and moderation: Were there reasonable safeguards, community rules, or trained facilitators?
- Support formats: Did the service offer forums, chats, video meetings, educational materials, or individual connections?
- Cost: Were free or affordable options available?
- Credibility: Did the organization explain its mission, leadership, and limitations honestly?
Online support can reduce isolation and give people a place to tell their stories, but results vary. Research on bereavement support suggests that groups can be valuable for some participants without being equally helpful for everyone. A support community should therefore be viewed as one possible tool rather than a mandatory stage of grieving.
The 9 Best Online Grief Support Groups in 2022
1. Grieving.com Best Overall Online Grief Forum
Grieving.com was one of the most established peer-support communities available in 2022. Its forums covered many kinds of bereavement, including the death of a spouse, parent, child, sibling, friend, grandparent, or pet. Members could read existing conversations, create posts, respond to others, and connect through private messages.
The biggest advantage was flexibility. There was no need to look presentable for a video call, arrange childcare, or produce a brilliant introduction while emotionally exhausted. A member could write three paragraphs, three words, or nothing at all. Reading quietly was still a legitimate way to participate.
Because Grieving.com was primarily a peer community rather than a clinical service, members needed to use normal internet caution. Posts could be deeply supportive, but they represented personal experiences rather than professional diagnoses or treatment recommendations.
Best for: People seeking a large, always-available forum covering many types of loss.
2. Grief in Common Best for Finding People With Similar Losses
Grief in Common approached online bereavement support a little like a social network designed for grieving people. Members could create profiles, participate in discussion forums, use chat features, and look for others whose experiences resembled their own.
That matching element mattered because two people may both be grieving while facing very different realities. A person mourning a parent after a long illness may not have the same questions as someone coping with a sudden death, suicide loss, homicide, or the death of a partner. Finding someone who understands the specific shape of the loss can reduce the exhausting feeling of being emotionally translated badly.
The platform also offered group and individual support options. Some features required registration or payment, so prospective members needed to review the cost and privacy terms before joining.
Best for: Adults who want targeted connections, discussion forums, live interaction, or grief coaching options.
3. The Dinner Party Best for Grieving Young and Middle-Aged Adults
In 2022, The Dinner Party was known for peer-led gatherings called “Tables.” The program was created for younger adults who often felt out of place in traditional bereavement groups. Trained peer hosts facilitated conversations in which participants could talk about death, relationships, identity, work, dating, family dynamics, and the peculiar experience of grieving while everyone else appeared busy choosing brunch.
Virtual Tables made the organization accessible beyond major cities. Some groups focused on shared identities or types of loss, while a Buddy System offered one-to-one peer connections. The atmosphere was deliberately more conversational than clinical.
The Dinner Party was not therapy, and its hosts were not substitutes for licensed mental health professionals. It worked best for people who wanted community and honest conversation rather than a formal treatment program.
Best for: Younger adults seeking peer-led groups and age-relevant conversations about life after loss.
Historical update: This recommendation reflects the organization’s 2022 programming. In March 2026, The Dinner Party announced its intention to sunset its programs, so readers should verify present availability before attempting to join.
4. GriefShare Best Structured Faith-Based Program
GriefShare offered a more structured experience than an open discussion forum. Its program generally combined weekly educational videos, group conversations, and workbook exercises. Online meetings allowed participants to follow the course from home while still connecting with a recurring group.
The program was explicitly Christian and was commonly hosted by churches. That spiritual foundation could be comforting for people who wanted to explore grief through prayer, scripture, and Christian teachings. It could also be a poor fit for someone seeking secular support or following another faith tradition. Knowing that before registering was useful; discovering it halfway through a theological discussion would be less convenient.
Most groups followed a multiweek schedule, although participants could often join after a session had begun. Fees varied by host and were commonly connected to the participant workbook.
Best for: Christians who prefer an organized curriculum, recurring meetings, educational videos, and guided discussion.
5. The Compassionate Friends Best for the Death of a Child
The Compassionate Friends served families after the death of a child of any age and from any cause. Its community included bereaved parents, grandparents, and adult siblings. In addition to local chapters, the organization provided online communities, private social-media groups, and scheduled live chats.
This specialization was important. The death of a child can affect every relationship within a family, including marriages, sibling relationships, grandparent roles, holidays, and future expectations. Members did not have to minimize the loss or avoid mentioning the child’s name because others were uncomfortable.
The organization’s support was peer-based rather than clinical. Live-chat rooms and specialized communities helped members find others facing similar circumstances, but anyone needing diagnosis or treatment still needed a licensed professional.
Best for: Parents, grandparents, and adult siblings grieving the death of a child.
6. Actively Moving Forward Best for College Students and Young Adults
Actively Moving Forward, commonly called AMF, was a HealGrief program designed around the needs of grieving young adults. Its network focused particularly on people ages 18 to 30, including college students who might be living away from family or surrounded by classmates with little experience of death.
The AMF App provided access to facilitated virtual groups, educational resources, community conversations, workshops, and opportunities for one-to-one support. This combination offered more than a single weekly meeting. Members could explore information privately, communicate with peers, and attend scheduled programs when ready.
The age-specific focus was one of AMF’s greatest strengths. Grief during early adulthood can interfere with school, careers, friendships, independence, and major milestones. It helps to talk with people who understand why graduation can feel both exciting and devastating when an important person is missing.
Best for: College students and adults in their late teens or twenties who want age-appropriate virtual support.
7. Widowed Village Best for Widowed People
Widowed Village, operated by Soaring Spirits International, was built specifically for people grieving the death of a spouse or partner. The online community included moderated forums, topic-based conversations, virtual meetings, and ways to connect with members according to age, location, or time since the death.
That focus made room for practical subjects that general grief communities might overlook. Members could discuss parenting alone, handling finances, changing friendships, anniversaries, loneliness, dating, household decisions, and the unsettling realization that one person now has to remember every password.
Members could participate actively or simply read. For newly widowed people who felt overwhelmed by a live meeting, observing a forum offered a gentler entry point. The broader Soaring Spirits network also provided educational resources and in-person opportunities.
Best for: Widowed people seeking an ongoing, specialized online community.
8. CancerCare Best Professionally Facilitated Cancer-Loss Support
CancerCare stood apart from many peer-only communities because its support groups were facilitated by oncology social workers. In 2022, the organization offered free online groups for people affected by cancer, including bereavement programs for those who had lost a spouse, partner, or other loved one.
Some groups used private, password-protected message boards rather than public forums or video calls. Participants could write when convenient while receiving guidance from a professional facilitator. Groups were often time-limited and had specific eligibility requirements, such as the relationship to the person who died, the cause of death, location, or how recently the loss occurred.
The structured application process could require more effort than joining an open forum, but it also helped protect privacy and create a focused group.
Best for: People grieving a cancer-related death who want free support facilitated by an oncology social worker.
9. My Grief Angels Best Free Volunteer-Led Virtual Support
My Grief Angels was a nonprofit community created and managed by people with personal experience of grief. It offered free peer-led virtual support groups, online chats, educational resources, and public awareness programs.
The organization’s peer model could make meetings feel approachable and less formal. Participants were able to speak with others who understood grief from lived experience rather than from a textbook alone. At the same time, the organization clearly explained that volunteer-led groups were not professional mental health treatment.
That distinction was responsible and important. A peer may recognize the emotional chaos of grief, but a peer should not diagnose depression, evaluate medication, or manage an immediate safety crisis.
Best for: People seeking free, volunteer-led virtual groups and peer companionship.
How to Choose the Right Online Bereavement Group
Start With the Type of Loss
A general group may be comforting, but a specialized community can provide more relevant conversations. Consider whether you want support related to widowhood, child loss, cancer, suicide loss, pet loss, young-adult grief, or another particular experience.
Choose a Communication Format You Will Actually Use
Video meetings offer immediate conversation and facial expressions, but they can also feel emotionally intense. Forums allow more time to think and can be used at any hour. Live text chat falls somewhere in between. The theoretically perfect program is not useful if its format makes you avoid logging in.
Review Privacy Before Sharing Personal Details
Find out whether conversations are public, members-only, password-protected, recorded, or visible in search results. Use a nickname when appropriate, avoid posting identifying information, and remember that screenshots can outlive even the strictest community rule.
Understand Who Leads the Group
A peer facilitator, clergy member, volunteer moderator, social worker, and licensed therapist serve different roles. None is automatically better, but the leadership should match your needs. Look for clear rules about confidentiality, harassment, crisis situations, and harmful advice.
Give Yourself Permission to Leave
A group can be reputable and still feel wrong for you. Personalities may clash, the spiritual approach may not fit, or another member’s story may feel too overwhelming. Leaving does not mean you failed at grief. It means you are choosing a different form of support.
What Online Grief Support Groups Cannot Do
Grief groups are not emergency services, and most peer communities are not therapy. They cannot safely diagnose a mental health condition, prescribe medication, or provide continuous crisis supervision.
In March 2022, prolonged grief disorder was added to the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5-TR. The diagnosis does not suggest that ordinary grief is an illness. It describes persistent, impairing symptoms that continue beyond expected cultural, social, and religious norms and significantly interfere with daily life.
Consider speaking with a psychologist, psychiatrist, physician, grief therapist, or other licensed professional when distress is severe, daily functioning is deteriorating, substance use is increasing, or you feel unable to keep yourself safe. In the United States, anyone experiencing a suicidal or mental health crisis can call or text 988 for immediate crisis support.
Conclusion
The best online grief support group is not necessarily the largest, most polished, or most famous. It is the one that helps you feel less alone without pressuring you to grieve according to someone else’s calendar.
In 2022, Grieving.com offered broad, flexible forum support; Grief in Common helped people find similar experiences; The Dinner Party and Actively Moving Forward served younger adults; GriefShare provided a Christian curriculum; The Compassionate Friends focused on child loss; Widowed Village supported widowed people; CancerCare offered professional facilitation for cancer-related bereavement; and My Grief Angels provided free volunteer-led connection.
You do not have to tell your entire story during the first meeting. You do not even have to turn on your camera. Sometimes the first useful step is simply discovering that another person has felt the same impossible thing and found a way to make it through the next hour.
What Joining an Online Grief Group Can Feel Like: A Composite Experience
The first visit to an online grief community is often quieter than people expect. You may create an account, stare at the introduction box, and suddenly forget every word you have ever learned. “Hello, my person died, and everything is terrible” can feel both too blunt and completely accurate. Many people close the page without posting. That still counts as a first step.
Reading other members’ messages can bring two opposite reactions. There may be relief because someone finally describes the exhaustion, resentment, brain fog, or loneliness you thought belonged only to you. There may also be fear because another person’s pain feels uncomfortably familiar. A healthy community lets you step away, mute a discussion, or return later without treating participation like an attendance contest.
During a first live meeting, silence is common. A thoughtful facilitator will explain the rules, remind participants that sharing is optional, and prevent one person from dominating the session. Some members speak immediately. Others keep the camera off and listen. Neither approach is more courageous. Grief already creates enough performance anxiety without turning recovery into a talent show.
The most useful moment may be unexpectedly ordinary. Someone might mention forgetting why they entered a room, feeling angry at cheerful social-media posts, or buying too much food because they still shop for two people. These details can be more reassuring than grand speeches about healing. They show that grief affects routines, memory, identity, relationships, and the bodynot just emotions.
After several meetings, patterns begin to appear. Certain people make you feel understood. Particular topics leave you calmer, while others drain you for the rest of the day. You learn whether you prefer advice, simple acknowledgment, educational resources, or the comforting presence of people who do not try to fix anything. That information can help you choose additional support more wisely.
Not every interaction will be helpful. A member may compare losses, push a religious belief, recommend a questionable cure, or insist that their timetable is universal. Good moderators address this behavior. You can also protect yourself by sharing gradually, checking advice with qualified professionals, and refusing private conversations that feel intrusive.
Over time, progress may look less dramatic than expected. You might sleep slightly better after a meeting, answer a message you had been avoiding, or laugh without immediately feeling guilty. You may eventually welcome a newcomer and realize that you now possess knowledge you never wanted but can use compassionately.
An online grief group does not erase a death or restore the life that existed before it. Its value is smaller and more realistic: it can provide witnesses. It can offer a place where the person who died is still spoken about, where complicated emotions are allowed, and where nobody tells you to “move on” before you have finished the sentence.
Note: This article reviews programs and features associated with the 2022 online grief-support landscape. Organizations, eligibility rules, fees, meeting formats, and program availability may have changed. Verify current details before publication or enrollment.
