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Step 1
Be a good listener. Avoid giving your friend or partner pat advice like "time heals all wounds" or "he was bad for you anyway." Instead, listen to her concerns and express how sorry you are for her.
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Step 2
Be realistic about your relationship and set limits. If you get involved in a rebound relationship with someone who has just had a bad breakup, you will likely lose that relationship and perhaps your friendship after he rebounds. Don't dive into bed with emotionally vulnerable friends.
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Step 3
Find things to do that you both enjoy. One of the best things you can do for a grieving friend or lover is to help her keep living her life. Just having fun together is important.
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Step 4
Avoid codependency. If your friend is wallowing in his misery, give him some space instead of hanging around and listening to him mope. If you coddle your friend too much, you may actually slow his recovery.
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Step 5
Don't encourage or enable self-destructive behaviors, especially ones your partner or friend is prone to. People often overindulge in drugs, alcohol and other unhealthy habits as a way to cope with grief, but these comforts can become a bigger problem than the grief.
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Step 6
Accept and support emotional changes. Grieving has four stages: denial, anger, depression and acceptance, and they can occur in different orders. Your friend may feel numb or even act like everything is fine in the denial stage, then be furious about her loss the next week and descend into a sudden despair a week later. It's all part of the grieving process, and shows your friend is moving forward.
