Grief Support Group Reflection

One insight that I gained about my own experience in addressing grief is that it has made me a stronger person; in addition, I am truly able to be more empathetic with people who have lost someone or something important to them. Being empathetic is a strong skill as a social worker, as we are working with people who may have experienced a great deal of loss in their lives. At the age of 24, I have had to attend four funerals for my grandparents. Therefore, I have experienced a lot of grief for how young I am. Learning how to cope has truly made me a stronger person. I have learned to cherish all the fantastic memories that I have with each one of my grandparents. My partner lost his uncle this past February, which was one of his first experiences losing a loved one. Because of my experience with loss, I

The Cokesbury United Methodist Church grief support group follows a thirteen-week curriculum from GriefShare, however, new members can join in at any time as each week has a “self-contained” lesson. The topic for the week I attendee focused on the “why” of losing a loved one. Through following this curriculum, the group seeks to equip members with “essentials to recover from the hurt of grief and loss.” (GriefShare, n.d.) The group focuses on helping members rebuild their lives after they experience tremendous loss and grief through facing the challenge together. (GriefShare, n.d.)

Grief is a complex, emotional process that involves various forms of expression. Because of the nature of the healthcare industry, nurses and healthcare providers are exposed to death and grief. Furthermore, nurses care for various diverse populations. In order to help others with the grief process, it is important that nurses have a good understanding grief models, as well as an understanding of the role that cultural variation has on the way people express grief.

I would like to explore the two grief theories, Dual Process Model and Meaning Reconstruction as they pertain to losing my father to suicide. I will try to uncover some ways these theories related to my experience, and I will also attempt to address the language surrounding suicide to distinguish it as a “unique grief”. And lastly, I will discuss how my personal grief experience may affect my work as an art therapist through artistic exploration.

I chose the GriefShare support group because as nurses we will need to help our patients and their families with the grief process when a loved one passes away. On March 29, 2014, I met Claudette St. John, the group leader, at 6:45pm at Northwest Christian Church in Acworth, GA. Rick Baldwin also attended the meeting. The group meets from 7-8:30pm. Claudette shared that she has been doing grief support classes for the past 20 years and the past 3 years she has been doing GriefShare at Northwest Christian. She lost her teenage daughter in a car accident 20 years ago. She expressed that there really are not any rules, other than just respecting each individual. She tasks herself with keeping the meetings on track and has a democratic leadership style. GriefShare is a Christian based program consisting of 13 weekly session. Participants do not need to attend all 13 sessions, the sessions can also be done individually. A workbook is given to those that are participating in the program. GriefShare’s goal is to help those experiencing grief, work through the process and recognize the different aspects of grief that they may encounter.

The process of running a group therapy session is a unique time to tests a person’s skills abilities when it comes to facilitating that group. This paper will mainly look at ways when it comes to my learning's of this class that I took ways; I will also show examples and skills to run a good group therapy session. This whole paper is a reflection of the many things that I took was on being an active group counselor facilitator.

I chose the group as an alternative to an addiction group that had a general idea similar to AA. When the group was canceled for the evening, I was offered to observe the 12Stone Care grief group as a second choice, held at the same time on November 16th. The 12Stone Care grief group provided valuable support to members and non-members of the church alike, and the sole requirement was to have lost a loved one. L.H., the widowed leader of the group, lost her husband to cancer ten years ago and started the semester-long grief group in 2013 in order to encourage others who are or have been in the grieving process (L.H., personal communication, November 16, 2015). Her goal in 12Stone Care is a “prayer is that [one] will find freedom from [their] struggles and healing in Christ” (12Stone Church,

In addition, the therapeutic value of working with grief in diverse groups is of particular interest to me based on the existential challenges in dealing with death, loss of relationships, career, or anyone or anything deemed to be of significance to individuals. Likewise, our society is frankly abysmal in recognizing and supporting those in need of support, therapy and long-term assistance in dealing with grief and loss. Additionally, group work can be a highly effective way to help grieving individuals expand their network of relationships thus helping them move forward in a health way (Corey el al.,

When I think of the word community, the first thing that usually pops into my mind is an image of a support group. There are many different kinds of support groups, all created to treat different things. Every support group tries to achieve the goal of creating a community of like-minded people and helping those who are in a group get to a better place.

PREPARE is used to make sure the sources a researcher is attempting to use are going to be credible sources for the research paper. During the analysis of the following two sources, PREPARE was used to analyze these sources. Clearing each step of PREPARE made the source stronger and more credible to use in the research paper. This paper will show each step for each of the sources and discuss how the articles when strengthen the research for living victims of homicides.

This project is a learning stretch for me because I have never been on the other side of the group grief counseling. I have only been the one who is seeking counseling not the one giving it. It is a big learning stretch for me to take my experience with loss and turn it around into something good for the kids in the community who have lost someone. In the beginning of my project I had the opportunity to attend a grief counseling volunteer class which helped me learn the do’s and don’ts of counseling. This helped me learn how to help the children and I can later apply this learning for my future career.

Black Americans can have different emotions from crying to being silent. People usually gather in large gatherings to pay respect. Black Americans have a belief that death is God’s will and the deceased is in God’s hand and will be reunited

Grief groups will be led by two facilitators, at least one of which will be a trained therapist. All facilitators will undergo training at the center via a proprietary training program developed by the Executive Director. Facilitators will come from three sources:

In the grief support group I co-lead with a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) and supervised by a Master of Social Work I learned how to facilitate a meeting. The LPCC taught me the person-centered approach and the social worker taught me to monitor client’s progression of goals. She allowed me to take lead, to link members together by similarities they share, and to give members homework. The LPCC believed in self-disclosure, she demonstrated this for me in a fantastic manner the social worker I was with did as well. Teaching me that it is great to self-disclose when appropriate and when it will benefit the progression of the group or for them to feel comfortable trusting the leader. In my group sessions I did not deem self-disclosure appropriate to use. How I will translate this is to be aware of my clients, to ask them what goals they hope to achieve, and for them to keep journals of progress. I will create a safe atmosphere for clients to speak, provide affirmation, and help clients set and maintain goals.

I learned two significant things about group counseling in this course. The first thing that I learned is the importance of setting up a treatment plan. The intention is to follow the client from their entrance into the program until the client is discharged. In this process the clients’ problems are identified through various assessments and as each problem is addressed, it is checked off of the list. Once all of the problems are checked off of the list, the client is considered as having completed the plan. This plan is especially important because it evokes thoughtful conversation between the client and the counselor and is the best method to gain information from the client regarding the help they want to receive. The second most significant thing that I learned about group counseling is how to design a group from start to finish. From pre group design, planning the goals of the group and determining the members to setting up the environment and structuring the sessions, each step adds its own important components to designing group counseling.