Is It Possible to Leave a Grief Group Feeling Optimistic???

Every 3rd Tuesday from 7:15pm – 8:45pm myself and colleague, Emlyn Whipple, have the honor to be with people along their grief journey.  Grief groups are held at Coral Springs Funeral Home and are free to all participants, you just have to let us know you are coming, as in make sure you RSVP to myself or Karen Forrest – Karen@CoralSpringsFuneralHome.com

Today, the topic was “Before and After”.  Here is s snippet of the types of questions that were asked and discussed.  Feel free to answer them yourself.

“Before the death of my loved one my biggest commitment was… and now after the death of my loved one my biggest commitment is…”

“Before the death of my loved one the thing I most cherished was… and now after the death the thing I most cherish is…”

“Before the death I found solace in… and now after the death I find solace in…”

Before we got started we did a “feelings check in”.  Each member expressed how he/she was feeling in the current moment and how he/she would like to feel at the end of our session.

Tonight at grief group we had a new member, what she desired most was to leave feeling optimistic.

During the group there was a lot of sharing, comfort, memories, tears, and laughter.

At the end of group, I went around the room, and I came around to her and asked, “so how are you feeling now?”

She looked down and laughed….”optimistic”

Imagine coming to a grief group and in 1 hour leave feeling optimistic.  My feeling at the beginning of group was “committed”, committed to the participants in getting what they came for.

Thank-you to our grief group participants for sharing their experiences, joys, tears, memories, …. as always it is an honor to entrust us in sharing the things you hold so personal and dear.

by Katie Lemieux