Grief Support Groups Offer Hope and Healing

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CATEGORY: Grief and Loss
PUBLICATION: Journey

​Coping with the death of someone we love is one of the most challenging circumstances any of us will ever experience. Although grieving is a normal and natural process, coping with the swirl of emotions and the new reality of living life with the absence of a loved one can be overwhelming.

Many people find help and healing on their grief journey by attending a psychoeducational grief support group. Speaking with others who have experienced a similar death and hearing their stories in a safe, nonjudgmental environment provides the reassurance of knowing we are not alone. Conversations with others about their experiences can lead to fresh insights.

HWR’s Bereavement Center provides a wide array of grief support groups for adults and children of all ages. The groups are open to anyone in the community who has experienced a death whether or not their loved one received hospice care. The groups meet throughout Northern Ohio and are facilitated by licensed and/or certified bereavement coordinators. Registration is required for most of the groups, but there is no cost to attend.

“The support groups are made possible through funding from grants and through generous support from donors in the community,” said Diane Snyder Cowan, Director of the Bereavement Center. Our goal is to meet the needs of the grieving community.”  Loss-specific groups are available for partner/spousal loss of various ages, death of both parents, death of adult children and more. We also offer art therapy grief support groups, healing arts workshops, yoga and a variety of camps and retreats.

Restoring Hope, a new five-week grief support group for those grieving the death of a loved one from an overdose, will be offered at The LCADA Way in Avon Lake on Wednesday evenings, beginning May 24, and on Cleveland’s east side, beginning June 21. The groups are limited in size and registration is required.

“Grief reactions are often intricate and complex,” Diane said. “When you add that the person died from an overdose, accidental or not, it complicates matters.” Families frequently need resources to help process their grief and the complicated issues that rise to the surface, such as shame, blame, isolation, loneliness, fear and anxiety.

We Can Help

Speak with the referral team by contacting us seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Any first visit and admission can be made the first day.

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More than 1,000 Hospice of the Western Reserve employees and 3,000 volunteers live and work side-by-side in the same neighborhoods with our patients and families. We are privileged to have cared for more than 100,000 Northern Ohioans since our inception.