5 Benefits of Joining a Grief Support Group
When we experience loss, it’s hard for loved ones at times to know how to help us through our grief. Joining a support group to help navigate this challenging time in our lives can be as helpful as relying on family and friends to get us through. Bereavement groups are available in many communities and usually free of charge. Finding the right group can be a comforting ritual that allows us to understand the depth of our mourning and grieve in our own unique way.
Here are five potential benefits that joining a bereavement group can provide:
- Know you are not alone
Grief is a universal feeling we all go through and it’s important to understand that you are not alone in it. Sharing thoughts, feelings, and support with others who’ve experienced loss in a safe and comfortable environment may help ease the pain especially when it comes to facing milestones without your loved one.
- Provide hope
Often in these groups, people are at various stages in their healing journey. It’s hopeful to engage with others who are further along their grief path and see how they are working their way toward happiness again. It offers a glimpse into our own future happiness down the road.
- Access to wisdom
Coming together with others in grief can be a resourceful brain collective. Those who have been through similar experiences to you can offer their own unique insight, empathy, suggestions, and advice to help you get through this dark time. And gathering these tools and techniques to manage your daily life can provide a sense of control at a time when you may feel you have none.
- Stepping outside yourself
Being part of a group means you give as well as take. In taking advice, you may also impart advice that aids others. Sharing our own experiences and insight is a way to move outside our personal grief and help others heal. In doing so, we are supporting our own healing path.
- Sense of belonging
Isolating ourselves in grief can be a lonely place and hinder our moving toward acceptance and peace. Wanting to belong is another universal need. We all yearn to be part of something bigger than ourselves and to be accepted and validated. Meeting with others on a regular basis with the same goal offers us a sense of belonging that can provide hope and comfort.
Moving through grief is a difficult challenge unique to each person. If you’ve recently lost your spouse, we welcome you to join one of our widow and widowers’ bereavement support groups. Designed for those 60 years and older, these groups are an encouraging place to share thoughts and feelings in a professionally facilitated setting. Registration for all our groups is required but there is no cost to participate. Depending on the health environment, these groups may be held online rather than in-person.
For more information on joining one of Goldsteins’ bereavement groups or to register, contact Rivka Powers at rivkapowers55@gmail.com or call 215-677-1600.
