Grief Group Self-Review

Yesterday, I led a grief group in place of the bereavement coordinator. I haven't led a group for quite some time, and had never led solo. I wanted to just talk a bit about what I did and what I would have done differently.

I started off with "The Rose", which I did some research on. Apparently, the song was voted #83 of American Film Institute's "100 Years of the Greatest Songs" in 2004. This song was written by Andrea McBloom, but was made famous by Bette Midler. Other covers done by Conway Twitty, Leann Rimes, and Westlife.

I sang the song and we talked about different lyrics of the song that stood out to them and compared them to their grief journey. It turned out that this song was used for the funeral of the mother of one of the participants, so it already carried quite a punch. We talked about the lyrics and it sort of went on a few rabbit trails after that. I tried to concentrate on coping strategies, especially when they talked about being angry or depressed. At the end, I tried to lead a relaxation exercise, but it didn't really work out very well.

I think some of this next section may be due to walking into a new group. I had never met any of these people before and some of them had other issues that they were dealing with. I try not to blame others, but one lady in particular tended to dominate the conversation, which was actually a bit of help at first. In the end, however, I wish I had attempted to take a little more control so I could include others, one in particular who didn't actually say anything. Another thing I would have liked to see happen is some realizations toward the end. I understand that everybody works at a different pace, but I felt as though the participants were more depressed when they left.

Despite this, I do feel that there was a lot of great sharing. My intentions were good and I felt I did stay mentally present throughout the entire session. I felt that I was able to take a tangents and connect them to some lessons that I've learned working with patients. I especially tried to show that they were very connected through their grief and I encouraged them to lean on each other when they are feeling depressed or needed to talk.

I guess that's all I have. Sorry for the ramblings, but this blog is great for me to process how things went. That's important for anybody to do.