Grief Group
Session 1
Today we wrote rules for our group. We passed out journals and folders. We played a get-to-know-you game. We shared who each member of the group lost. Then, we took the survey below:
SURVEY
Session 2
Today we started off with a worksheet with a circle on it. I asked the kids to decorate their circle, anyway they wanted to, make it theirs. After a couple of minutes, I had them give it to the person on their right. I then instructed that student to decorate the circle. We continued until the original came back to their owner.
We talked about:
What did it feel like to give up control of your design?
Do you like what the others added?
If you could change something, what would you change?
Does it look nice even though it is not what you originally had planned for your design?
Ask if this anything like the loss they have had. Life is not like we may planned it or wanted it to be, but is it all bad? How does it feel giving up control? It is hard to think this way, but has anything positive come out of your loss?
Session Three
We did an activity where we folded a paper into four quadrants. On each quadrant, students drew or wrote something on each given topic. *Where were you at the time of the death? How did it happen? Do you have any questions about how it happened? What was it like at the time of the death? How are you doing now?
This activity led to a wonderful discussion, and gave some hope that things do get better in time.
We talked about healthy coping skills. We wrote our negative feelings, emotions on a post it note. We then, read these aloud and threw them away in the trash can. We talked about how it felt to 'throw away' those feelings. We also talked about feelings we were not ready to let go of. We discussed healthy ways to cope when we are feeling these negative ways.