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Grief Support Groups Serving West Los Angeles, Encino and Agoura Hills

Posts from 2019 (Page 2)

The Story Of A Bear

If you’re a current member of a HOPE group or an alum, do you remember your orientation at your first meeting? Many members, even a few weeks after that first meeting, can’t remember a thing that was said. They remember how they felt — the overwhelming emotions that virtually prevented them from speaking, and — also very important — the kindness and compassion of the therapists and mentor who explained the process to come. But what was said? No.

Four Tips For Healthy Healing

Max Izenberg, founder of the newsletter “Suddenly65,” focuses on how a healthy lifestyle impacts peoples’ health and well being.  She has written two books and various articles on health and wellness and her book “Who Took My Chocolate Cake?” is dedicated to helping seniors maintain their health and zest for life as they move through the years.  You may find even more…

My Journey of Hope

At HOPE Connection, we have a tradition that we encourage every group member to participate in. It is the simple act of saying goodbye to other group members and the group therapist when a member moves from one group to the next. We continue that tradition when a member graduates from Group Five. The following is a poem that Lynne Goldklang wrote and then read to the entire HOPE Connection community as she said goodbye.

Angels Wanted

“One thing that we at HOPE know is that community heals. When compassionate hearts gather, love and comfort pour into the broken places and healing happens. It is this understanding that makes HOPE such a vibrant grief support community.” So begins the latest fundraising letter from HOPE Connection Executive Director, Dr. Jo Christner. But it is not a typical fundraising letter, because…

Words Fail

One of the most striking aspects of grieving in the early months after your spouse has died is that words truly seem inadequate. Even the word “grieving” does not begin to capture the range and intensity of emotions that can erupt in an instant, and it takes days, weeks, months to begin to understand the complexity of the process.

Catherine Tidd, in an article on the website, Open To Hope, focuses on a single aspect of grieving, loneliness, and her realization that definitions she once took for granted cannot capture the kaleidoscope of thoughts, feelings, experiences, even physical responses, that constitute the grieving process.

Acceptance? No Way! Well, Maybe?

Acceptance — what does that even mean? How does acceptance even happen?

Will acceptance show up? How will I know?

What if I don’t believe there is acceptance? 

There are so many questions about acceptance and no easy answers. Especially acceptance of the loss of a loved one. When someone so important in your life dies, acceptance seems confusing and unrealistic.

Grief Suffered In Silence

Disenfranchised Grief

Have you ever experienced a loss so heartbreaking and no one was there to console you, to hold you, to hear you, to listen to your story, to cry with you, to help mend your broken heart? There was no Rabbi or Pastor to turn to, no group to give you a safe and non-judgmental place to mourn your loss, to heal your broken heart. This is what Disenfranchised Grief looks like. You feel utterly alone and silenced.

Turn! Turn! Turn!

I have been listening to versions of Turn! Turn! Turn! since Pete Seeger took the much quoted biblical passage from Ecclesiastes and made it into a song in the 1950s. In 1965 it became an international hit as recorded by the Byrds.

As a young woman, I felt the power of the song lyrics as I examined my life and looked toward the possibilities with so many years to come.

Resources

Click on the Title of an article to download a PDF that you can print. The Colors of Grief April 2019 Enough Is Enough! Not Another Loss! March 2019 What’s Happening? Am I Going Crazy? February 2019 Can We Talk? January 2019 Please Don’t Take Away My Grief December 2018 The Empty Chair: Grief and the Holidays December 2018 I Recognize Your…

The Colors of Grief

Spring is finally here!  Winter felt like forever this year. Now, we’re watching the miracle of Nature as life slowly comes back to our landscapes that were changed by the harshness of Winter and natural disasters. The charred California mountains are now filled with beautiful colors of blue lupine, orange poppies and the golden mustard plant. Do you feel it? The colorful…