News release
First Presbyterian Church of Newhall is hosting a grief and loss recovery group this weekend, free to community members.
This weekend group runs 6-9 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday on the church’s campus in Newhall, near the DMV office.
Below are some common questions and answers about this program, called the Grief Recovery Method, according to a news release from the church:
• The Grief Recovery Method defines the broad extent of grief. How common is it? — Grief is the normal and natural emotional response to change or loss of any kind: death, divorce, moving, financial changes, health changes, relationship changes and on and on. Grief is also the result of unmet hopes, dreams and expectations and the loss of intangible concepts such as safety, trust, security, respect, faith and hope. Grief is universal. All of us have experienced grief throughout our lives, as a result of many changes and losses. But we are not well prepared to really handle, manage or recover from the emotional impact that result from these changes and losses.
• The GRM explains why we are so ill prepared to recover from our grief — is it universal and a normal and natural response? — Just as our grief is universal, the ineffective ways of dealing with it are also pretty universal. Often, the way we manage our grief is the same — or similar to — the ways our parents and other key figures in our lives have managed theirs, in fact, sometimes for many generations. In addition to parents and key family members, we also learn ineffective tools for dealing with grief from other key adults in our lives as we are growing up — teachers, clergy, coaches, counselors, even the media and TV and music personalities.
