How to Facilitate a Bereavement Support Group

Bereavement support groups can provide an opportunity for members to share personal experiences, feelings and coping strategies. Groups can reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation, reduce distress and anxiety and facilitate feelings of empowerment, control and hope.

In an effectively facilitated support group, experiences can be shared and mutual support provided which increases the connection between participants, provides opportunities to explore challenges and to remember the person who have died.

This experiential workshop will address the theoretical underpinnings of group work, analyse ways to establish an effective support group and use therapeutic interventions to develop clinical skills that can be used in practice.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Explain grief theories and models and apply them to group work practice.
• Analyse the framework for setting up a bereavement support group.
• Identify some of the common challenges and pitfalls of group work.
• Employ creative interventions to use in groups.