Support Groups

All support groups are suspended due to COVID-19. We are offering virtual support groups. Register here. Additional resources can be found on our Grief Support Network page.

Ongoing Groups

Grief Support (evening and daytime)
This group is designed to provide support to individuals who have experienced the death of a loved one. Participants can share their stories and express their grief. Being with individuals who have had similar experiences and feelings allows sharing and healing to take place.

The following support groups are offered at various times throughout the year:

Grief Education/Support Group (1-3 months after the death)
A closed-ended support group that focuses on providing knowledge and insight into the grief journey. Through education and supportive communication the many difficult and unexpected emotions that you may be experiencing are normalized. Participants are taught coping skills and ways to process their grief moving forward.

Caregiver's Grief Support Group

This 8-week grief support group is designed for those who were the primary caregiver for their loved one prior to their death. We acknowledge that caregiver grief is very distinct from other grief experiences, due to the unique relationship that develops through caregiving. Whether you were the caregiver to your parent, spouse, sibling, or another, you probably experienced changes in your relationship with your loved one. Probably many other relationships and circumstances in your life changed too. During this group we will explore and share about the issues specific to the grief of caregivers, as well as provide understanding and validation of feelings, and explore what life looks like – or can look like – after caregiving

Child Loss Support Group
A closed-ended support group open to parents who have experienced the death of a child over one-year of age. The purpose of the group is to help affirm parents and to help them understand that there are many ways to grieve with no set time tables, rules, boundaries, or protocols, while also providing a safe space to share painful thoughts and feelings and feel connected to and supported by others grieving the loss of a child.

Perinatal and Infant Loss Support Group

An 8-week grief support group is designed for those who are grieving the loss of their child by miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, or other perinatal illness or accident, up to 18 months of age. All grief is excruciating, but the death of a child is a pain like no other, and perinatal and infant deaths are too often disenfranchised. The purpose of the group is to affirm parents and to help them understand that there are many ways to grieve, with no set time tables, rules, boundaries, or protocols. This group provides a safe space to share painful thoughts and feelings, and to connect with others grieving the loss of their child.

Spousal/Partner Support Group
A closed-ended educational and emotional support group for those who have experienced the death of a spouse or a life partner. The focus is on issues relevant to the process of grieving a spouse or significant other. The bond shared by two people who have decided to share their lives together is unique and profound; so too is our grief when we lose our partner. This group provides a space in which people can come together to share about their loved one, learn coping skills, and expand social support.

Teen Grief Support Group

A close-ended support group exclusively for 13-to 18-year-olds who are grieving the death of a family member or peer. This group will utilize creative modalities to explore emotion and teach emotional regulation and coping skills. Time will be spent fostering healthy communication and the ability to identify and articulate emotions.

Overdose Support Group
A close-ended support group for anyone over the age of 18 who has had a family member die because of an alcohol or drug overdose. This support group will spend time exploring addiction from the brain disease model, and will help you to address a variety of issues through sharing of stories to increase social support, learning coping skills to guide you through your grief journey, and finding ways to memorialize your loved one.

Workshops

Coping With the Holidays Workshop

The holiday season can be difficult under the best of circumstances. Add to that the cloud of sadness when facing the holidays without a loved one for the first time. The holidays can provoke anxiety, bouts of depression and other emotional reactions. This workshop provides some practical ideas to help cope with the upcoming holidays and learn ways to commemorate the death of your loved one.

Unspeakable Loss: Using Collage to Process Traumatic Grief

Creative modalities can be particularly helpful in dealing with trauma, as there is often so much of the experience that feels “unspeakable.” Through artistic activities, survivors are able to explore and process their experience in a way that feels safe, thereby facilitating communication, healing, and posttraumatic growth. Collage can be an especially helpful technique as you don’t need to be a “good artist” – just the ability to cut and paste pictures from magazines!

Space is limited; pre-registration required. 3^rd Saturday of the month, 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., April 20^th to September 21^st.

Telling Your Story: Journaling Through Grief

When someone we love dies, we are given a “plot twist” in our life story that we never would have written for ourselves. Journaling can help to process and integrate that loss into a cohesive, meaningful narrative. Workshop participants will use prompts to explore their experience both from the lens of memory, as well as from creative and analogical perspectives, enabling a holistic integration of loss into your life story – and the story of your relationship with your loved one.

Space is limited; pre-registration required. 2^nd Saturday of the month, 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., October 12^th to March 14^th.

Services

Annual Remembrance Service
Each year, Frederick Health Hospice hosts a non-denominational Memorial Service for the families and friends of loved ones who have died. Hospice staff and volunteers join with the families and friends to celebrate the lives of these individuals.