Uniting in Grief: Students Start Grief and Loss Group at the
Second-year students Eyal Matalon and Anna Weicker recently launched a process group through the for members of the community dealing with grief and loss.
鈥淕rief and loss are topics steeped in feelings of isolation,鈥� Anna said. 鈥淲hen you lose something that鈥檚 vital to you, it often feels like something nobody understands; but, at the same time, recovering from grief and loss is all about connecting with people and being able to share in that experience.鈥�
Eyal added, 鈥淢any countries and cultures have rituals around grief and loss that are about bringing people together because it can be such an isolating experience.鈥�
Unlike a psychoeducation group or a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) group, process groups rely on the relationships built among the members. 鈥淗ere, the intervention is all about the interaction among the group members and how they relate to each other,鈥� Anna explained. 鈥淕rief ended up being a great topic for this because it is entirely universal. Grief and loss are things everyone, in small and large ways, will deal with in their lives.鈥�
In the context of group therapy, clients have the opportunity to learn about their own and other people鈥檚 coping strategies, Eyal explained.
鈥淐oming into a process group is like entering a house of mirrors,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ll of those mirrors are not perfect reflections of you because the reflection you get back from each person is both true and not the whole truth. Together though one can create a composite that helps them understand what I do in everyday life and what I project into the world.鈥�
Eyal continued, 鈥淧eople respond to grief and loss using whatever means they know how. Being in a group like this is an opportunity to learn which parts of what they do are working and which other ways of coping they might want to try on instead.鈥�
Anna and Eyal devised the group to apply skills from their training at the 91精品, while expanding upon and growing their clinical knowledge and experience.
鈥淲e are learning this as we go, which is so exciting鈥� Anna said. 鈥淲e received a lot of support from , the Clinic Director, as well as having our own supervisor for this group specifically, who has a lot of experience leading groups.鈥�
In order to create the group, Anna and Eyal conceptualized its focus, marketed it, screened prospective members, communicated with clinicians who practice from various orientations, and ultimately got it up and running.
鈥淏eing a group therapist is different from being an individual therapist in so many ways,鈥� Eyal said. 鈥淥ur primary purpose here is to facilitate relational understandings not just between us and the client, but instead facilitating relational understanding among group members, and every group member is going to activate something different in each other member. In essence, we are facilitating opportunities in which members can learn from each other and be helpful to each other.鈥�
The power in this model comes from the fact that people hear feedback differently when it comes from another real-world citizen than they do from a trained therapist, Eyal said. 鈥淭he other beauty of this is that when a group member is able to say something to another client that is very helpful to them, that feels really good, and that in and of itself can be very healing.鈥�
Although the group has just started, Anna and Eyal already feel its impact.
鈥淚 was in awe of our group members, who stepped into this space and took such a huge risk in being vulnerable with people they didn鈥檛 even know,鈥� Anna said. 鈥淭o put yourself out there and say, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know how to grieve, and it鈥檚 really scary, but I know I need to do it to be better鈥� and have that be met by a group of other people going through the same thing is so powerful.鈥�
Eyal Added, 鈥淥ftentimes people going through grief end up feeling like they have to take care of other people they are telling about it鈥攏ot share too much and overwhelm people鈥攕o they are carrying this double burden. Here, those rules no longer apply, and that is profoundly healing.鈥�
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