Writing Through Your Grief Group
Writing has been my savior many times over. I’m a better writer than speaker, and so I am deeply grateful that I could turn to writing to process all that I felt and thought during the greatest trials of my life, including the death of my father in 2013.
Because I’ve found such value in writing, I have made it part of my life’s mission to spread that value to others by teaching them how writing can be a comforter and a friend during challenging situations. My aim is to provide a safe place to explore grief and loss experiences. To that end, I will be offering a group called Writing Through Your Grief several times a year for women, starting January 19, 2022. I’ll be drawing from decades of experience as a writer and group facilitator.
Over a six-week time frame, I will be helping women discover how powerful written words can be when it comes to healing and recovery. Research has proven this as well. If you’d like to do some research on your own about this, I recommend looking up the works of Dr. James Pennebaker who is one of the world’s leading experts on expressive or therapeutic writing.
You may be asking yourself, Well, isn’t all writing therapeutic and expressive? And I would say yes, for the most part. Writing is a wonderful tool to vent on paper, to get everything out. As Rick Warren says, “Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing.” However, because expressive writing is a specific technique used to elicit certain feelings, thoughts, and memories about a particular experience, it carries the added benefits of self-discovery and powerful personal insights. Think of the pen or keyboard as the shovel to help you dig deeper into a world about which you’re not aware or have kept hidden.
I’m specifically targeting women for this group because I’ve found that women generally struggle with finding and expressing their voice, especially when it comes to grief. Our society stigmatizes death and dying. We have an unhealthy relationship with it. Add to that the patriarchal idea that women are overly emotional and dramatic.
So, what often happens? Women, myself included, internalize their struggles and lose their voice. The phrase “I’m fine,” becomes part of our vocabulary. Thanks to movements like #metoo, women are starting to speak up, but we have a long way to go.
A few disclaimers:
1. Writing Through Your Grief Group is not a therapy group and although I am trained as a therapist, I will not be using this vehicle to provide counseling. However, as this group will venture into areas that may be tender or deeply emotional, I recommend finding solid support.
2. This group will focus on process not product, so I will not be providing any guidance on how to publish whatever emerges from the writing activities. Not everything that is written is publishable but that doesn’t detract from the value of venturing within to see what emerges. The journey is the destination.
If this group interests you, I am taking registrations on my coaching page for up to 10 women. Head on over to https://www.loriapeters.com/writing-through-your-grief-group.html to learn more and sign up.
Write & Rise, my friends.
