Coping with Loss

A Ready-to-Run Grief Workshop

Many of our customers have asked us for help with workshops on specific topics. We have assembled a group of ten ready-to-run topics from the materials in our seminal Structured Exercises in Stress Management and Structured Exercises in Wellness Promotion. Each has everything you need to present a successful, topic-focused, three-hour workshop, including mini-lectures, handouts, and group activities. Don’t have three hours? We have included suggestions on how to cut the workshop back to an hour.

Coping with Loss will help you prepare quickly and efficiently for presentations on grief. The multi-part session is flexible so that you can select the activities most appropriate for your group. They include:

• Barometer is a get-acquainted exercise where participants find a weather forecast to fit their mood. (10-20 minutes)
• The Mustard Seed is a parable that poignantly illustrates that loss and death are inescapable partners with life. (5 minutes)
• Good Grief? is a powerful self-reflection and sharing exercise. Participants explore loss as a common source of stress and grieving as a natural healing process. They identify distressing symptoms of a personal loss, compare their experience with the typical stages of grief, and explore methods for reducing the stress of grief. (60-90 minutes)
• Loneliness Locator is a significant theme expander that challenges participants to distinguish between being alone and being lonely as they explore the theme of dependency in their relationships and plan ways to deal more constructively with their loneliness. (60-90 minutes)
• Silver Linings is a thoughtful exercise where participants discover silver linings in a problem-cloud and use these ribbons of light as inspiration for coping strategies. (20-30 minutes)
• Open Up has participants use a paper bag to explore the potential of self-disclosure as a stress management technique and generate a list of helpful “ears” for coping with tough times. (45-60 minutes)
• 911 Emergency Plan explores coping in crises. Participants develop a personalized strategy for emergency stress management. This technique benefits people who want to change stressful habits such as smoking, alcohol or drug use, overwork, anger outbursts, etc., and for stressful interpersonal relationships. (20-30 minutes)

All these activities are complete with variations to adapt to your specific group or time frame. Each includes a full list of materials needed and suggestions to make your workshop run smoothly and professionally.