Together After Loss

What: Support group for students who have lost a loved one during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Purpose: To give students an opportunity to share their experiences of loss and provide emotional and moral support for one another.
Group format: Open forum; no rules regarding regular attendance
When: Wednesdays from 2pm-2:45pm
How: Cisco WebEx videoconferencing platform
Facilitators: Dr. Ericka Woods and Dr. Scott W. Smith
How to sign up: email Dr. Ericka Woods or Dr. Scott W. Smith

Some Things to Understand About the Journey of Grief and Loss:

Grief is the reaction to loss and it is different for every person. Yet certain kinds of thoughts and feelings occur predictably:

• Feeling yearning, longing, sadness, and having thoughts and memories of the deceased.
• Feeling detached from the world and other people.
• Struggling to concentrate on things like homework or studying.
• Although you may want to be around other people, you could nonetheless find it hard to participate in a conversation.

Loss is permanent and so is grief. At first, it may be acute grief: painful, sharp and overwhelming. Over time though, grief usually subsides in intensity and frequency and eventually it becomes integrated into your life. You are then able to remember and honor your lost loved ones without having it disrupt your own life.

Ultimately, you will need to find ways to think about or “re-visit” memories and feelings about the person who died including their death, and rethink thoughts that are highly painful. Making these changes is not easy, but you can feel a sense of satisfaction and even pride, as you being to figure this out.

It helps if there is someone – or a group of people, like the grief support group “Together After Loss” at the York College Counseling Center – who can share the pain. The presence of other people can help you feel connected to the present and feel some hope for the future.

_{Adapted from Columbia Center for Complicated Grief, The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. All rights reserved. Copyright ©2015}