Bereavement Support Group Program for Children (PDF)

Derived from years of actual experience in conducting bereavement support groups with grieving children, this unique program offers direct advice and tools for creating and conducting your own bereavement support group for children. The Leader Manual gives step-by-step instructions for establishing the support group, along with activities for each individual session. The manual discusses the rationale and objectives behind bereavement programs, explains common grief reactions of children, and provides several techniques and skills that are particularly effective in grief counseling. The accompanying Participant Workbook contains worksheets for daily activities, and thus allows participants to see the program content in written form, while increasing communication with parents or guardians through the exchange of personal and emotional information. The workbook fosters participant interaction with its series of activity specific worksheets, which require written comments and drawings. The which require written comments and drawings. The six-step program is designed for children between the ages of 6 and 15, and contains sections devoted to death and grief, feelings and self-esteem, expression of grief, memories, funerals, and healing and coping skills. The new edition includes: an expanded number of sessions to accommodate the need for a lengthier healing process; a new session entitled Expression of Grief, which encourages participants to express their feelings, and which reassures bereaved children that they are not isolated in their experiences and feelings; new and revised activities appear throughout the leader manual, including Death Experience Discussion, Picture of Life/Death, Feelings Bingo, Funeral Story, and Telling about Your Death Experience; The participant workbook includes an updated and expanded bibliography section in each session. Leader Manual This manual provides rationale and objectives, procedures for establishing the program, grief reactions counseling.