Grief Group for Childhood Trauma Survivors

PART A

8 - Week Support Group

(Scroll down to see 8-week format)

The purpose of this grief group is to provide a safe space for childhood trauma survivors to explore what happened to them as children and to understand the effects that manifested as a result of being raised in a dysfunctional family.  Once awareness and understanding occurs, healing can happen.

Part of the healing process is to explore and feel the “feelings” that were not experienced as children.  This can sometimes be a painful process, however in learning how to bare and express our emotions allows for healing to occur.  Healthy coping mechanisms gradually replace dysfunctional ones as we incorporate a healthy lifestyle moving forward. We learn how to move trauma out of our bodies, with mindfulness, making room for Joy as we move forward in life.

8 Week Format

  • Week 1 Orientation

    We review the format and guidelines the group will be following. Participants introduce themselves and share what brought them here today. I will share about the process and what to expect.

  • Week 2 Sharing Our Stories - Part 1

    Participants share their childhood trauma stories in a safe, loving environment. “This is a big part of the healing process”. Not only sharing our stories, but active listening is transformative as well. Half the participants will share in week 2, and the other half in week 3.

  • Week 3 Sharing Our Stories - Part 2

    The remaining participants will share their childhood trauma stories. As we do for every session, we lead off with a check-in period for everyone to share ‘where they’re at‘, as well as one at the end.

  • Week 4 Writing a Letter to Our Younger Self

    This week’s focus is on sharing with the group a letter which each participant writes to their younger self. We learn to shower ourselves with the truth of who we are, and in so doing we give to ourselves all that we didn’t receive from our care givers growing up in a dysfunctional home.

  • Week 5 What Role Did You Play?

    Growing up in a dysfunctional home we had to learn to survive. Part of our survival process was to hide our true selves while playing a role. There are common roles children take on in an attempt to fit in. Do you know what role you played? Were you The Hero? The Scapegoat? The Caretaker? The Lost Child? The Mascot? Or perhaps the Identified Patient? In this session there will be a rich discussion aimed at awareness and clarity to the truth of roles we’ve played and perhaps continue to play.

  • Week 6 When The Past Becomes The Present

    This week is all about learning, sharing and reflecting on the phenomenon of “when the past becomes the present”. TRIGGERS. How often does someone say something, or does something happen, that triggers anger, rage or distress inside us and we’re not sure what to do? We want to lash out and sometimes we do, but really, is that the healthy adult response to have?

  • Week 7 Moving Trauma Out of Our Bodies

    There’s more than one way! This week we discuss the different ways to move trauma out of our bodies. Exercises from homework will be discussed in this week’s group.

  • Week 8 Connecting To Our True Selves with Art

    First of all, no experience with art is necessary; in fact, this will be a childlike experience where our goal is to not think, but to feel intuitively what we’ll choose to put on paper :) . I will take everyone on a short meditation where our intention is to connect with our true selves. From there we’ll choose colors and create shapes as we feel our way through this exercise. It’s amazing what transpires as we stay out of thought! This exercise can truly reveal some great inner stuff :) .

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