23 Jan 2012 Comments Off

The Reality of Grief

The Grief Center Website

Having a re-occurant memory of “grief”….is it not reliving the sadness again and again? Doesn’t memory of loss take place in the present? It can remain unresolved, painful, for years. Or it can be fresh. It can interfere with living our lives and become an obstacle our loved ones would never want for us. Grief is not spoken of. Especially to our being when it is happening. It is trauma. How then can we view “grief” as humans, something we all share and will go through? Where is our shared cultural support? The education we need to know to help ourselves and our neighbors.  And how can we create our own unique individual narrative inside ourselves that will carry us through?

The staff, therapists and administration of the Tristesse Grief Center held a retreat today at which I had the opportunity to share “stress and trauma” relieving meditation techniques and supportive discussion. Meditation is all about focus, getting back into our bodies with less fear, relaxing in spaciousness and enjoying our own compassion and wisdom as we again, turn out to participate in the world  I predict not only will our society begin to talk deeply about dying, but about “how” we want to die. About how our mind is when we die. And how we can choose our View, as young “Tess” did, to have a feeling of control in regard to our suffering, grief and leaving.

The Grief Center is on 31st Street between Harvard and Yale. This quote from their web site, says everything more eloquently then I can; so I give it to you here.  

Mission

To create a caring community where grieving families know they are not alone; a safe place to come to grieve the death and celebrate the life of loved ones. To provide professionally facilitated support groups, individual counseling and special programs for bereaved children, teens and adults; and to be the primary community resource for providing comprehensive grief support, advocacy and education.

History

Founded in 2002, the driving force for creating The Tristesse Grief Center was, in part, born out of the vision and inspiration of a courageous 14-year-old girl who struggled with cancer for six years. In the face of her own death, Tristesse “Tess” Gonsalves’s foremost concern was how those she was leaving behind would carry on whole and healthy lives. Tess taught all who knew her how to celebrate life and face death with courage.

Her compassion and insight propelled those close to her to research the availability of bereavement counseling, services and programs in the Tulsa metro community. After a comprehensive survey of funeral homes, hospices, hospitals, social agencies and churches it was found that grief-related services and programs in the Tulsa community were fragmented and difficult to access. 

The Tristesse Grief Center opened in mid-2002 and began providing professional, independent and affordable grief services to clients in Northeast Oklahoma regardless of age, ethnicity, religion, cultural background or socioeconomic status.

by jackie in Practice