Member-only story

Perspective

Mary Rose Campbell
4 min readMay 23, 2024

--

This past Sunday night I completed facilitating another eight-week course I created called “Navigating Grief.” I began research on coping with grief after my daughter-in-law was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in 2017. Out of that research and experience, a course for assisting others in dealing with their grief began to emerge in the months following her death in April 2019.

From my research, I compiled a bibliography, which I provide to all participants. I have drawn from several more grief-specific books for information and exercises to have participants engage in examining how we deal with grief in this country. Much of what we say, believing we are helping, for intending to alleviate the grief, does not help at all.

My reflection on the evolution of the course development this week has had me rethink and potentially repurpose the intention for the course that I plan to update and lead again in August.

What exactly is my intention for leading this course? I want other people to feel better. I am uncomfortable around grief and loss. I don’t know what to say or what to do. I want those people to just be happy, so I will feel better.

While that is certainly true, I have had a few losses in my life that I thought were devastating. The emotions were overwhelming, and I thought I could not breathe, could not live, desperately trying to hold on…

--

--

Mary Rose Campbell
Mary Rose Campbell

Written by Mary Rose Campbell

Mother, grandmother, life coach, social worker, lover of life, passionate connector, compassionate leader.

No responses yet