Grief Recovery Support Group helps employees move beyond pain

December 23, 2014

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Five years ago, Priscilla Boos heard the worst news she could ever imagine – her husband had been given six months to a year to live.

“I was devastated,” said Boos, who is a business manager in the Department of Pathology. “I started grieving the loss of my husband of 39 years that day.”

To deal with her feelings and to try and prepare for when her husband really was gone, Boos said she attended the Texas Children’s Employee Assistance Program’s Grief Recovery Group.

The free 10-week program is dedicated to helping people find the support they need to move beyond grief, whether it’s over the loss of a loved one, a divorce or a situation at work. Facilitated by EAP staff and open to all Texas Children’s and Baylor employees, the program follows specific tasks outlined in The Grief Recovery Handbook by John James and Russel Friedman.

“Recovery from loss is accomplished by discovering and completing all of the undelivered communications that accrue in relationships,” said EAP Program Manager Brent Lo-Caste-Wilken. “If you have experienced one or more losses, and you wish to move beyond the pain, this program offers you the probability of a richer and more rewarding life.”

Boos said the group made a huge difference in her life and that it made the journey toward her husband’s death much easier to bare.

“When it was time for him to go, we talked about a lot of things most couples don’t talk about during that time,” she said. “We wouldn’t have been able to have had that conversation had I attended the Grief Support Group.”

Most people don’t get the opportunity to complete unfinished conversations like Boos did because their loved is already gone or their loss has already occurred. Grief recovery helps people who are both anticipating a loss as well as suffering the effects of a loss that has already happened. In short, it helps people complete anything that was left unfinished at the time of a loss.

“Successful completion of unfinished emotions allows us to become complete with the often painful reality that the physical relationship has ended,” James and Friedman said.

To sign up for the next session of the Grief Recovery Group see below. Space is limited, so don’t delay.

What do I need to know if I am interested in participating in the Grief Recovery Group?

  • For the safety and success of all participants, commitment to and attendance at the 10-week program are essential.
  • Group sessions will be held in the Meyer Building first-floor conference room from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. every
  • Thursday beginning January 22 and ending March 26.

To register for the program go to the Learning Academy webpage, call Ext. 4-3327 or email eap@texaschildrens.org.