The Personal Workshop

What is the purpose of Personal Workshop? 

To help each participant grieve and complete their relationship to the pain and unfinished business caused by a death, divorce or any other significant emotional loss.

When is it time to do my "grief work?" This is the most difficult question facing grievers. Part of the problem stems from the biggest single inaccurate idea that we were all socialized to believe: that "time heals all wounds." Time does not heal. Actions can help discover and complete unfinished emotional business. When can I begin to discover and complete all of the things that I wish had ended "different, better or more," and all of the broken "hopes, dreams, and expectations" about the future? The answer is immediately. Waiting to do grief work is potentially dangerous. Most likely you’ve heard that grievers tend to create larger than life memory pictures in which they either "enshrine or bedevil" the person who died. This phenomenon increases with time, making it more difficult to discover the "truth" within the relationship. 

How does Grief Recovery® differ from therapy? Since there are so many different types of therapies, it’s difficult to give a singular answer. Grief is the normal and natural reaction to loss; grief is not, of itself, a pathological condition nor a personality disorder. Grief Recovery® is primarily an educational, or re-educational experience, based on the fact that most of us were never taught effective tools for dealing with grief. Most participants find that their subsequent therapy is enhanced by their experience in the workshop. In fact, many therapists refer clients to the workshop.

What are some tipoffs that unresolved grief is the cause of my discomfort? Unresolved grief tends to take people "out of the moment," that is to cause you to be off in conversations with people who are no longer physically there with you. [This is not limited to death. You are equally likely to be lost in a conversation with a former spouse, still living, who is not physically present].

Assuming that your physical health is okay, unresolved grief tends to drain you of energy. Unresolved grief tends to close our hearts down. Since we’re incomplete with a prior loss, we almost automatically "protect" ourselves by not loving again. More accurately, we limit our loving exposure and thereby doom the new relationship to fail. Commonly, grievers will hide their true feelings for fear of being judged. Where isolation is the problem, participation is a major component of the solution. The Grief Recovery® Workshop is the ultimate participation aimed at discovering and completing the unfinished emotional business that fuels the isolation.

What is the difference between Grief Recovery^® and other loss and grief programs? Many grief groups provide an environment for people to verbalize the thoughts and feelings they experience following a loss. While there is benefit to that kind of expression, often it is not enough. Generally it will have a short-term benefit and not address the underlying issues of "incomplete emotional" communications that sustain unresolved grief. The Grief Recovery^® Workshop addresses the incompleteness so that there is long-term benefit, completing the pain and the unfinished emotions.

The Grief Recovery^® Personal Workshop This powerful and dynamic experience is the most productive workshop being offered anywhere on people’s reaction to loss. The workshop is the most sensible, accessible and authentic plan available for recovery from loss. For anyone who is grieving, the Personal Workshop offers Grief Recovery^® tools that work for any kind of serious loss. Workshops include educational and experiential sessions dealing with Concepts of Grief, Concepts of Recovery, How Incomplete Loss Occurs, Grief Recovery^® Principles, Identifying Incomplete Losses, and Moving Beyond Loss.

Enrollment is limited to 20 people. Workshops fill up quickly, so reserve your space early. The cost is $695 US or $795 CDN and a deposit of $195 is required to reserve your place. 

Personal Workshop Schedule 

GriefRecovery®  is a registered trademark of The Grief Recovery Institute®.  Our Certified personnel use this distinctive mark to announce their association with  The Grief Recovery Institute® and to distinguish themselves from others who help grievers. While the words grief and recovery may be generic, the phrase GriefRecovery® is unique  to the principles and actions outlined in The Grief Recovery Handbook and all other literature and programs affiliated with The Grief Recovery Institute®. Look for GriefRecovery® - it is your assurance of the highest level of training in the area of helping grievers complete the pain caused by significant emotional losses. © 1987-2007, The Grief Recovery Institute®. All rights reserved.