Grief is the normal human response to loss, and ideally should be expressed and shared. When a person experiences a significant loss it is common to feel many overwhelming emotions, including pain, confusion, depression, panic, loneliness, anger, apathy, guilt, or anxiety.

Everyone grieves in their own way and in their own time, and everyone benefits from moving through the initial shock of the loss to acceptance and reorganizing their lives. Both individual and group counseling are effective means of dealing with issues of grief and loss, especially in the early weeks or months following a loss. Some of the benefits of being in a group include having the opportunity to receive support, reassurance, suggestions, and insights from other members.

There is not a thought or action that is fully outside the experience of others, and a group experience has the potential of helping people feel less alone and less “different” from others. Just as the individual in a group benefits from insights given from other members, he or she is allowed the opportunity to give to other group members. Helping others with their issues and concerns, and becoming important to others, can and usually does help a person feel better.

The Grief and Loss Support Group provides a confidential and safe space for members to explore powerful (and potentially difficult) emotions related to grief and loss. The group meets from 3 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays in Room 370, Murray-Herrick Campus Center, starting Oct. 4

Email Sarah Armstrong or Anne Perkins, or call the Counseling Center, (651) 962-6780, for more information and to sign up for the group.