About our Bereavement Support

Losing someone you love is painful. After a significant loss, you may experience many emotions, such as shock, anger, and guilt. Sometimes it may feel like the sadness will never end.

We have a number of ways to help you through this difficult transition, including support groups and individual counselling sessions. Our bereavement support is geared to adults who have experienced the death of a spouse, parent or other close family member or friend within the first year of their loss.

PLEASE NOTE:
We are not able to provide counselling for individuals coping with infant loss, loss of a child under 25, or death due to substance use, suicide or homicide as they are outside our scope of practice.

Our Bereavement Programs

Grief and Bereavement Virtual Support Group

The grief journey uniquely affects our physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual well-being. It becomes more manageable and meaningful when shared with others who understand its challenge. This program provides group support in a safe and nurturing environment. Group members may share feelings of loss, learn about the grieving process, develop strategies for coping, and begin to integrate this change into their lives in order to move forward. While participating in a virtual support group via ZOOM will lack the intimacy of sitting together, research suggests that people adjust to the format quite quickly.

Early Days Grief Group (4 sessions)

For those who have lost a loved one within the last 3 months. This group runs when there is sufficient interest and registration, and is led by two highly skilled volunteers. The group is designed for those who are new to grief and unsure of what is “normal” and what can be expected. This group will provide resources and supportive discussions to help mourners normalize those early days.

Individual Bereavement Support

Circle of Care offers short-term bereavement support (6-8 sessions) to adults requesting individual support as they adjust to the death of someone dear to them. The client will be asked to select goals they wish to focus on during this term of service.

Bereavement Support Volunteers

Bereavement support volunteers offer emotional and practical support to bereaved clients as they work through the grieving process. These volunteers offer support by phone/video chat. Our volunteers are all Hospice Palliative Care Ontario-trained with at least 30 hours of intensive training. They are then given additional training in how to provide bereavement support to our clients.

Caring Café

If you have experienced a bereavement in the past year, whether through the death of a family member, adult child, or friend, and would find comfort in joining with others in similar circumstances, please join us for our once a month drop-in. This group is open to clients who have completed either an 8-week bereavement support group through Circle of Care, or our 1:1 counselling sessions. We will meet the first Tuesday of each month via ZOOM from 1:30-3:00pm.

Upcoming Groups