Who Am I Now: What Grief Does To Our Identity
Details
What now? A seemingly innocuous question we ask ourselves after losing someone we've loved.
When we experience a major loss, we don't just lose someone we love, we often lose our sense of self.
This session explores the profound identity shift that happens after loss, especially when our daily roles, routines, and relationships suddenly change. There is absolutely no one that prepares us for this drastic shift in our lives, we struggle with our place in the world, because it's been uprooted.
Together, we will hold space for the confusion of feeling like a stranger to ourselves, discuss the challenges of redefining who we are, and share gentle ways to navigate the slow process of discovering ourselves again.
This session is: Explorative and intellectual.
Structure:
- Introductions, a brief about the topic, check-in with participants - How are you?
- Individual inputs - where we listen to your thoughts. - How has your identity changed since?
- Then, we move on to personal segments, where there is space for you to share your story and closing with a check-in again. :)
Group guidelines:
- Absolute confidentiality: Whatever is shared in this room, stays here, unless there is a threat to someone or you.
- No advice unless asked for explicitly.
- Sharing is optional. Simply listening is also okay! Simply say, "I would like to pass."
- Respect. No two people will have the same outlook on life, cope with their grief the same way. We want to honour everyone's processes, thoughts and outlook.
- Be mindful. We want to give everyone adequate time to share their experiences, and be timely with our schedules.
- Silence, and tears are natural and okay. This is a space where you don't have to apologise for crying. They are natural, healthy expressions of loss and love.
We will be sharing a small leaflet with a question or an activity at the end of each session, which, if you would would like we can reflect on the next session!
That is all, and we hope to see you all soon. :)