Here’s a glimpse into the content of each session:

Session 1 – Getting to Know You

The program’s inaugural session lays the groundwork for how each session will flow. We will take time to get to know one another. You’ll learn how to use the book, the journal, and other materials you’ll receive in the program. And you’ll discover how to avoid fitting your experience into the touchstones… instead, you’ll practice fitting the touchstones to your experience. You will also learn how to set your intention to heal. 

In Session 1 you’ll learn:

• Tools for surviving the early days of acute grief

• Background for reframing understanding as surrendering

• What it means to heal our hearts and find hope

• The differences between faith and spirituality

• Companioning vs treating

• How to own and honor your personal journey through grief

• How to set your intention to heal

Session 2 - Open to The Presence of Your Loss

The second session focuses on setting an intention to heal. The notion of healing is rooted firmly in the understanding that grief is not a disease to be treated.

In Session 2 you’ll learn:

• How to dose your pain so it doesn’t overwhelm you

• The importance of reconciling your grief

• There is no reward for speed

• How to own your grief

• What “doing well” with your grief actually means

Session 3 – Dispel A Dozen Misconceptions About Grief

Session 3 reveals 12 misconceptions about grief and helps dispel them. Importantly, this deep dive into the realities of grief and mourning helps us set realistic expectations. This session introduces the Grief Rule Book. Time is devoted to working with fellow participants in breakout sessions to master these concepts.

In session 3, you’ll explore in depth:

• The differences between grief and mourning

• Your new self-identity

• Why “getting over” your grief is not the goal

• How grief is forever, and why that’s not a bad thing

Session 4 - Embrace the Uniqueness of Your Grief

There are at least 12 reasons why your grief is yours and yours alone; each of us who is grieving is having a completely unique and individual experience. By exploring each of these reasons in detail, you can begin shifting the focus of your thoughts from “why” to “what” to “what now.”

In Session 4, you’ll explore how certain factors make your experience unique:

• Relationships

• Personalities

• Cultural background

• Religious/spiritual background

• Circumstances surrounding the death

• Your own life circumstances

• Concurrent stresses

• Ritual

Session 5 - Explore the Feelings of Your Loss

This session is especially helpful in identifying your feelings and framing them as normal consequences of your experience. Whether you’re feeling in shock, disbelief, denial, regret, guilt, or something else entirely, you’ll gain a clearer understanding of your feelings and what to do about them. Best of all, you’ll get to practice acknowledging and witnessing your fellow participants’ feelings.

In session 5 you’ll learn:

• How to identify the boundaries of normal grief and clinical depression

• The difference between relief and release

• How your experience of any given feeling in grief follows a cycle

• Thoughts on the popular term “resilience”

• What it means to experience a dark night of the soul

Session 6 - Understand the Six Needs of Mourning

In this session, you’ll learn what the Six needs of Mourning are, and how to journey with them. You’ll explore which of the needs feels most prominent in your grief right now, and whether you are struggling with one of the needs more than others. 

It’s worth mentioning again Wolfelt’s belief that you can love well and live well when you can mourn well. Mourning well begins with being able to identify your needs. When you can articulate your needs, you can ensure your needs are met.

In Session 6 you will learn the Six Needs of Mourning: 

1. Acknowledge the reality of the death

2. Embrace the pain of the loss

3. Remember the person who died

4. Developing a new self-identity

5. Search for meaning

6. Let others help you – now and always

Session 7 - Recognize You Are Not Crazy

This valuable session identifies the experiences in grief that may make you think you’re losing your mind—from time distortion to feelings of powerlessness, to experiences of grief bursts, mystical encounters, and vivid dreams, to suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, mood changes, and more. 

You’ll emerge from Session 7 with the confidence to release all doubt and conclude that you’re not crazy; you’re grieving.

Session 8 – Nurture Yourself

Good self-care is a necessary and important gift you learn to give yourself on your journey through grief.

In Session 8, you’ll learn how to: 

• Administer first aid to a broken heart

• Nurture yourself holistically – physically, cognitively, emotionally, spiritually, and socially

• Know that you are worthy of the gift of self-care

Session 9 - Reaching Out for Help

Finding others who are able to support you along your grief journey can be a challenge. In this session you’ll learn how to find support that’s right for you.

In Session 9 you’ll learn how to:

• Find a grief support group and determine if it’s helpful

• Find a good grief counselor and feel confident about how long you should stay with them

• Identify and get help for complicated grief

Session 10 – Seek Reconciliation, Not Resolution

This session explores a topic that may sound trivial at first, but actually shines a light on a profound distinction that shapes your perception of healing. In this session we’ll talk in detail about the very big difference between reconciliation and resolution. 

As a result, you’ll learn how to manage your expectations and not be attached to outcomes. 

You’ll leave the session with a Signs of Reconciliation Checklist to help you stay on track.

Session 11 – Appreciate Your Transformation

This session brings all the touchstones full circle in a way that helps you recognize and appreciate how much you’ve changed and grown on your grief journey. 

In Session 11, you’ll explore:

• Six ways to define and identify growth

• Your responsibility to live

• How to nourish your transformed soul

• How to do the work… today and tomorrow

Session 12 - Checking In

The twelfth and final session will give you sufficient time to anchor in and further integrate your transformation. 

This session is built around sharing your thoughts and experiences about what it’s like to nourish your transformed soul day to day on the other side of grief. 

Each session in the Finding Your Way program represents a step along your journey to healing in grief. The core content in each session builds upon and interconnects with the content of the other sessions.

And of course, this is just a brief overview of the abundance of rich content shared in this program. Additionally, new topics emerge from the dynamics within our groups. We’re looking forward to exploring them with you.

The best part—the tools and techniques are tried and true, and the experiential format of the program makes them practical and hands-on. 

How do we know our heart-centered approach works?

We know from personal experience how effective this type of holistic, heart-centered approach can be. We also know that without the wisdom and insights from those who have tried it, we may never have discovered these heart-centered principles.

In our collective 60+ years of leading grief support groups and walking our own talk as we continue integrating our own grief, we’ve seen nothing but positive results from this type of heart-centered approach. 

We’re honored and thrilled to share what we’ve learned—as grievers and facilitators. And we don’t want you to simply take our word for it… 

Take a look at what others are saying about the approach we use in the Finding Your Way program:

This observation came from a fellow griever who attended a different type of weekly grief support. She says,

“When I show up to this [other] group, I feel like… people kind of react to each other's emotional pain, so there's a strong component of validation. Like, ‘I'm here to validate you for how painful your loss is.’ That needs to happen, and that's the value of groups like this. But for me it closes the door to healing and reintegrating your loss into your life. It blocks growth.” 

She went on to say how even though she felt this other support group blocked growth in some ways, her participation in the Finding Your Way approach allowed her to talk about her growth. She goes on to say... 

“You listen. I understand that you’re doing your best to understand my process. And at the same time, there is space for us to talk about growth.”

Another person who is benefitting from our heart-centered approach had a practical observation about his experience with traditional grief counseling:

“I’ve tried counseling and I felt like I was being pushed when I wasn’t ready. It didn’t feel right.”

While we certainly don’t advocate for Finding Your Way to take the place of counseling or be a substitute in any way for mental health treatment, we do acknowledge that our approach offers a balance between authentically mourning the pain of loss and talking about how grief and loss transform our lives. Our approach offers hope, healing and a clear path to growth using a host of realistic and constructive tools to help you navigate your life after loss.

Another client had this to say about how counseling missed the mark in helping her cope with her grief:

“My mental health counselor tried to make me go back to my childhood. And I was like, ‘wait—I’m here to grieve my husband of 50 years. I don’t want to talk about my childhood, nor do I find it relevant.’ ”

The cornerstone of the Finding Your Way program is Dr. Alan Wolfelt’s book, Understanding Your Grief: Ten Essential Touchstones for Finding Hope and Healing Your Heart. And as a program participant, you’ll receive a free copy of the book and its companion journal. Here’s what people have said about this valuable book-journal combo:  

“I cannot begin to tell you how this book helped me as I walked through the pain, confusion, and ‘insanity’ back to stability. Thank you for helping give words to what I could not, as well as hope for what I could not yet see.”

“After almost four years on the grief path, this is by far the best book I’ve read to date. I wish I had it at the start of my journey. I recommend Understanding Your Grief to everyone I know.”

“Of all the books I’ve read since my son was killed (and there have been plenty), this one would be at the top of the list. It validates and fortifies the bereaved and it shows the way to integrate grief toward a new life of hope as our loved ones would want us to live.”

“I’ve been feeling lost, and people are unable to see what I’m going through or try to tell me what I should be doing. And then there is this book, which is like a person reaching out and saying, ‘I understand.’ ”