- The different ways people experience and process grief
- Finding understanding, support and community at Carilion's Center for Grief and Healing
If you have experienced any of the following, you have experienced grief:
- A sense of shock, feeling numb, disbelief, or a sense of surrealness
- Feeling lost and out of place
- A range of emotions that may include sadness, guilt, shame, regret and anger
- Recurring worry, troubling dreams and difficulty escaping negative thoughts such as "why?" or "how did this happen?"
- Physical effects, such as difficulty sleeping, feeling unsettled, having difficulty getting started
- Feeling overwhelmed by day-to-day demands
How long and how intensely these different reactions will last for each individual person tends to vary. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to experience grief, and our individual experiences can be affected by many factors.
Carilion Clinic's Center for Grief and Healing is dedicated to supporting those who are experiencing grief in a way that promotes healing and resilience.
What Causes Grief?
Grief can be caused by many things. Death of a loved one is what we tend to imagine when thinking about grief, but grief is a normal response to many things, including:
- Chronic illness or a newly diagnosed disease
- Caregiver concerns
- Pediatric and teen grief
- Sudden changes in life circumstance
- COVID-19-related grief
And when the death of a loved one is complicated, such as the death of a child or a death from suicide, the healing process can look very different than that following the death of a friend after a long illness.
Perinatal Loss: A Uniquely Complex Grief
Carilion Clinic’s Forget-Me-Not program is designed to support individuals and families experiencing perinatal loss, which includes:
- Miscarriage
- Ectopic pregnancy
- Stillbirth
- Death of a newborn
- Death of a child up to one year
The program offers both practical and spiritual support in the hospital and continues with support groups and events that help families—including siblings—feel less alone.
Healing Is a Journey
After a loss, it is impossible to return to life as we knew it or ignore completely the natural symptoms and reactions to grief. The mission of the Center for Grief and Healing is to help people connect deeply with themselves, their personal values and others, and to achieve a broader sense of meaning.
This journey is the process and nature of that healing.
At times the journey can be painful, it can make us ask questions about meaning and purpose, and it can make us wonder how we might ever recover. The work of healing answers those questions, benefiting us and everyone we interact with.
In addition to the video above, the Center for Grief and Healing offers a series of videos from people who have experienced different kinds of grief. Visit Carilion Clinic's YouTube channel to watch them.
Supporting Each Other
The Center for Grief and Healing, part of Carilion Mental Health, offers a variety of support groups to address grief and loss.
“The goal of the Center is to provide holistic supportive resources for children and adults,” said Joe Gieck, Ph.D., director of Psychology Services. “We want to help those experiencing grief to deeply connect with themselves and others experiencing similar losses. They are not alone on this journey.”
Group discussions offer a safe space to talk about issues among people that have experienced similar pain. One-on-one scheduled appointments with a therapist are also an option if you need additional support.
Support groups are led by a team of licensed clinical social workers, psychologists and volunteers. They focus on all types of loss and may be designed with children, teens, young people or other groups in mind.
The Center is supported by Carilion's Dr. Robert A. Keeley Healing Arts Program and receives guidance from multiple Carilion departments, including:
- Chaplaincy Services
- Community Health and Outreach
- Employee Assistance Program
- Home Care and Hospice
- Palliative Medicine
- Pediatrics
If you believe the Center for Grief and Healing might be able to help you or a loved one, visit CarilionClinic.org/grief to learn more and ask your primary care physician for a referral.
