Posts by Jo Christner, Psy.D. (Page 6)

FAQs About HOPE Groups

Q: What makes the HOPE spousal loss groups different than other grief groups?

A: There are several things that make our spousal loss groups different and effective in helping individuals through their grief.

1. All of our groups are facilitated by licensed therapists who are trained and skilled in grief and group process.

2. The HOPE Connection groups are the oldest bereavement groups in Los Angeles. The main spousal loss groups are arranged by months of grieving. We can have as many as six groups being run on the same evening. Group 1 will include people who are only at one-four months since their loss. At five months, that individual will move to Group 2 and be with people who are at five-eight months since their loss. As you go through our groups, you also walk through two years of your grief. These are open groups — individuals are welcome to join at any time.

HOPE Group Members Speak: Judy

Grief Support Group Los Angeles The mission of HOPE Connection is to help people whose lives have been touched by the death of a loved one – by providing individual and group support, educational programs and information that helps  alleviate the pain of grief and promote healing. In this series of videos, Group Members share what HOPE Connection has meant to them.

How Do You Know If You’re Healing?

When you’re grieving, it may feel like you’re in a long gray tunnel that you’ll never get through. It’s depressing, lonely, exhausting and feels endless.

It’s difficult to see the light. It can be frightening to think that you’ll never get through… that your life will remain in the gray.

If you allow yourself to grieve, you will heal. Life, as you knew it, will be changed forever but you will get through. You will have a newly defined life, one that you never asked for, one that you never imagined. This new life can again bring happiness, joy and peace.

How do you know if you’re healing?

HOPE Group Members Speak – Jean

The mission of HOPE Connection is to help people whose lives have been touched by the death of a loved one – by providing individual and group support, educational programs and information that helps  alleviate the pain of grief and promote healing. In this series of videos, Group Members share what HOPE Connection has meant to them.

HOPE Group Members Speak: Sandra

HOPE Group Members Speak: Jess

New Beginnings Group Forming

The HOPE Connection Group, New Beginnings, is an ongoing personal growth support group for people who have attended the two-year bereavement program and are now two years or more past the date of their loss. This group meets the 2nd and 4th Thursdays at Valley Beth Shalom and the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays at Wilshire Temple. In order to have a healthy group, we…

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all our friends from HOPE Connection! The words from this blessing read:A New Year’s BlessingMay God make your year a happy one!Not by shielding you from all sorrows and pain, But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;Not by making your path easy,But by making you sturdy to travel any path;Not by taking hardships from you,But by…

There’s A Flame

December 30, 2015
Jo Christner, Psy.D.
The Arts

Music has the power to heal and help you find peace. Steve McPeters, a friend of HOPE Connection and a member of the band, Cadoan, composed a beautiful song called “There’s A Flame,” which is both healing and peaceful. It was featured in the award-winning documentary “Inside Peace,” which documented a workshop that began in a Texas prison and helped prisoners transform their lives.To listen…

Answers To Questions About Grief

October 15, 2015
Jo Christner, Psy.D.
Grief

I am alone and lonely with no one to turn to. Often I am afraid when thinking of my uncertain future… getting old and sick in a hospital or nursing home with no one to hold my hand and comfort me. Could you give me some feedback on this concern. When you get stuck in your fears about the future, you probably…