The Facilitators Guide is a guidebook to help interested bereaved spouses and partners to facilitate support and discussion group meetings.
The Facilitators Guide has been written and compiled from almost four years of Adaire House support group meetings to provide a set of notes that can be used by any individual or small group of bereaved spouses and/or partners to facilitate support and discussion group meetings.
The Facilitators Guide is not meant to be a guide to grief. It is meant to be a guide that can be used by those wanting to facilitate discussions about grief and grieving and to encourage sharing in an informal, peer-led environment. It has no expectations of counseling expertise or solutions involved. It holds no responsibility for actions or outcomes in any group where it is used. These guidelines are just suggestions of things to talk about for those who use them.
I believe that any of what has been done in the Adaire House support groups and any of what is in this guide can happen anywhere people can come together to meet and talk about their grief in a quiet, safe place, including in peoples homes. It really only takes a group of people willing to come together and talk about their grief for it to become a support group!
It is my hope that these guides will be a platform on which bereaved spouses and partners can build support for themselves and others in their communities. Something as simple as a once-a-month potluck or a support meeting at someone’s home or coffee at a local venue that is quiet enough for conversation can be enough to encourage the healing process.
The materials in the Adaire House Facilitators Guide are meant to be used by anyone who wishes to facilitate any formal or informal, not-for-profit support program with no cost to those who attend. In those circumstances, they may be reproduced and/or modified from the Guide and distributed for use in that specific context and may be used therein only as handouts and facilitator notes for support and/or discussion group meetings.
We have decided to make the Guide available as a digital download to encourage those who would like to help to have an easy way to get started in bringing people together for bereavement support in their communities. New topic notes will posted on this website as they are developed.
Please click the button below to obtain a copy of the guidebook.