My Social Worker Appointment For Grief
[ Monday January 16th 2023 at 2:30 pm ]
I am home now from my social worker appointment. It went really well. I am so glad I have someone to do the grief support group home work with.
This is helping me a lot. It is miserable work. But my aunt is taking up less of my energy now. I know this is working. I am finding it so much easier talking to someone than trying to do the supplemental readings and home work exercises by myself. When my legs are troublesome there are times when I am just looking at a page and not taking in what it is all about.
The social worker really appreciated the effort I put into copying the material for her to go over with me. The yellow highlighter to mark what I need to go over and for grief emotion exercises I highlighted the words that were affecting me in December. It has been really good. We are focused on what I needed. I am adjusting to my aunt dying.
Today I brought 4 items with me to offer the social worker. She accepted all 4.
- During the 7 week grief support group I kept a list of the activities the members talked about doing that helped with the grief. (For example making a Christmas tree decoration if memory of the person who died). I printed off my list so the social worker could give to others when the opportunity arises.
- During the week following Christmas I made an exercise for my website called "Building A Better You". I based this around the journal topics from the group. I wrote out various introspective questions for people to consider. There are groups at the community health center that I thought this might be of help to.
- I also brought the list of Affirmation statements. ("I am ________" statements.) I thought these might help the social worker for clients who would benefit from this. The people on my social media helped me make the list. I am perfectly happy being my own man. I know there are people who need this when feeling vulnerable. She was grateful for the list.
- The other thing I offered the social worker was an LED candle. We had candles on during the grief group. We were encouraged to light it when feeling the loss of the person who died. I decided to offer the LED candle to the social worker so if a client was coming to her she could help the person feel safe and make progress. The social worker responded to me that it was really helpful to her. She said there are exercises that she can do that use a candle as a representation and it will really help her in her work because she can't use a real candle. She was really grateful for the idea.
The social worker was pleasantly surprised when I told her my aunt is taking up less energy now. I knew I needed someone to do the home work part of the 7 week group with me. I didn't realize just how much was needing it. I am really grateful. I learned from when my mom died that I should have asked for help. Eventually a friend I made went out of his way to help me through the grief from my mom dying. I am so glad I asked for help and didn't let my aunt dying plague me for years.