Have you lost a loved one? Our Grief Care Team can help you with your grief and loss. We offer comfort, love, and support. The grieving process can be so painful and slow. The emotions, thoughts and decisions that we must navigate through as we deal with our grief can be excruciating. How do we move forward without our loved one? What is the right thing to do?
Recognizing that grief affects every aspect of our lives…. emotional, mental, physical, social, and spiritual, the healing process is a journey. There’s no manual, no simple guidelines, and no timeline for reconciling the loss. Yet society tells us to buck up, keep a stiff upper chin, don’t cry, move on. After a funeral or memorial service, many people no longer offer supportive words or actions; mourners are expected to get back their usual life. Which is, of course, unrealistic!
The Grief Care Team at Gloria Dei Lutheran is offering a 10-week in-person grief support group on Tuesday afternoons, beginning February 4, 2025. The group will read the book Understanding Your Grief, complete a journal and discuss the reading together. Grief is like a journey through the wilderness – a vast, inhospitable forest. Finding your way out requires learning to follow the sometimes hard-to-find trail that leads to healing. There are ten touchstones, trail markers that are the signs to let you know you are on a helpful path. as we study these together, you will learn to identify and rely on the touchstones. so that you can find your way to hope and healing. There is no charge for the support group or the materials.
If you are coping with a loss or the death of a loved one and would like support, or if you would like to help us provide comfort to who are grieving, please contact our Grief Team at griefteam@gloriadeiolympia.org. All services are provided at no cost.
Our Team
Each of our team members has received training and each has experienced the loss of a close loved one. Grief Support Groups are offered 2 – 3 times each year. Each series is 10 weeks long and uses Understanding Your Grief book and journal by Alan Wolfelt.
Karen Barale, Susan Veis, and Diane Coulter
- Karen Barale is the Team leader. Karen provides training and facilitates grief support groups (online and in-person groups). She completed 150 hours of training and received a Certificate in Grief and Death Studies from the Center for Loss and Life Transition in Fort Collins, Colorado.
- Diane Coulter manages our Card Ministry. She keeps our team in touch with families who have lost loved ones by remembering birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and the first anniversary of a death, offering reminders that the team is always available, regardless of how long it has been since the loss.
- Susan Veis works one-on-one with members who are mourning. She is available to listen and to support you as you cope with the loss of a loved one.