Sharing and Caring
I have been volunteering for 4 years with the Sharing Place( http://www.thesharingplace.org/) and each year I am amazing by the stories I hear. For those who don't know, this is a grief counseling program for kids who have lost one or both their parents. The particular group I work with is a suicide group where kids have lost a family member to suicide.
Today was my first day of my 5th year with the program and it was difficult. On the one hand, a lot of the kids we worked with before have graduated but we now have a lot of incoming new families and each story is tragic in it's own way. We hear stories of fathers that shot themselves, mothers that hung themselves, and good or bad, it often leaves a sour note in the minds of those left behind. For kids, this is especially difficult because they often can't comprehend the reasons behind such senseless death. The kids don't process grief like the adults so we implement a form of play therapy where we provide the space for them to work out their individual issues.
As a volunteer, the challenging part is distancing myself from these stories. I imagine this is akin to what I will have to deal with as a physician someday but it is hard. I can't help but react to abuse and scared faces of children with too much to bear...who grow up too fast...or regress because they can't handle reality. As I lay here tonight, I am affected by the tragedies here at home and the endless tragedies abroad.
Today was my first day of my 5th year with the program and it was difficult. On the one hand, a lot of the kids we worked with before have graduated but we now have a lot of incoming new families and each story is tragic in it's own way. We hear stories of fathers that shot themselves, mothers that hung themselves, and good or bad, it often leaves a sour note in the minds of those left behind. For kids, this is especially difficult because they often can't comprehend the reasons behind such senseless death. The kids don't process grief like the adults so we implement a form of play therapy where we provide the space for them to work out their individual issues.
As a volunteer, the challenging part is distancing myself from these stories. I imagine this is akin to what I will have to deal with as a physician someday but it is hard. I can't help but react to abuse and scared faces of children with too much to bear...who grow up too fast...or regress because they can't handle reality. As I lay here tonight, I am affected by the tragedies here at home and the endless tragedies abroad.
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