Grieving Your Losses Workshop
excerpts from SDBIF May 1 General Meeting

Special thanks to guest speakers Christopher Carter & Kate Vincent
(and information provided by San Diego Hospice).

We grieve not only for someone who has died. We grieve for our brain
injury and the changes it has caused. As caregivers, we grieve for
our loved one's losses and how brain injury has affected our own
lives.

Realistic expectations for yourself in grief:
. Your grief will take longer than you and most people think
. Your grief will show itself in all elements of your life:
psychological, social, and physical
. Your grief will depend on how you perceive the loss
. Your grief will entail mourning not only for the actual person (or
brain injury) but also for all the hopes, dreams, and unfulfilled
expectations you held for and with that person, and for the needs
that will go unmet because of the loss

Excerpted from "Grieving: How to Go On Living When Someone You Loves
Dies" Therese A. Rando, Ph.D.

Strategies and rituals to deal with grief:
. Light a candle
. Keep a journal
. Buy myself flowers
. Set a goal each day
. Acknowledge losses with another person
. Create a loss/old identity scrapbook
. Make a plan for the anniversary of the brain injury
. Rest, relax and recharge with friends
. Cry or express anger safely to process the grief
. Use sensory tools to help grieving
. Call San Diego Hospice 619/688-1600

Suggested books:
"On Death and Dying" Elisabeth Kubler-Ross; "On Children & Death"
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross; "Men & Grief" Staudacher. (Pub: Harper San
Francisco ISBN:934986-72-x); "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying"
Rinpoche, Sogyal (Pub: Harper San Francisco); "Letting Go--
Reflections" by Morrie Schwartz, 1996; "The Courage to Grieve" by
Judy Tatlebaum, 1984; "The Grief Recovery Handbook" John W. James &
Frank Cherry; "Journal for Joy" Joyce Chapman