Events
Strategies for Coping:
Coping with Grief Over the Holidays
Mark Your Calendar
Check back for dates and times for the next series of holiday grief seminars, to be held in 2010.
Every year, Hospice of The Gorge offers public seminars in various Columbia River Gorge locations, aimed at helping people cope with grief during the holiday season.
Usually held just before Thanksgiving, these Coping with Grief Over the Holidays seminars offer a range of strategies and tools people can use to help them get through the holiday season.
They're FREE. The seminars are offered free of charge as a public service. All are welcome.
People Often Feel More Grief During the Holidays
Steven Lusk, a Hospice of The Gorge chaplain and seminar leaders says: “Many people think it’s odd that a person could feel more grief during the holidays than during other times of year. They think somehow that because it’s a joyous season, it should cheer people up. But that’s just not so.
”Lusk says that people often tend to grieve more during the holidays because these were the times in the past that meant so much to them when their loved ones were alive. “Complicating things,” he says, “They see music, lights and decorations all around them, reminding them even more of how much they miss the person they love.”
A Variety of Coping Strategies 
Learning how to take care of yourself physically, spiritually and emotionally, as well as honoring and remembering loved ones, and building new traditions while remembering old ones, are a few of the strategies people will learn in the seminars.
Lusk adds that even just the process of planning for the holidays can be of tremendous help to people who are grieving. "Most people enter the holiday season pushing their grief away and trying to survive. It's better for a person to be proactive, to anticipate the challenges, and to plan how they want to handle the holidays before they arrive."
What to Expect at the Seminar
In the Coping with Grief Over the Holidays seminar, Lusk typically presents information about holiday-specific coping skills, and uses hand-outs and a video. He also provides participants with the opportunity to discuss their feelings and ideas if they'd like.
Lusk reminds everyone that as a survivor of loss, you are not alone in your grief.
The Caring Arms of Hospice
Hospice of The Gorge executive director Gretchen Hagen adds: "Hospice is not just about our patients. It's also about a patient's family and friends. The arms of hospice care surround them after a patient has died, to help them in their own journey through grief.
For Help Throughout the Year
For help at other times of the year, we also offer weekly coping with grief support groups in two Gorge locations.
