I have always only ever known that I wanted to "help people" from the time I was first asked what I wanted to do when I grew up as a child. I've always had this heart for others who are hurting yet knew I wasn't cut out to be a doctor or nurse, so until I attended a Grief Recovery Method support group, I had no idea how exactly my unique set of skills could actually be used.

I never knew how much I needed to recover from all of the grief I was carrying around (or the fact that it even WAS grief) from every loss I'd had until I felt called to attend a group as an encouragement to others around me who'd experienced recent losses that I wanted to help in some way. I even ended up attending it all alone since those I wanted to help weren't ready in hopes that I could share my experience and encourage them to attend one of the upcoming groups later on and was so surprised just how much I needed it as well.

It had clicked for me that my divorce was my most recent loss even though it had been 10 years I knew there was a lot that had happened with that and my kids had lost their grandmother on their dad's side a few years prior to this group as well in addition to the pain and impact of the divorce on them, so if anything maybe I could help them with tools to better cope with their losses, but truthfully it  hit me just how many losses I'd never really grieved in my life and felt a huge difference after going through the program and working on just one loss that I knew I had to become trained in this method! I felt called throughout to ask about the training mentioned and though it was a big scary step for me, the recovery itself had helped lift the curtains of my long-held grief  just enough to take the leap of faith and do it.

It has helped me to know I have new tools I can use to deal with all the losses I've experienced and will experience as well. I have been helping to co-facilitate a group in my area, Denison, IA at the Methodist church since my training, have worked with a few people one on one and am now aslo able to do so online as well. Though I love the group I attended and have enjoyed getting to know more people in the groups I work with, I also know how hard it was for me to step through the doors to that program in order to help others and most likely wouldn't have done it for myself when I was actively aware that I was grieving, so for me the one on one work is what has drawn me most and to be able to do so online soon has me excited to get to help more people to become complete with their emotions surrounding their losses.