Community Grief & Counseling Center

Supporting You on Your Grief Journey
We understand that the early months of grieving are difficult. We hope that through the services of our Community Grief & Counseling Center, individuals will find a hand of friendship to help you rediscover your life and give you practical advice and support that will carry you through the grief process – one that will ebb and flow and weave itself in and out of your life. At the Center, we facilitate individual and group support, as well as events to help you find a way forward and rediscover the importance of living every moment.

The Community Grief & Counseling Center
Although it may feel like no one understands how you’re feeling, turn to the Community Grief & Counseling Center. The Center offers support to anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one, whether or not your loved one received care through Hospice of the Valley. All services are available to the community on a sliding scale fee basis. Grief support is included as a part of the hospice benefit for families of Hospice of the Valley patients for 13 months following the death of your loved one.

Known as one of the most comprehensive grief counseling programs in Northern California, the Center also offers a wide range of community educational programs and workshops.

We know that no one grieves in the same way. Whether you prefer the help of a trained professional in individual sessions or you want to lean on and draw strength from other people who are grieving, the Center offers support to best meet your needs. The Center offers services to help you manage your grief process in a healthy way through:

• Individual grief support sessions with professionally trained therapists or supervised Marriage and Family Therapist Trainees/Interns
• Grief support groups
• Educational sessions on grief
• Annual memorial service events
• Getting through the holidays workshop
• Biannual Children’s Night Out Program

Services for children and adolescents
Young people have special needs to overcome their grief. Our services for children and adolescents include specialists in grief and trauma counseling, and an expressive arts program that provides children and teens the opportunity to creatively explore feelings and emotions in a safe and comfortable space. A partner with community schools, the Center also helps faculty and staff understand how the aspects of grief and loss manifest in the behavior and emotions of children.

Loss-specific support groups
Our trained professionals lead support groups specializing in grief and loss. Support groups allow participants to talk about your loss or simply listen as others share their experiences through their grief journey. Groups are offered regularly for spousal or partner loss (age specific), child loss, adult/parent loss, suicide loss and grieving children. Additional groups are offered as necessary and individual assessments are required.

Grief is My Shadow
In Grief is My Shadow, Hospice of the Valley follows the transformative process of nine-year-old Jeff as he and his family deal with the physical, psychological and emotional ramifications of his brother’s death. Follow his grief journey as he uses creative and expressive arts and shares what he has learned during the past three years. Jeff so openly shares, “Grief is like my shadow, sometimes it’s big, sometimes it’s small, but it is always with you.”

(Hospice of the Valley’s Children’s Grief Support Program video, Grief is My Shadow, was produced by Frieda C. Fox Foundation.)