Bereavement/ Grief Support Group Meets Monthly

A Bereavement/Grief Support Group is being formed to provide support to those who have experienced the loss of a spouse or partner, parent, child or friend.

The group will meet from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on the last Tuesday of every month beginning Tuesday, Feb. 24, in Colebank Hall Suite 300 on the Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College main campus. To get to the meeting rooms in Colebank, enter the Falcon Center and follow the signs that will be posted. (Colebank Hall and the Falcon Center are connected buildings.) The group is open to the community.

The goal of the monthly meeting is to assist group members in adjusting to the death, learning how to accept the loss, honoring the memory of a loved one and adjusting to life after the loss. Support groups offer many of the same therapeutic characteristics as more structured groups. These factors include having a chance to help others, developing a feeling of belonging, realizing there are others who struggle with similar challenges, interpersonal learning, guidance, catharsis, identification, self-understanding, instillation of hope and existential factors such as finding larger meaning in life. Each of these factors is directly related to the mutual support that members provide one another.

The group is led by James Keresztury, LCSW, ACSW, MBA. Keresztury is currently serving as an Associate Director within the Cancer Prevention and Control Department at the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center of West Virginia University. In that capacity, he is directing the Mountains of Hope Cancer Coalition as well as the WV Pain and Prostate Cancer Initiatives. Keresztury also serves as a consultant to the West Virginia Center for End-of-Life Care regarding psychosocial issues in pain and palliative care. In addition, he serves as a grief and family therapist for the Transitions Program of Hospice Care Corporation where he provides individual, couple and group counseling related to grief and loss as well as issues of cancer survivorship. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the WVU Division of Social Work where he teaches health-related undergraduate and graduate courses.

For more information, contact Andrea Pammer at (304) 367-4686 or Andrea.Pammer@fairmontstate.edu.