Bereavement/Grief Support Group to Meet Dec. 20
A bereavement/grief support group will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 20, in Room 303 of the Education Building on the shared main campus of Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College.
The group regularly meets on the last Tuesday of each month, but December’s meeting was changed due to holiday closings later in the month.
Bereavement and grief support groups provide support to people who have experienced a loss. The goal of this monthly meeting is to assist 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.
The healing power of groups is well documented, and support groups offer many of the same therapeutic characteristics as more structured groups. These factors include: altruism (chance to help others), belongingness, universality (learning there are others who struggle with similar challenges), interpersonal learning, guidance, catharsis, identification, self-understanding, instillation of hope and existential factors (such as the search for larger meaning in life). Each of these factors is directly related to the mutual support that members provide one another.
This group is led by James Keresztury, LCSW, ACSW, MBA. Keresztury 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 West Virginia University Division of Social Work where he teaches health-related undergraduate and graduate courses.
For more information, contact Andrea Pammer, Director of Disability Services for FSU and Pierpont, at (304) 367-4686.
Andrea PammerOffice of Disability ServicesBereavement/Grief Support GroupJames Keresztury
