{"id":8309,"date":"2023-05-18T12:45:36","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T12:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=8309"},"modified":"2023-05-18T12:45:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T12:45:36","slug":"healing-for-our-mothers-a-grief-and-loss-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/18\/healing-for-our-mothers-a-grief-and-loss-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Healing for Our Mothers: A Grief and Loss Workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Left to Right): Doris Roberts, Laverne Cook, Idell Watson, Ramel Burns, Bishop James Wilson, Pastor Coretha Williams, Marie Flannery. Rev. Henderson, Phyllis Keith, Bernadette Graham, Robin Copeland, LaShawndra Kinnebrew, Deanna Hayes, Rev. LeRoy Williams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Angie Hayes<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Truth Reporter<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A \u201cGrief and Loss Workshop,\u201d a supportive and information event hosted by L.E.A.D. Community Church and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, was held on Thursday, May 11 at the Mott Branch Library, in order to offer support to mothers impacted by gun violence.<\/p>\n

The event began with a brief introduction and a dinner for all attendees. The beginning was an\u00a0 opportunity to realize the support and concern the Lead Community Church and IMA Civic Team has to address and resolve the experience of grief and loss related to gun violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo support the Mental Health aspect and emotions. That\u2019s why we are here today,\u201d said Reverend Will Henderson.<\/p>\n

Several participants during personal introductions, offered the following details in reference to personal experiences:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to mourn each loss and it\u2019s difficult. Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, all are difficult. Grief and shame take over emotions,\u201d said one attendee.<\/p>\n

\u201cForgiveness is keys for health, spirituality and mental health,\u201d noted another.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost my son to gun violence in 2019,\u201d offered yet another. \u201cAnd have had multiple losses. It has been a lot of grief for me. What has got me through the grief is prayer. I pray a lot.\u00a0 Sitting in the waiting room for two hours after my son was shot, I said \u2018Ok God this is all up to you, I know no doctor nurse or nobody, but YOU can save him. If he doesn\u2019t survive, give me strength God to deal with it.\u2019 My son did not survive. The next morning, I woke up and said my prayer. And I felt the calmness, my prayer (God) made peace and it made me feel good. I chose forgiveness for the situation; it was better for me to forgive instead of holding onto the pain!\u201d<\/p>\n

The recollections and impact on the families\u2019 lives continued:<\/p>\n

\u201cLosing my mother is what caused my pain but also turned into my motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son passed away and I have been dealing with grief ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a trauma and grief specialist and I wear many hats; helping kids 4-14 to deal with grief. I love working in the community and working to help babies. Grief has to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son was murdered in 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reverend Will Henderson and Reverend Le Roy Williams explained the plans for the workshop and provided individual assessment forms to acquire personal knowledge of the presence of spirituality in daily living. Upon the completion of the assessment, the results placed spirituality focus into the following guidelines to offer the knowledge and opportunity for each individual to recognize, grow or establish more spirituality in daily living if needed:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Those who enjoy all the benefits of a spiritual rich life;<\/li>\n
  2. Those who emphasize spiritual values;<\/li>\n
  3. Those whose spiritual concerns are part of their lives;<\/li>\n
  4. Those whose spiritual lives are undeveloped<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The spiritual assessment created significant personal knowledge, for each individual to acknowledge strength, or areas to address to grow in strength and spirituality. Upon completion of the assessment, the leaders moved forward to begin each session scheduled to support healing and growth.<\/p>\n

    Session one\u2019s goal was to define \u201cThe Meaning of Grief.\u201d Grief is one of the most difficult experiences a person can go through. To address grief, seek therapy and also turn to friends and family for support to deal with grief. Resolving grief is an important process and requires an active continual process.<\/p>\n

    There are numerous types of grief, it was explained, such as normal grief, anticipatory grief (anticipating a loss), disenfranchised grief (not believable), chronic grief, abbreviated grief, traumatic grief (such as a loss to gun violence).<\/p>\n

    Session two dealt with grief support; session three with the time and methods of dealing with grief and session three with the ways forward in order to start the process to self-healing.<\/p>\n

    The organizers and attendees noted that mental health is a matter of psychological, emotional and social well-being. Those in need were directed to the services provided by Harbor Behavioral Health, Zepf Center or Unison.<\/p>\n

    \u201cEveryone deserves to get help,\u201d said Bernadette Graham. \u201cYour average person doesn\u2019t know or care about mental health. Without our mental health, we can\u2019t function we can\u2019t think, love or do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The final step of the Grief and Loss Workshop was Reverend Henderson and Reverend Williams summary and review of information and resources available.<\/p>\n

    The wrap up and end of the event was finalized by the Closing Prayer: motivational support given to God and made aware to all attendees.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Angie Hayes The Truth Reporter A \u201cGrief and Loss Workshop,\u201d a supportive and information event hosted by L.E.A.D. Community Church and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, was held on Thursday, May 11 at the Mott Branch Library, in order to offer support to mothers impacted by gun violence. The event began with a brief introduction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[175],"class_list":["post-8309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8312,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8309\/revisions\/8312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8309"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=8309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}