Young(ish) Grievers: a Support Group for Grievers Under 40 years old

Bereavement is a perfectly normal and completely universal experience. All of us have lost someone and all of us will lose several more loved ones in our lifetime.

However, the older we get, the more normal it becomes to experience a Big Loss such as the death of a parent, a spouse, or a very close friend. Under the age of 40, most people are busy building a career, dating, getting married, having kids… Most people are not grieving a life partner or a parent. And we don’t really make room for grief in our lives before we get to retirement age.

So what do you do with your grief when it seems that you’re the only one grieving? When you pick up your kid from nursery and you get overwhelmed suddenly by the thought that she’ll never meet your dad, can you open up to any other parent there? When you finally get that job you’ve been dreaming of for years and the first thing you’d like to do is call your mum, can you tell a colleague why you’re tearing up out of the blue? At your 30th birthday party, do you have space to grieve for your childhood best friend who will never turn 30? Or when you meet someone and you wonder whether telling them you’re a widow is first or third date material, who can you discuss that with?

I’ve created this group so you can find other people at a similar stage of life as you, to share your experience of a Big Loss and find yourself reflected in their own experience. This group is aimed at adults 20 to 40 years old, and it doesn’t matter when the loss happened within these years, you’re welcome to come talk about how it affects you whenever you need to.