Our mission is to provide bereavement support and education that is sensitive, compassionate and responsive to the needs of our community. We offer information and resource to anyone experiencing loss, grief and loss. All services are provided by trained individuals or counselors. Our network of facilitators also includes licensed healthcare professionals and peer volunteers. We recognize that everyone copes with these transitions differently. We provide the following suppport options:
Support group
Referrals for individual counseling
Educational presentations
Grief Counseling & Support Groups
Are you grieving the death of someone you cherished? Overwhelmed by everything? Dreading the future? Our Wilson Support Groups will walk the grief journey with you. Whatever your loss, please know that you are not alone. The following support groups are facilitated by credentialed professionals. Please click to view the monthly calendar (upper right) for upcoming dates and times.
After a Parent Dies
How do you move forward after you lose a parent — when your foundation is gone? You may find yourself focusing so much on your remaining parent, that you do not validate your own grief. If you are experiencing the loss of your second parent, you may also face the challenges of decision making and finalizing. You may experience difficulty with siblings or other family members during the finalization process. If you lived with your parent, you may feel lonely without them in your home. Your routines and holidays will be noticeably different. Overall, you may find you are feeling scattered, vulnerable and lost in a society that often does not understand your challenges or pain. This 8-week support group is tailored for adults who have lost a parent within the last 3 years.
Please see our monthly calendar for active sessions. Registration and payment are required prior to start of session.
Community Bereavement Group
Support for anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one. Fee: FREE Wednesday, February 6 & 20, 6 – 8 p.m. Tuesday, February 26, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Camp Blue Skies
Campers will engage in therapeutic arts activities to support expression, identification of supports and coping mechanisms, as well as opportunities for interpersonal connections, meaning-making and legacy. Feelings and responses related to grief and strategies to assist with the lifelong impact of grief will be explored within a shared experience.
Camp Blue Skies welcomes children and teens, ages 7 through 17 in Western New York, who have experienced the death of a loved one, at least three months prior to the beginning of camp.
Highlights of the weekend include: team-building and adventure activities, art and music experiences, bonfires, and much more. Campers will leave with new supports, treasured resources, and most importantly, cherished memories of friendship and tribute to their loved one.
Fee: $50 When: September 13 – 15, 2019 Where: Cradle Beach Camp 8038 Old Lake Shore Road, Angola, NY 14006 Call 716-901-0289 for more information.
Storm Clouds and Rainbows
This 8-week support group offers children and teens ages 7–17 the opportunity to connect with their respective peer groups in a safe and supportive environment as they learn how to identify their emotions, communicate with key supports, cope with loss, and memorialize loved ones. Parents/caregivers connect separately to focus on the developmental needs of their children and to work through their own grief process within a supportive group dynamic. Together, families will explore their feelings related to grief and loss through the expressive arts as well as collaborative therapeutic activity.
Thursdays for 8 weeks 6 – 7:30 p.m. April 4 – May 23 FEE: FREE Please see our monthly calendar for details. Registration is required prior to start of session.
Suicide Bereavement Groups
For those who have experienced the death of a loved one by suicide.
Gather in a safe, compassionate, non-judgemental setting to explore the many thoughts, feelings and fears often experienced following death by suicide. Grief and loss education will be provided, coping skills offered, and healing and comfort promoted through shared experience, insight and remembrance.
Group support for those who have experienced the death of a spouse or significant other. 8 Week Sessions. Fee: $80 Thursdays, April 4 – May 23, 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. Mondays, April 1 – May 20, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Grief and The Holidays
The holidays are traditionally a time of family, laughter and joy. But for people who are grieving, or for those with a seriously ill loved one, the holidays can be a time of mixed emotions. As the holiday season approaches, this group program offers methods to help you cope with the extra demands of the season.
When: November and December 2019
Peer-led Support Groups
For more information, please contact the people listed below each group. Unless otherwise specified, programs are FREE and held at the Mary & Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Support Center.
The Footprints on the Heart program is held at M. Steven Piver M.D. Center for Women’s Health & Wellness and helps families cope with the loss of a baby caused by miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth and newborn death. Click here for more information: http://www.chsbuffalo.org/Services/OBGYN/Obstetrics/PregnancyLoss
Tiniest Angels
A peer-to-peer monthly support group for families who have experienced the loss of a child through miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, still–birth and early infant death. Held the 3rd Tuesday of each month, 6 - 8 p.m. Contact Christine at 716-626-6363 or christine@wnypbn.org
Healing Touch
Healing Touch is an energy therapy in which practitioners consciously use their hands in a heart-centered and intentional way to support and facilitate physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. Healing Touch is a bio-field (magnetic field around the body) therapy that is an energy-based approach to health and healing. Healing Touch uses the gift of touch to influence the human energy system, specifically the energy field that surrounds the body, and the energy centers that control the flow from the energy field to the physical body. It is a safe and non-invasive therapy that complements traditional, standard care.
These non-invasive techniques employ the hands to clear, energize, and balance the human and environmental energy fields, thus affecting physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. It is based on a heart-centered, caring relationship in which the practitioner and client come together energetically to facilitate the client's health and healing.
The goal of Healing Touch is to restore balance and harmonies in the energy system, placing the client in a position to self-heal.
Healing Touch is available for patients, survivors, and their caregivers. A certified Healing Touch volunteer uses a compassionate, heart-centered approach and gently works on, or slightly above, the recipient’s body to restore balance on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level. Several benefits have been reported including decreased anxiety, pain, and depression, and increased relaxation and a sense of well-being. Healing Touch is recognized by National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).
Healing Touch takes place twice per month. Please call 716-901-0289 to register for one of three 30-minute sessions below. (We request that you check in 15 minutes before your scheduled time.)
Healing Touch session times:
First Tuesday and third Thursday of each month Session 1: 6 – 6:30 p.m. Session 2: 6:45 – 7:15 p.m. Session 3: 7:30 – 8 p.m.
Location for Healing Touch
Hospice Buffalo, Administrative Building - Education Center 225 Como Park Blvd., Cheektowaga, NY 14227
The Wilson Support Center (formerly known as Life Transitions Center since 1977) is an affiliate of The Center for Hospice & Palliative Care, a non-profit organization.
Resources
Grief and the Holidays Coping through the Season with Help from the Wilson Support Center ~by Abigail Unger
”The care provided to my father was helpful in easing my father’s transition from this world, and proved a true blessing in easing my mother’s burdens during that time.”
716-901-0289
GriefSupport@palliativecare.org
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