You know, I think of us as being in an emotional jail sometimes. Forgive the dramatic metaphor, but it works in a number of ways. Child estrangement feels like a punishment, and we remain confined with no known release date.
What we fail to realize is that the door is open. If your emotions are confining you, can you summon the courage and do the work to just walk out?
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A note about the PLACE program fundamentals:
Our peer support group meetings and the progress on the workbook have proven to be a great opportunity to clarify what the program is all about– support.
There are resources on strategies for reuniting with your estranged children available. There are grief groups, anger management groups, and any number of resources that help with some aspects of this.
But our focus remains on coping and healing. If we were in a room together, I’d have us “circle up” and start our group meeting. That is, we’d arrange the chairs in a circle so that we face each other.
Picture it. Who is in those other chairs facing each other? There are other parents and grandparents who are going through this. No one understands as they do. No one can empathize like someone who has been through what you’re going through. PLACE is about turning to the other people in our circle, literally and figuratively, to give and receive support.
In PLACE, you are heard and understood, and though the circumstances that bring us together could be called tragic, I’m grateful you’re in my circle.
Thank you so much for your time and attention.
