1. Guide to Support Groups for
Parents/Caregivers
Presenters:
Patti Cox, CZC Employee
Jill FitzGerald, LCSW

2. About Us
Our Mission
Comfort Zone provides grieving children with a voice, a place and a
community in which to heal, grow and lead more fulfilling lives.
Our Vision
Comfort Zone envisions a world where grieving children are not
forgotten or left to grieve alone, and are supported by a wide
community that understands and appreciates them.
Comfort Zone Camp is the nation’s largest bereavement camp. Comfort
Zone Camps are offered free of charge to children ages 7-17 who have
experienced the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver. The
camps are held year-round in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey,
Texas, and Virginia.
Comfort Zone Camps create an environment where grieving children
can have fun and break the isolation death often brings, while learning
valuable coping skills for their daily lives.

3. Check out Comfort Zone Camp
CZC Video Clip will be embedded here on final version

4. Support Groups
We offer free grief support groups for adults and children ages 5 and
up. The groups contain 8-10 members, with children gathered by age.
The groups meet one hour and 15 minutes a week for six weeks.
Comfort Zone Support Groups are facilitated by trained grief
counselors, and are designed to:
• provide a safe and separate place for children and adults to express
their grief, emotions, fears, and concerns, foster an age-appropriate
understanding of the reality and circumstances of death
• strengthen coping skills
• boost self-esteem
• reduce the feelings of isolation common in the grieving process.
The child and adult support groups are held at the same time, so that
the family can focus on their individual grief simultaneously.

5. Group Formation
 Breakdown of 6 week interval
 Groups designed based on type of
loss & length of time since the loss
 Size of group: 8-10 members
 Length of session: 1 hr. 15 minutes
to 1 hr. 30 minutes is ideal

6. Group Structure
 Create sense of safety via guidelines
 Discuss differences (loss, timing, type of
death, personal beliefs, etc)
 Sharing personal stories
 Discuss feelings and emotions, develop
coping strategies
 Wrap up is crucial! Use of rituals; allow
parents to own the group by bringing in
materials-books, articles, poems, etc.

7. Getting Started
 Begin & end the group with activity
to help release endorphins…
Video Clip of Ice Breaker games will be embedded
here on final version

8. Activities/Interventions
 Showing pictures  Weekly Challenge
 Ice breaker games  Self Care Quiz
 “Have you Ever?”  Guided
 Choice Game Imagery/Affirmations-
 Veteran Parent Panel Belleruth Naparstek
 Coping Strategies  Random Acts of Kindness
Competition  Affirmation Activity with
 “The Things They Carried” Yarn – “Spider web”
Exercise  Music & Journaling
 Closing “pulse check”
 How to Know When You
Are Getting Better….

9. Pyschoeducational Component: “Knowledge
is Power”
The Work of Grief
”No less strenuous a task than digging a ditch”
(Rando, T.)
Discussion of Triggers:
What triggers do to create a resurgence of the grief
response
What Grieving Children Need
Grief vs Trauma:
Difference/similarities of grief & trauma
The Grief Road Map

10. Pitfalls
 Clients coming too early following a loss
 Isolation within the group
 Timing constraints
 Client’s monopolizing group time
 Intensity level-potentially scaring other
group members
 Pacing
 Watch your language!
Give Descript or Example of Each

11. Staying Connected/Follow-Up
 Resources – handouts, websites, other
agencies
 Referrals to individual therapists
 Future Sessions – encouraged to
continue with additional sessions
 Members often keep in touch and
build new support systems
 Bibliography- recommend continued
education about grief via
books/articles

12. Group Structure
 Wrap up is crucial! Use of rituals; allow
parents to own the group by bringing in
materials-books, articles, poems, songs,
etc.
Video Clip of Wrap Up will be embedded here on
final version

13. Resources
HelloGrief.Org

14. Success Stories
Video Clip of interviews with adults who have been
in the program for awhile and have benefited from
it will be embedded here on final version

15. Contact Us
Email
supportgroups@comfortzonecamp.org
Phone
Toll-free: (866) 488-5679
Internet:
http://www.comfortzonecamp.org
Postal:
4906 Cutshaw Avenue - 2nd Floor
Richmond, VA 23230