The Winona State University health, counseling, and wellness services center will be hosting a peer centered grief counseling group from Oct. 14 to Nov. 18th. Grief is always hard and scary to navigate, but it can be even more difficult for college students who may feel isolated and have more to balance. This group is an opportunity for students experiencing grief to feel more connected and supported.
Eunie Alsaker is a counselor at Winona State and is facilitating the group—she has been running this group every year for the past fifteen years. She says that the content and form of the group “varies slightly from group to group, kind of depending on the needs and size of the group. But some of the things that I think probably every group talks about is, ‘Where are you struggling?’ and ‘What’s been helpful?’ Grief is hard anytime, but I think there are unique challenges for college students.” Her groups also focus on sharing tips for self-care and coping strategies.
Oftentimes, when college students experience the loss of a loved one, their grief can feel very isolating because everyone who experienced the same loss most likely doesn’t live nearby. In addition, college students must figure out how to simultaneously grieve their loss and somehow keep up with schoolwork. Alsaker points out that one of the hardest things about grief for college students is the isolation they feel from their peers in terms of social activity
“College is supposed to be really social and have this real fun component, and if you’ve lost someone that’s really important to you, it can be hard to be social… it’s hard to feel like having fun is the thing that you want to focus on right now,” Alsaker said.
In addition, the unexpected nature of grief can be especially hard for college students. According to an article from Eastern Washington University, “College students in the process of grieving may feel as though their plan for the future has now been altered in some way.” This can lead to students feeling overwhelmed and alone.
This peer counseling group seeks to combat these issues. It also seeks to combat some of the misinformation associated with grief. “I think there’s a lot of cultural myths about what grief is supposed to look like, and so we talk about that. Sometimes people have feelings about, like, ‘I should do this’ or ‘I shouldn’t do that’—we try to help people understand that what they’re going through makes sense,” Alsaker says.
While grief will never be easy, this group at least attempts to provide students with additional support and help during a hard time. Students who are interested in this group can contact Eunie Alsaker at [email protected].
