Scratch #1: Starting from "Scratch"
Having initially approached me at a health & well being event at work, Phyl told me her story & I responded by spontaneously bursting into tears as I realised she had touched a raw nerve within me. Sometime afterwards & a few conversations later, I decided to not only go through the Grief Recovery Method, but also to train as a Specialist myself, in spite not having any experience in counselling or therapies, as Phyl believed my "life" experience was something that would carry me through.
She was right, the course was amazing & having qualified along with all the other ladies, I realised that Grief Recovery was something I could do & believed in. Why ? Because after 30 years of searching for something like it & having been through countless counselling, therapy, mindfulness & meditation sessions, the Grief Recovery Method allowed me to finally let go of the grief I had inside; it was something I had only ever dreamt about & almost given up hope of finding, but the impact on me & my family has been profound.
Almost instantly I became more energetic, happier, content & peaceful which my family noticed over the following days. I felt so elated, I wanted to tell everyone I met, how wonderful the Grief Recovery Method is & what it had done for me. However, although I was determined that the training I'd done would not go to waste, especially having rashly bought several books and a large banner, I did wonder how to make Grief Recovery a reality, when I had never done anything like this before ?
Grief Recovery Practice
Fortunately Grief Recovery UK, had alot of the answers, providing session plans, marketing material & good advice on how to get started. Initially Phyl suggested that I should tell everyone I knew or met about Grief Recovery, which I did & although there were a few raised eyebrows when I told people what I was doing, their responses were almost entirely positive. So far so good, but given that word of mouth is not the only method of spreading the word these days, I was advised to get onto social media & set up an account & a Facebook page. The problem was I knew nothing about how it worked, so to begin with I just sat watching what was posted & by whom.
As I didn't know what I was doing, I decided to look for someone to help, which came in the form of "Girl Friday" Debbie Wales₂ a lovely IT lady who came & gave me a crash course in social media. She sat with me & not only told me more about how Facebook worked, but also what tools to use & how to find like minded people. In addition, Phyl continued to help steer me in the right direction in terms of setting up practice sessions to try out how it would feel to deliver a 1 to 1 programme & a friend kindly offered to be my first pilot, so I could feel what it was like to be a specialist first hand.
Spreading the Word
Having made a list of people to see & may be offer talks locally on Grief Recovery, I went to talk to people I knew such as the local vicar, my medical practice & a few others, but pretty quickly I realised that it was a slow process getting round to talk to people. At around that time Phyl had been telling a national Sunday newspaper her story which was subsequently printed & made me decide to ask how she had gone about it. Phyl kindly put me in touch with Carole Henderson at Grief Recovery UK & PR lady Maria, who I later sent my story to.
Having always hidden in the background & not wanted to admit my problems to myself let alone anyone else, at first the attention I received was a bit of a shock, but having let my grief go, I was able to embrace it because it was a good news story people identified with. I had told the truth about how I felt & finally it felt good to just enjoy the ride. Whilst I did contact the local press & radio during this time, nothing came back & so I kept on talking to people & highlighting the article which has now been replaced by the March edition.
Finding a Venue
After the excitement of appearing in a national magazine, it was time to return to focusing on getting a group pilot off the ground & having looked in vain locally for a venue as well as failing to attract people when I offered it from home, I started to feel like this was too much of an uphill struggle. Fortunately for me, help came in the form of Kinesiologist & local entrepreneur Ben Calder₃ at the Centre for Integrated Health. He introduced me to an amazing world of complementary therapies as well as a place where practitioners could hire to see clients. Result !
Ben has been a fantastic adversary & has given me lots of support in finally setting up my pilot, which has involved doing a blog in order to get the word out there to people about Grief Recovery. So now I have a group pilot starting on 9th March & between now & then I will continue to prepare as well as talking to people about Grief Recovery.
So now what ?
Well although this is the end of the initial chapter of my story in setting up as a Grief Recovery Specialist, the work (& my journey) carry on. If nothing else, my experiences to date have only sought to emphasise that there is a way to not only feel better, but help others in the process & whilst it isn't all plain sailing......if nothing else my experiences to date have taught me to above all.....
Believe !
Believe in the power you have within you to change things you are not happy with & want to do something different. Believe in yourself, because if you have the hope of finding a better way, it will come to you..... I just hope it takes a little less time for you than it did for me !
Thanks for reading & please join me again soon..... 💗
Contact details for further information:
1. Phyl Edmonds: Certified Trainer & Grief Recovery Specialist: E-mail: phyl@griefrecoverymethod.co.uk & also www.tgrm.co.uk
2. Debbie Wales: "Girl Friday" IT Web & Business Services: www.girlfridaywebservices.co.uk. to view her portfolio & see why clients recommend her.
3. Ben Calder: Integral Patterning & Kinesiology: http://bencalder.co.uk/
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