The name reflects the truth that even when a child is no longer physically present, the love remains forever cradled in a parent’s heart. This group provides a safe, gentle environment where adults can share their grief openly, learn coping strategies, and honor their children. The sessions are designed to combine emotional support with psychoeducation, meaning participants will not only share but also learn practical ways to manage grief and find hope.

• Self-Awareness and Worth: Recognizing their grief responses and affirming their value as parents and individuals even in loss (ASCA, 2021).

• Resilience: Developing confidence that they can endure grief and continue forward.

• Hope Orientation: Building openness to the possibility of joy, healing, and meaning despite sorrow.

• Healthy Coping: Practicing strategies such as deep breathing, journaling, grounding exercises, or memory rituals.

• Communication Skills: Learning how to express their needs and boundaries to loved ones in ways that foster connection instead of isolation.

• Community Connection: Understanding the power of shared grief and support from peers who understand.

These outcomes align with counseling best practices and support long-term adjustment (Worden, 2018).

Information will be disseminated through:

• Medical settings: OB/GYN clinics, labor & delivery units, neonatal intensive care units, and pediatric offices. Flyers will emphasize compassion and confidentiality.

• Community agencies: Churches, grief ministries, local non-profits, and mental health centers.

• Counseling channels: Announcements in counseling offices, schools, and wellness newsletters.

• Digital outreach: Email invitations to social workers, hospice and hospital chaplains, and grief support organizations.

The language used will avoid clinical jargon and instead stress understanding, support, and safety.

The interview will:

• Explore the participant’s current emotional state and assess readiness for group sharing.

• Discuss goals and expectations, clarifying what group counseling can and cannot provide.

• Review confidentiality and group norms to ensure comfort.

• Screen for safety risks, including suicidal ideation or unresolved trauma that may require individual counseling first.

Screening will be individual and compassionate, framed as a conversation to ensure the group is a safe and helpful experience.

• Purpose of the group: To provide support and teach coping strategies, not to replace medical or psychiatric treatment.

• Structure: Six weekly sessions, closed membership, 90 minutes each.

• Expectations: Participation, respectful listening, and honoring ground rules.

• Confidentiality and its limits: Information shared in the group stays in the group unless there is disclosure of intent to harm self or others.

Members will sign the form after having time to ask questions. This ensures transparency, builds trust, and empowers participants.

Predetermined Rules:

• Confidentiality is expected and will be revisited at every session.

• Respect each story.

• No comparisons, judgments, or minimizing.

• The right to “pass” when not ready to share.

• Listen to understand, not to fix.

Group-Generated Rules:
During the first session, members will be invited to add their own rules (for example, managing time so everyone can share). This builds ownership and reinforces that safety is shared responsibility.

• Stage 1 – Forming: The counselor builds trust with introductions, rituals of remembrance (such as lighting candles), and discussions of confidentiality. Participants explore their hopes and needs.

• Stage 2 – Working: Members share their grief stories, support one another, and practice coping skills. The counselor checks in each session to track progress and ensure cohesion.

• Stage 3 – Closing: Members reflect on what they have learned, process feelings of separation, and create a healing plan for life after the group. A closing ritual reinforces connection while emphasizing ongoing confidentiality.

• Leading with empathy, authenticity, and unconditional positive regard.

• Allowing members to guide their own healing while the counselor provides structure.

• Balancing psychoeducation with emotional processing.

This style is particularly effective for grief groups, where participants need both gentle guidance and the freedom to share openly.

• Universality: Realizing “I am not alone, others understand this pain.”

• Instillation of Hope: Witnessing resilience in others inspires belief in healing.

• Altruism: Supporting fellow members provides purpose and meaning.

• Catharsis: Sharing emotions openly creates relief and release.

• Existential Awareness: Exploring how grief reshapes life’s meaning and values.

These factors are naturally woven into the group’s design and will be revisited in debriefs.

To address this:

• Confidentiality will be explained clearly in the consent form and the first session.

• Members will agree to respect privacy outside of group.

• Exceptions (harm to self or others) will be stated upfront.

This discussion is revisited weekly to ensure ongoing trust.

For this group, that means:

• Participants receive clear written and verbal explanation of the group.

• I, as the counselor, will remain within the boundaries of my training and seek supervision as needed.

• Cultural humility will guide facilitation, recognizing that grief is shaped by cultural and spiritual traditions.

These practices protect participants and uphold professional ethics.

American School Counselor Association. (2022). ASCA ethical standards for school counselors. Author. https://schoolcounselor.org/ethics

American School Counselor Association. (2021). ASCA mindsets & behaviors for student success: K–12 college- and career-readiness standards for every student. Author. https://schoolcounselor.org/mindsets

Association for Specialists in Group Work. (2008). Best practice guidelines 2007 revision. Association for Specialists in Group Work. https://www.asgw.org

Corey, M. S., Corey, G., & Corey, C. (2018). Groups: Process and practice (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Rogers, C. R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21(2), 95–103. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0045357

Worden, J. W. (2018). Grief counseling and grief therapy: A handbook for the mental health practitioner (5th ed.). Springer Publishing Company.

Yalom, I. D., & Leszcz, M. (2020). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (6th ed.). Basic Books.