Two days of grief counseling will be offered at the Life Church in Picayune, featuring three guest speakers who will cover the effects of grief and how to move past the five steps.
The sessions will be held Monday and Tuesday, starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Life Church in Picayune, located at 131 Third Street.
Monday, Lori Weatherly will share her story of loss and the methods she used to overcome it. Tuesday, Julie Keene and Picayune native Lisa Daughdrill will share their stories.
Daughdrill said each session will cover the effects of loss, the steps in the grieving process and methods to avoid getting stuck in one of those stages, which include denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
After each session there will be time for questions and answers. To make that process easier, participants can write their questions on a piece of paper. Later in the session participants can engage in one on one meetings with the speakers.
Weatherly said she will discuss the loss of her son, while Daughdrill said Keene will discuss the suicide of one of her close family members.
Daughdrill said her experience with grief occurred after her son passed away from a drug overdose.
After each session, information about where to seek additional help with dealing with grief will be provided.
Grief can occur at any stressful point in life, not just with the death of a loved one, Daughdrill said.
“There’s so many people walking around with these pains and they don’t know how to deal with them,” Daughdrill said.
It’s only when people know how to work through grief that life can be good again, she said.
“You can have a life of peace and joy again,” Daughdrill said.
Weatherly has been dealing with grief since the loss of her son 11 years ago.
She will focus on the importance of accepting loss and working through it using a “roadmap.”
“I’m going to talk about the hell I went through to get here,” Weatherly said.
The sessions offered on Monday and Tuesday will go deeper than what can be covered in a Sunday morning church session, Weatherly said.