Support Groups in Freeport, ME
You’re not alone!
Groups help people connect, learn and grow.
This can be a lonely and confusing world! A facilitated group provides an experience of community and connection around a shared struggle. Group work helps you find new, meaningful relationships, allows an opportunity for you to be supported and to support others, and provides endless experiences and interactions to learn and grow.
Our culture does not support meaningful connection or community. We have to take intentional action to create those experiences. Humans need other humans, deeply and authentically. We especially need each other in really hard situations. If we continue to be caught up in the endless ‘to-dos’ and internal and external expectations and live largely on screens rather than true relationship with each other, we’ll continue to be disconnected, isolated, even fearful and hopeless sometimes. Unable to enjoy the life we’re living right now, unable to muster the energy to grow and heal ourselves–much less to help heal our broken world.
Support Groups
You will form genuine connections with other people who see and understand you and your struggles, and vice versa. You’ll learn from each other about ways to live more fully and joyfully, no matter your situation. You’ll have a place where it’s okay to feel all the feels, especially the hard ones. You won’t have to reinvent the wheel and then push it up the hill all by yourself–other people are on this same journey right now, and there is way more power in figuring stuff out together than struggling in isolation.
Now you are empowered and connected. You will continue to stumble, because we’re humans navigating really hard situations, but you will be confident in your ability to recover, and especially in knowing you have a network of others, arms extended, to help you get back up and moving.
Groups Offered
Stepparent Support Group (adults)
This group may be a good fit for you if you are:
- Considering creating or are currently living in a stepfamily configuration
- Curious about what the research and best practices show in how to most effectively build a stepfamily that works for all members
- Motivated to make changes inside yourself and in how you show up in your stepfamily
- At least open to the idea of sharing your experience with others, even if you don’t really consider yourself a ‘group person’
- Willing to focus on what YOU can do to feel as whole and balanced as you can, not in trying to change everyone else in this situation.
Ecological grief/anxiety (adults)
This group is intended to be:
- A place for people to fully experience the complexity of emotions related to climate change
- A group that makes space for grief, anger, and fear that is and should be part of living in this time in human history
- A place to contemplate the emotional and spiritual impact of trying to live in congruence with our values in a world that offers few real options for doing so
- A source of connection and authenticity around ecological grief and anxiety
This group is not:
- A solution oriented sustainable living skills group. Those are fantastic and important, but not what this is about.
- A climate action/advocacy group. Also super fantastic and important, but not the work for this group.
- Likely to provide concrete answers
Group goals
- Connect with like-minded and like-feeling folks–you are not alone!
- Build a deeper relationship with the natural world (which may increase your grief…but also your joy)
- Express, experience, and explore your own process of living in a climate emergency
- Identify practices that support your well-being in this incredibly complicated time
- Explore together…much of this is open-ended and goals and process will be created in collaboration
What to expect:
- 8 sessions
- I will facilitate and provide some structure for each session, with a lot of flexibility as the group process unfolds.
- Each group session will likely include some sort of grounding/focusing practice and a specific activity/exercise that supports connection between group members and between the group and the natural world. Most of our time will be spent on group sharing, discussion, and support.
Logistics
Groups run for 8 weeks and meet at the same time and location (Freeport/Brunswick area) each week. Each session is $25, and participants are asked to pay for each session even if they have to miss one. Total group cost is $200. Before starting a group, you and I will have a phone or in person conversation about your goals to make sure it is a good fit at this time.
Let me know you’re interested
Groups run when there are enough people interested, and sometimes on a more regular schedule. If you are interested in and/or have questions about any of these groups, please let me know. I will be in touch with answers and more information, including potential start dates and times.