Contact Us:Call 541 612 0828 and leave a message.
*The Dougy Center Model of Peer Grief Support is used at Cason’s Place.
Sessions begin at 6:30 pm until 8 pm. If you are new please come 5 minutes early. You may register in advance online at https://www.casonsplace.org/our-services/join-our-support-group/ or at your first session at Cason’s Place.
At Cason’s Place, groups meet twice a month following the school year calendar.
Groups are delineated by age:
Elementary Years group (5-9 yrs), Middle Years Group (10-13 yrs) and Teen Group (14-18 yrs).
We also hold a concurrent support group for the adult caregivers/parents of the children that are attending. Groups are coordinated by trained facilitators.
The Center’s objective is to provide the caring, accepting environment that greatly enriches the healing process. Cason’s Place is a safe place for children and their families to cope with the death of a loved one and share their grief with others who have had a comparable loss. Grief resolution involves achievement of the following tasks for both children and adults:
- Accepting the reality of the loss.
- Experiencing the pain of grief.
- Adjusting to an environment in which the deceased is missing.
- Withdrawing emotional energy and investing in new life goals.
According to the Children’s Grief Education Association, grief and trauma can be a detriment to learning. Learning theory suggests that only 5-6 chunks of information can be processed at one time. When the processing ability of the brain is filled with thoughts of the deceased and the necessity of managing intense emotions, little room is left for concentrating on academic demands and other memory tasks. Kids report that they feel different than the other kids at school because of their loss.
Cason’s Place program is based on the premise of providing a safe place for kids, teens and their caregivers to share their experience of grief in a positive, supportive environment. Children are with other kids their age that have experienced a death, interacting together in activities that support expression of feelings and emotions that increase their understanding of death, loss and the process of grief, and decrease feelings of isolation associated with grief, increasing their social, emotional and academic development. This is a family focused program with the belief that to truly assist the children and teens in their process of grief, we need to engage the family/caregivers in a supportive way to build healthier coping, communication and connections for the whole family.
Our program is modeled after the nationally acclaimed Dougy Center in Portland, OR. They have conducted research which proves this model is successful in facilitating grief and healing in children, teens and families. It is a well known fact that bereaved children are a vulnerable population, and at risk of developing psychological, behavioral and social difficulties and dysfunction.
If left unattended, grief in children can lead to depression, psychiatric problems and possible suicide as adults (Ayyash-Abdo, 2001). It has been shown through years of research that children who receive group counseling within one year of a significant loss in their lives demonstrate a statistically significant decrease in overall negative emotions than children who receive no counseling. There is also a decrease in depression and behavioral disturbances (Tonkins and Lambert, 1996).
