Are You Grieving a Loss?

This page lists resources that provide support for those who have lost a loved one due to a substance use disorder or related illness. If you are aware of other resources for grief support, please send the information to info@conversation.zone

Support Groups

A Brother’s Love

A professionally facilitated, live online support group to address feelings of sibling loss due to the disease of addiction.

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At a Loss

This ongoing monthly support group is available to any parent who is suffering the loss of a child due to substance abuse.  The purpose of this group is to provide a place for parents to offer each other guidance, hope, understanding, and healing. Contact Nancy Buckwalter, LCSW at nancybuckwalter@comcast.net or 484-888-2075.

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Compassionate Friends

The Compassionate Friends is about transforming the pain of grief into the elixir of hope. It takes people out of the isolation society imposes on the bereaved and lets them express their grief naturally. With the shedding of tears, healing comes. And the newly bereaved get to see people who have survived and are learning to live and love again.
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For Jonathan’s Sake: Beyond the Broken Heart – A Path to Healing

A therapeutic grief support group to address feelings of parents after the loss of a child due to the disease of addiction. Facilitated by Nancy King, LPC.
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Good Grief Group (at Nourishing Storm in Hatboro, PA)

Meetings are held monthly.
Where there is grief, there is loss. But there is also an incredible amount of love to receive and an wonderful opportunity to heal and rebuild. Please join us a monthly gathering in a safe space to share your story, your love and your healing.
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GRASP (Grief Recovery After a Substance Passing)

Meetings are held all around the country. Pennsylvania locations include Philadelphia, Ambler, Bristol, Indiana, Kingston, Allentown, and Red Lion)  >> Visit the website to find a meeting near you.
GRASP was founded to help provide sources of help, compassion and most of all, understanding, for families or individuals who have had a loved one die as a result of substance misuse or addiction.
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GriefShare

GriefShare is a friendly, caring group of people who will walk alongside you through one of life’s most difficult experiences. You don’t have to go through the grieving process alone.
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Grieve Out Loud – Unity Recovery

Grieve out loud is an adult support group for those mourning the death of a loved one. While each of us cope with loss differently, we come together to share in a common sorrow. We seek to provide a safe space to comfort, listen, and support one another. Meets every Wednesday at 10 am.
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HealGrief

A social support network that is there when everyone else goes away, and the real grieving begins. Everything they do is inspired by their core belief that no one should ever grieve alone. HealGrief provides the tools and resources to guide one’s journey with grief into a healthy personal growth.
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Helping Hand Grief Support

Currently we are holding on-line video support utilizing Zoom Communications, with the various supports groups listed on our site. Group support meetings are held on Monday evenings starting at 7:00pm, but you must first contact us to receive an invitation.
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Kacie’s Cause Grief Support Group

Meetings are held on the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays each Month in Chadds Ford, PA.
Moderator Kim Engstrom, M.S. Counselor leads this Grief Support Group, which is open to anyone who has experienced a loss in their life. Come learn helpful coping strategies, develop a support network and share your experiences (if you wish) with others in a small group environment.
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OASIS Community Center

Grief & Loss Support Groups are available in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (some are in-person and some are virtual) for various age levels and relationships.
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Peter’s Place

Peter’s Place provides safe and supportive environments for grieving children and families and acts as a community resource to foster understanding of the effects of death and grief.
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Safe Harbor

Safe Harbor provides support groups for children, teens, young adults and parents/caregivers that have experienced the death of a loved one.  All groups are held at the Abington Health- Schilling Campus, Pennwood Building, 4th floor. Groups are led by trained, experienced facilitators in a caring and supportive atmosphere.
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Other Helpful Websites & Articles

A Bed for My Heart

A Bed For My Heart exists as a haven for families who have experienced one of life’s cruelest tragedies: the loss of a child, at any age/gestation and from any cause of death. We believe in compassionate grief support, heart to heart, person to person, parent to parent, mom to mom. We believe a hearty mix of compassion, unconditional love and support can make the unbearable, bearable. It can transform horror into honor and legacy.
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Article:  “Appreciating the Plain Fact of Human Sorrow” by Kelly G. Wilson, Ph.D.

Finding richness, meaning and purpose in sorrow.

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Love Bulb Co.

To creatively honor and share love & loss through making products, employing and supporting women in recovery, sharing healing practices, and always and all ways “keeping the door to her life open”.

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Recommended Reading

This list of recommended reading was made possible by many friends of Be a Part of the Conversation.

Feel free to suggest other publications that you believe would be helpful by sending us an email, and please include the book title and author.


Grief One Day at a Time
Alan D. Wolfet, Ph.D.

Life After the Death of My Son: What I’m Learning
by Dennis L. Apple

I Am Your Disease: The Many Faces of Addiction
by Sheryl Letzgus McGinnis

One-Way Ticket: Our Son’s Addiction to Heroin
by Rita Lowenthal

Life Between Falls, A Travelogue Through Grief and the Unexpected
by Julie Lange

Beyond Tears: Living After Losing a Child
by Carol, Barkin, Audrey Cohen, Lorenza Colletti, Barbara Eisenberg, Barbara J. Goldstein, Madelaine Perri Kasden, Phyllis Levine, Ariella Long and Rita Volpe, in collaboration with Ellen Mitchell

How to Survive the Worst That Can Happen: A Parent’s Step by Step Guide to Healing After the Loss of a Child
by Sandy Peckinpah

Healing After Loss: Daily Meditations For Working Through Grief
by Martha Whitmore Hickman

The Bereaved Parent
by Harriet Sarnoff Schiff

Losing Jonathan
by Robert Waxler and Linda Waxler

When the Bough Breaks: Forever After the Death of a Son or Daughter
by Judith R. Bernstein

From a Grieving Mother’s Heart
by Terri Ann Leidich

When a Child Dies from Drugs: Practical Help for Parents in Bereavement
by Pat Wittberger and Russ Wittberger

My Daughter’s Addiction: A Thief in the Family – Hardwired for Heroin
by Marie Minnich

From My Heart: Expressions of a Grieving Mother
by Lisa McCann

Living When a Loved One Has Died
by Earl A. Grollman


Books for children:

Badger’s Parting Gifts (ages 4 through 8)
by Susan Varley

I Miss You: A First Look at Death (ages 4 and up)
by Pat Thomas

The Next Place (ages 5 and up)
by Warren Hanson

When Someone Very Special Dies: Children Can Learn to Cope with Grief (ages 9 through 12)
by Marge Heegaard