Sooner or later, we all face the death of someone we love. Facing the death of a child can be even more devastating. .

             In the case of this member having a "meltdown" in a group session, I would approach this by reminding the group why we are in this group and that is to provide support to one another. Grieving is a very individual process there are no hard and fast rules about how we handle our loss.

             I would look to the group to help console the distraught member by listening and expressing emotional support and concern for his pain. .

             Emotionally, this member needs to express his grief and after the initial "meltdown", I would try and gently probe to ask him to share some of what he is feeling with the group.

             From the start, everyone should recognize that there is no single set pattern to grief. So there is little value in any authoritative statements about how someone should grieve, whether their grief is abnormal or normal, how long grief should last, or what should be said to help someone get over it (http://www.mind.ork.uk, 2005).

             I would remind everyone in the group that support groups of any kind offer an opportunity to meet with other people who are in a similar situation, in this case grieving the loss of a loved one.

             In addition, my role would be to help this man regain some composure so that he can openly discuss his feelings of loss. I would insure that he understood that there was no shame in what just happened and that everyone in the group has probably had similar experiences. I would then ask the group to share their own experiences, taking the focus off of him until he was able to share again.