Grief Support Setagaya is inspired by a Portland based group in the U.S. called the Dougy Center. The Dougy Center is a house for children grieving a death to embrace and share their grief with fellow grieving children through opportunities to play and talk with one another. In attending a training at the Dougy Center in the summer of 2012, we became inspired as to how the Dougy Center supports children to work with their grief slowly at the safety of each person’s pace. We decided to create Grief Support Setagaya in order to bring similar services to our own communities. Grief Support Setagaya aspires to provide a space that supports children and adults who are grieving the death of a loved one, and to create a community that walks side by side one another in support of grief.

We consider grief to not only address grief with death, but also grief with separations, surviving violence (loss of sense of safety), surviving war, conflict and natural disaster (loss of home, community connections and economic subsistence), unemployment or job scarcity (loss of hope), poverty (loss of the right to humane living), bullying, discriminations based on age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientations or any other basis (loss of sense of dignity or identity), social intolerance towards not marrying or not giving birth (loss of sense of self-affirmation) and all forms of direct or indirect grief.

Anyone can be visited by grief equally in our lives. When one experiences grief, one begins to lead a life differently from before. Responses to the loss of a loved one or anything in life (grief) vary from person to person, whether they encompass sorrow, stupor, anger, self-accusation, distress, heartache, physical disorder or economic anxiety. One is challenged to continue to live on.

Grief Support Setagaya offers a safe place, where anyone living with grief can come and share their experiences with others who have similar experiences in order to work with one’s own grieving experiences. We also host seminars and volunteer trainings regularly to cultivate people who can contribute to grief support. We also work with local communities to promote their understanding and support around our work.

E-mail: griefsetagaya@yahoo.co.jp
Facebook: www.facebook.com/griefsupportsetagaya
Twitter: twitter.com/griefsupports