Like so many others in the mental health field, I have always had a passion for helping others. Growing up, I wanted to follow in my mom’s footsteps and become a teacher. However, once I learned about counseling, I decided to pursue a career as a therapist.
This led me to the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas, a San Antonio-based nonprofit that offers grief support services at no charge for children and families impacted by the death of a family member or other special person.
While working on my master’s degree, I was introduced to the Children’s Bereavement Center during my internship semester as a volunteer facilitator for the support groups hosted for families impacted by a suicide death. In support groups, family members are divided into smaller groups based on age. I was partnered with the 6- to 8-year-olds.
Any nerves I had going in quickly went away after meeting those kiddos. They had all experienced such hard losses and were going through some difficult moments. However, they still were able to find space in their hearts for laughter and play. Their resilience inspired me, and I knew that I had found something magical by being at the center. I have now been with the Children’s Bereavement Center for six years as a staff member and continue to be grateful for the moments I’ve shared with these families.
As a licensed professional counselor, I meet with individual clients, supervise student interns and assist families with the process of beginning services. Although it can be hard sitting with clients while they grieve the death of someone close to them, there is also so much joy that comes from allowing clients to express their grief through art, play, sand tray therapy or more. Children (and even adults) don’t always have words for the hard emotions they feel. Letting out grief through painting, building and creating can take the pressure off clients from feeling like they must find the right words; they can simply put their grief into art.
Although I am usually at the Children’s Bereavement Center, there are a few times a year when my office takes the form of a campground as I shift into my role of camp program manager. One of the services our center offers is grief camps, hosted throughout the year at various locations. Some camps are held during the day at our center, while other camps allow us to go offsite and spend the night in a cabin.
Grief camps offer clients a chance to continue processing their grief in a group setting, still utilizing the expressive art components our center traditionally offers. In addition to this therapeutic grief work, campers also get a chance to have a break from their direct grief work by playing and participating in some fun camp activities, such as archery, horseback riding and swimming.
Camp, and grief work in general, is hard. Supporting someone who is in pain because their special person died can weigh heavily on your heart. There is an added layer of difficulty when you are doing grief work in the triple-digit Texas heat. When we train our volunteers for camp, we encourage them to think of their “why.” As in, why do they choose to do this work? Knowing your “why” does not take away the hard part of grief work or camp, but it can give you strength when things feel tough.
My “why” is always the same. At every camp, there’s at least one kiddo who is hesitant to attend. By the end of camp, that same nervous child is usually asking to come back (or sometimes asking if they can live at camp). While letting a camper live at the center is not an option, I love that we offered someone an experience where they felt so supported and seen that they want to do it again. That makes all the hard parts worth it.
