Meaning-Centered Grief Therapy: Finding Meaning After Loss
A 10-Week Grief Support Group for Those Who Have Lost a Significant Other or Parent
Dates & Time:
This group meets every other Thursday from 6:00- 7:30 PM ET.
Meeting dates are April 10, April 24, May 8, May 22, June 5, June 26, July 17, August 7, August 21, and September 4, 2025.
Location:
This group meets online. Zoom links for meetings will be provided to group members after they register.
Group Description:
It is often difficult to begin a conversation about the loss of our loved ones. Creating a space to understand how a loss has affected your life and reconnecting with ways that your life has meaning can be healing. In a time of distressing thoughts and hard realities, it can be difficult to engage in the same life before your loss. Meaning-Centered Grief Therapy (MCGT) provides an opportunity for the bereaved to re-establish meaning after a loss. MCGT has the potential to address meaning-related challenges for those grieving and may help with management of prolonged grief symptoms. The use of MCGT is designed to support those who are grieving find 1) sense-making; 2) benefit-finding and posttraumatic growth; 3) identity and sense of purpose in the face of the loss; 4) reconnection to meaning through exploration of 4 sources of meaning (historical, attitude, experiential, and creative); 5) legacy and meaning in the deceased’s life.
Finding a group or opportunity to openly discuss these experiences can be an important part of moving through the many layers of grief. This group will offer a healing space for members to be seen, heard, and understood and designed to create a non-judgmental, safe and, nurturing environment for those who have experienced the loss of another person. To enrich this experience, movement-based explorations will be used to support, explore, and connect the MCGT ideas. Additionally, we will use creative means, such as poetry and art, to explore these themes further. By drawing on the resources of the body, we will foster resilience as each participant gains a deeper understanding and awareness of their sense of meaning.
Theme Focus:
Sense-making:
Benefit-finding and posttraumatic growth:
Identity and sense of purpose:
Disconnection from sources of meaning:
Legacy and meaning in the deceased’s life:
Each member will have an individual call with the group leader, Jenn Whitley, before starting the group to learn about the process, get any questions that they have answered, and to assess goodness-of-fit for the group.
Cost: $650 or $65/ 90 minute session.
I Want to Learn More About This Group:
About the Group Leader:
Jenn Whitley, MS BC-DMT LCAT CMA provides dance/movement therapy for children, parents, and adults at Dancing Dialogue. She specializes in providing DMT for individuals who have ADHD, anxiety, experienced family separation, eating disorders, learning differences, autism spectrum disorder, medical illness, issues with disruptive behavior, Bipolar Disorder, Parkinson's Disease, trauma, and provides parenting support and grief counseling. She provides Authentic Movement and Reiki sessions, as well, sometimes including both as a part of the therapeutic process.
Jenn is a board-certified Dance/Movement Therapist (DMT) and Licensed Creative Arts Therapist who received her master’s degree, with honors, in Dance Therapy at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. She is trained through the Ways of Seeing program at Dancing Dialogue, Certified as a Laban Movement Analyst from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies and completed training in the discipline of Authentic Movement at The New York Center for the Study of Authentic Movement with Joan Wittig. Jenn is also a Reiki Practitioner (Level II) and trained in Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy (MCP) through MSKCC. She has been a DMT at Dancing Dialogue since 2014 working with children, families, and adults incorporating all aspects her training into the Ways of Seeing psychotherapeutic multi-arts approach. She is certified provider of TeleMental Healthcare from the Telehealth Certification Institute.
Jenn’s experience also includes medical DMT at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, joining the Integrative Medicine Services (IMS) team in 2012, with a focus in pediatric oncology alongside Dr. Tortora. Her work at MSKCC also expands beyond pediatrics into staff wellness and providing virtual classes and workshops for adult patients through IMS. Additionally, she provides dance/movement therapy for children with neurodiverse conditions facilitating group DMT sessions in the public school setting since 2013. She taught as interim instructor in The New School’s Creative Arts Therapy Certification Program, worked as DMT/Choreographer for Angelight Films, and presents workshops locally, nationally, and internationally.
Jenn is a member of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO), the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) where she is currently serving on the Standards & Ethics Committee and serves on the board for the Andréa Rizzo Foundation.