Thanks for checking this page and showing interest in our online support groups and workshops.
What are they?
The support groups or workshops that we run are a place to listen and share about family estrangement, and are intended as a supportive compliment to other healing modalities. These groups aren’t a crisis service for mental health, and they don’t replace trauma healing or individual therapy that can address your specific situation and healing journey. The groups also won’t advise you on any decisions or best courses of action in your specific estrangement situation. All this said, listening to others and sharing your truth can be helpful.
When are they running?
Where are they?
All events online are offered on Zoom and you will need a Zoom account to access them. We don’t offer in person or location specific support anymore for funding and safeguarding reasons. This is purely an online support project.
Will you tell me when they are open to register?
We get a lot of requests to keep people up to date personally, or add people to a waiting list to guarantee a place in workshops and support groups. We are a very small part-time team and we can’t keep people personally updated, tell you first about groups or let you register first. We don’t hold a waiting list for groups and operate on a first-come basis for sign ups. The groups are always sent to our newsletter first.
I’m not sure if they are right for me?
It’s important you check in with your sources of support to discuss the decision to join or not, and assess whether it’s safe for you to share and listen to others experiences of family estrangement. We also get a lot of emails asking to chat this through. As we are a small team, we can’t talk it through and advise you if the groups or workshops are right for you personally as we unfortunately don’t have the capacity in our team to meet this need.
How much are they?
Groups and workshops cost around £20 to participate in, which covers the cost of facilitation. We are running these groups without a funding partner and we offer 1-2 low cost places per group or workshop of around £8, which are offered on a first-come basis when the link to register is published.
We offer these low cost places to students and those in the UK benefit system. We may get in touch ask you for proof that you are in need of a low cost place if you register for one.
I can’t wait for a group…
If you need more focussed support and quickly, you can use this link to find a private practitioner who has worked with us running our groups. You will have to fund this privately and it’s not funded or subsidised by the charity. Some people on the list may offer low cost therapy if you enquire directly.
If you want to hear from others in the same situation immediately then do also do refer to our ‘Where can I turn?’ page for our online guides and to listen to our podcast. These two aspects are the support that is always available to you.