I think it's a great idea! I love the idea of somone helping you with the grief counselling and hopefully helping you with the shock of living alone for the first time in your life. Really happy for you, hope you'll keep us posted on how it goes.

Hi Foolme - I looked up the Beginning Experience program you mentioned.  I had never heard of it before. If it were me, I might be concerned about the fact that it is designed for those widowed and/or divorced, with no mention of the gay thing.  Obviously that would fit in the divorced category, but I wonder if the gay part of it all would be something they relate to.  They show a lot of testimonials on the front page about people who said they did not think anyone could understand what they were going through until they found that group, but I did not see anything about anyone who had experienced the gay thing.  While it is divorce, and involves grief, it is a unique grief and I just wonder how many a person might meet there who really would "get it".  I don't say this to discourage you in any way, but more as something I would see as a caution.  You would never really know if you did not at least try it, though.  It does look like a good opportunity to meet others face to face who are having or have experienced a very significant loss, though.

Well I've done the weekend Beginning Experience retreat! Where it wasn't focused on the gay issues there were a number of similarities in our situations. The group was made up of 26 participants and 10-11 facilitators. We were asked not to discuss the ins and outs of the course but could speak of our experience.

I went with an indifference view to it, didn't know what to expect and didn't have any expectations of it, went with an open mind. The group was made up of people from all walks of life who've found themselves beginning again, through death, separation or divorce. I was the only one who was in this situation through TGT that I was aware of, others found themselves there through separation due to infidelity so kinda similar but not quite. 

The weekend was full on, very little alone time, we all met in the big group from time to time and at these meet ups one or two of the facilitators read us their story from different perspectives, ie from trust, grief, acceptance etc. We were asked to sit in a different seat with different people each time we met in the big room which meant we got acquainted with more people. After these big room sessions we broke down into core small groups (we were assigned these the first evening), we'd meet in the small group, with two facilitators, our group totalled 7. We'd also be given topics to think about and time to write out our thoughts, concerns etc alone in our rooms, these writings were ours alone to see, never shared unless we really wanted to. Lots of us found this time very beneficial.

I met a number of lovely people, mainly women but all in the same situation as me, starting over again and in need of support and companionship. We've said we'll try and meet up every 6-8 weeks or so and have some communications via text etc in the mean time. This is a huge thing for a lot of us and I'm delighted I've met some lovely like minded people. The Beginning Experience wider group arrange outings, like walks or dances etc from time to time & I've heard some people have met new partners through the network. Again this sounds good to have some social interaction with others starting over again.

All in all I felt it was a positive experience. I questioned some aspects of it as they were happening as others seemed to get more out of it at the time but that was ok for me too.

There was some religious emphasis, not too much, I'm a non practising Catholic and I was able to bear it!!!

Hi iamthelorax, No aha moments that I can recall but in one of our penning sessions I wrote 10 pages in the allocated hour and I wasn't done when the time was up. I was surprised at some of the stuff that came out of the pen!!! Stuff I hadn't thought about for years