Face To Face Support Meetings

Venue Location

Wicklow

Venue: The Parkview Hotel, Main St, Kilmacullagh, Newtown Mount Kennedy, Co. Wicklow, A63 FX72

Times of meetings:  7.20 PM – 9.00PM

If you are a parent attending one of our meetings for the first time, please arrive at 7.15

 Dates of Meetings:

 3rd Monday of each month

 Calendar of specific dates each month for the year

MonthDate
January16th
February20th
March20th
April17th
May15th
June19th
JulyPAUSE FOR SUMMER
AugustPAUSE FOR SUMMER
September18th
October16th
November20th
December18th

What to Expect at an Anam Cara Face-to-Face Support Meeting

At Anam Cara, our peer-to-peer support groups are at the core of what we do. At these meetings, you can meet other bereaved parents. At these meetings, you have the opportunity to share, ask questions, connect, or just listen. Groups are led by a bereavement or mental health professional and a volunteer parent—someone who knows the experience of losing a child. The groups meet for around an hour and a half, though if it is your first time coming to a meeting, we recommend arriving fifteen to twenty minutes early, so you can meet the facilitators, and they can learn about you and your child. The evening will centre around an open discussion where parents can share experiences or simply listen in a compassionate and non-judgmental environment. Tea and light refreshments are provided. 

Most of our groups gather in quiet and confidential meeting rooms at hotels across the island. It is the policy of Anam Cara to keep confidential all personal information about parents, siblings, and families in our service. We provide a safe space for all bereaved parents, regardless of gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, age, disability, race, religion, or membership in the Traveller community, to share our loss and the complex emotions that surround grief.

Professional facilitator, Shirley Brennan

Shirley joined Anam Cara in 2019 and works as a Professional Facilitator for the Wicklow group.

Shirley has been working in private practice as a Systemic Psychotherapist (Family Therapist) since 2008. Prior to this she worked as a Senior Medical Social Worker in Beaumont Hospital and Blackrock Hospice. She has extensive experience of working in the fields of Oncology, Palliative Care and Bereavement.

The devastating pain of the losing a child brings its own unique challenges in grief and the Anam Cara Group provides a space in which bereaved parents can support each other in the knowledge that other parents understand their pain.  Shirley draws on her clinical experience to facilitate exploration of the challenges of this unique loss, along with the impact on relationships and offers support to parents as they try to accommodate loss and grief into their lives.