Too Bad So Sad

I went to a seminar on grief. I thought my job would pay for it because it kinda sorta related to the job- many of my clients have suffered tremendous losses. It's hard to find trainings that relate. So off I go. I didn't expect it to be uplifting. But this... First off, there is a reason this speaker knows a lot about grief. It's because he's had a lot of it. And he talks a lot about it. All these sad, sad, stories about sad, bad things that have happened to him. And he's been working as a grief counselor and hospice administrator so he knows even more sad, sad stories, --- sad sad sad. Then he had exercises for us to use with clients, but since we don't have clients present, we have to practice with our own experiences. This got us to think about all the saddest stuff in our lives, sad sad sad. Then he breaks us into small groups after having told us to think about a great loss, and think about what we needed. So we are sitting in our small group- me and 5 other therapists. Looking at each other. Not saying anything. So finally, I decide I will "share". So I talk about when my dad died. I'm fine talking about it. It's not a problem. Though I've never done it with 5 "therapy faces" looking at me. The rule was that the person who shares doesn't have to answer any questions. But they're therapists, they can't help themselves. So I have 5 of them trying to therapize me into having grief I no longer feel. Then this 1 little old lady therapist follows me around for the rest of the day asking me personal questions and generally trying to therapize me. Then she asks if I find her too intrusive and of course, being my mother's daughter, I didn't say "Yes, you stupid b*&#!, back off". Then we listened to more heart-rending stories, did some more upsetting exercises, then lo- without warning- back into the stupid small groups. This time, the exercise is: If you died, and your family was going to make a table display to represent you or your life, what objects would they put on it and why? What would be the glue that holds the objects together, makes it a unified whole?" So, here we are in the small groups, looking at each other and I just look. So one of the others starts, "My table would have a candle and some family pictures". And the next lady, "My table would have and candle and a Bible" The next lady, "My table would have a candle and some family pictures and a Bible and a smooth stone". Then it was my turn. I passed. They all looked at me with "therapy faces" and made sympathetic noises indicating that they understood that this exercise was just too much for me. Clearly, I have issues. I thought this was preferable to my telling them that I thought they are shallow, lying bitches and that I would commit suicide if all I could think of to represent the sum total of my life was a candle and a featureless rock. So then the next woman talked at length about the importance of candles in her life and I wondered if she might be masturbating with them and hoped I merely looked blank. Then we got yet another dose of insufferably sad examples from this man's life and I began to lose patience with his poor judgement and bad choices. Hoping to gain something from this nightmare, I asked a question, having to do with a dilemna I have faced in my work, the presenter responded with yet another sad story about himself which in no way answered my question. So I took my CEU's and did not leave an evaluation.