‘Suddenly Single’ Session Planned

BERLIN — Worcester Youth and Family Counseling Services (WYFCS) will be partnering with the Worcester County Commission on Women’s “Suddenly Single” group for a goal setting session this Saturday in Snow Hill.

Participants will learn new ways to set benchmarks for themselves that should help them overcome the challenges of becoming suddenly single.

This will be the second partnering between Suddenly Single and WYFCS. The two agencies complement each other in their joint workshops, according to Dr. Jennifer Leggour of WYFCS, and provide an important service to Worcester women who find themselves unexpectedly alone following separation, divorce or death.

“You can feel very isolated sometimes and very scared and this group helps people connect with other people who have gone through similar circumstances,” said Leggour, “but provides them an outlet for not feeling so scared, for learning some skills that maybe they didn’t have before and doing things they didn’t think they could do.”

The initial partnership in November of 2012 focused on teaching women how to re-build social relationships after finding themselves single. The focus will shift to developing strategies for goal setting using the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound) method.

“Initially we’ll do an icebreaker where everyone can get to know one another and why they’re here,” said Leggour. “Then [WYFCS Assistant Director] Lori [Carson] and I will have a Power Point presentation with some handouts about exactly what it means to set goals and how to set relevant and meaningful goals.”

By setting “specific goals” that can be tracked easily, Leggour said that participants should be able to apply structure into their lives in the wake of the chaos that can result in becoming unexpectedly single.

Leggour used basic fitness as a common example. Instead of just saying that you want to eat better and go to the gym every day, participants in the workshop would be encouraged to put that goal into perspective, to set steps for themselves every day or week or month and to acknowledge that improvements will likely be minor and steady instead of dramatic and instant.

The group will meet Saturday, March 8 at the Snow Hill Library from 10-11:30 a.m. The workshop is free and open to any woman in Worcester dealing with the end of a relationship. For more information, call 410-208-1272.