Great Britain and Ireland Region of Beginning Experience®

Our aim is to facilitate the grief resolution process for the separated, divorced and widowed.  Thus enabling them to love themselves, others and God again. 

 We accomplish this by offering quality, copyrighted, grief resolution programs presented by trained peer ministers.  These programs take place in nine countries on three continents.

These programs are designed to move grieving people through a transformational process to a new beginning in their lives

In 1973, Sister Josephine Stewart, a family counselor at the Catholic Renewal Center in Fort Worth, Texas and a divorced friend, Jo Lamia, attended a Marriage Encounter weekend with the intention of developing a program for engaged couples. 

In the course of the weekend, Ms. Lamia adapted the Marriage Encounter process to face issues and concerns in her own life that had never been addressed. At the close of the weekend, Sister Josephine saw a profound change occur in her friend.

Sister Josephine and other professionals in grief resolution, counseling, psychology, education and spiritual renewal, adapted what Ms. Lamia had written to outline the process for the Beginning Experience® weekend.

The copyrighted program was soon in motion throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Great Britain and Ireland. 

There are different Beginning Experience® Programmes available depending on where you are in your grief. 

The first is Coping with Life Alone which is a pre-weekend support program and is offered in two formats, either weekly for 6-10 weeks or as a full day programme.  It is intended for those whose loss is new and for those not yet ready for the Beginning Experience® weekend. 

The residential Beginning Experience® weekend programme is a full weekend run by a team of people who have suffered the loss of a loved one themselves and are willing to share their own experience to help others. Team members lead participants through a series of presentations followed by personal private reflection and small group sharing.  Prior to attending this weekend we will chat to you about your loss and the length of time since the event. It is recommended that you are at least 6 months post the event to fully benefit from the residential weekend. 

Continued Beginnings is the post weekend support where we guide you through what you have experienced and continue to support you in your journey to a new beginning.   

Beyond Beginning Experience is another residential weekend for anyone who is at least 6 months since their initial residential weekend. It follows a similar flow as he original residential weekend and is intended to move participants on further. This is ideal for current team members or past team members, who perhaps feel they need something more and are ready for the next step to help them move further in their journey.