LogoNNN
The Norfolk and Norwich Christian community website

Help for the broken hearted this Valentine’s Day

DivorceRecoveryWorkshopLogoMichele Curtis, Coordinator of the new Norwich-based Divorce Recovery Workshops, offers practical support for those who have suffered a broken relationship.  

Valentine’s day….it’s upon us again! Hearts and flowers flood the shops, magazines and newspapers. Advertisements for “Dinner for Two”, sometimes even including an overnight stay in a romantic location with log fires etc.   And horror of horror, doesn’t it all come so soon after Christmas and New Year.  Special times for those in love or who have a loving family around them. 

But what if you have no one in your life to share this special day with as your relationship has broken down?  Maybe you have separated from your partner, and are possibly going through divorce proceedings right now.  Perhaps you never married, but had been in a long term live-in relationship which has now broken up.

If you are like me, and many others faced with Valentine’s Day, it probably just makes you even more aware of the pain that relationship breakup brings.  Having just survived Christmas and New Year (another season that highlights family and being together), we now have to live through Valentine’s Day….a huge reminder that we have lost our relationship.  Oh dear…..it’s enough to send us rushing for the duvet, a box of tissues and probably lots of chocolate (which, of course, we probably bought ourselves)!

I would love to tell you that if we have a strong Christian faith we are immune to all this.  Sadly, even knowing how much God loves us, being faced with so much secular coverage of events such as Valentine’s Day, we can still feel that tug at our emotions if our relationship has ended.

You may be thinking that those whose partners have died will also be feeling sad….and yes….I know that’s true, and I’m not trying to minimise their pain.  But society understands and sympathises with the loneliness of those who have been bereaved. The separated and divorced, however, often face the future with little or no support. Added to this, if you are a Christian, divorce or separation often carries with it a heavy guilt for the marriage failure as well.

So…. how can we turn this sadness around?  Well…. you could try attending a Divorce Recovery Workshop.  At Divorce Recovery Workshop we say: “Divorce - you can either go through it or grow through it”.  Growing emotionally is probably preferable to growing physically via the chocolate! 
 
What are Divorce Recovery Workshops?
  • They are suitable for anyone, of any age, at any stage of separation and divorce.
  • It is a series of six workshops that deals specifically with helping the individual come to terms with a marriage or relationship that has irretrievably broken down.
  • It is a proven self- help model run to a defined standard using volunteers who have experienced divorce or relationship break down. 
Some may remember an article in July 2012 on Network Norwich entitled A Christian perspective on facing up to divorce.    

Since then, Divorce Recovery Workshops have been established here in Norwich.   
I was appointed Coordinator for Norwich DRW in October 2012.  DRW is being supported by Witard Road Baptist Church, and the first course will commence at Witard Road Baptist Church Hall on Tuesday April 9, 7-9pm.

If you would like to know more about Divorce Recovery Workshops please go to the national Divorce Recovery Workshop website.

For details of the Norwich based course please contact mrc7drw@gmail.com or ring 07833 073105. 
 

Michele Curtis is the new Coordinator for Norwich Divorce Recovery Workshops.

The views carried here are those of the author, not of Network Norwich and Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users. 
 
We welcome your thoughts and comments, posted below, upon the ideas expressed here. 

Click here to read our forum and comment posting guidelines.



10220 views
To submit a story or to publicise an event please email: web@networknorwich.co.uk