GROW Session 1 began with a simple but important intention: creating a space safe enough for participants to arrive as they are. In many spaces, healing is often imagined as something that must be quick, clear, and full of answers. But for many people, the first step is not about “fixing everything.” It is about finding a space where they can begin gently.
That was the spirit of the first session of GROW Batch #1, a support group programme by Talk Mental Health Indonesia designed as a non-clinical space to understand grief, build self-regulation, and grow alongside others—gently and at a human pace.
Beginning with Safety
The first GROW session was created as a space to begin safely. The process was facilitated by Mba Vina, supported by two facilitators and one peer counselor who helped hold emotional safety, group flow, and a more supportive presence throughout the session.
For us, safety is not simply comfort. Safety is the foundation that allows someone to reconnect with themselves, their body, their emotions, and experiences they may have carried alone for a long time.
At the beginning of the session, participants were invited to understand:
- the purpose and flow of the programme
- safeguarding principles
- consent and personal choice
- community agreements for the group journey
This approach matters because each participant deserves to know that they have ownership over their boundaries, the freedom to share or not share, and the right to move through the process at their own pace.
Understanding Grief More Broadly
During the opening session, participants were also invited to see grief in a wider way.
Grief is often associated only with death or losing someone we love. But in everyday life, grief can also appear through many other forms of loss, such as:
- losing a sense of safety
- painful changes in relationships
- feeling distant from a former version of yourself
- experiences that were never fully processed
- hopes and expectations that did not unfold as imagined
This broader understanding matters because grief is not always loud or obvious. Sometimes it appears through sudden emotional waves, heaviness, numbness, irritability, or exhaustion that seem to come “out of nowhere.”
A 2021 review published in Social Science & Medicine explored the concept of grief triggers and found that grief can be reactivated by reminders, memories, places, sounds, dates, or experiences connected to loss. These responses may emerge unexpectedly and can happen long after the original loss itself.
This helps us understand that grief is not only about one event in the past—it can also live in the body, memory, and nervous system, returning when something touches what was once painful or unfinished.
Through this lens, participants began to see that feelings of exhaustion, emptiness, confusion, or heaviness may not be weakness—but human responses to losses that never had enough space to be acknowledged, witnessed, or gently processed.
When the Process Does Not Begin with Words
After the introduction and early reflections, participants moved into an art-based activity as a gentler doorway into the process.
Not everyone is ready to speak at the beginning. Not everything can be explained through language. That is why art was used as an opening medium—allowing participants to enter their inner experience without pressure to immediately talk.
Part 1: Drawing Lines with Both Hands
Participants were invited to create lines using both hands at the same time.
This simple exercise helped participants:
- become more present
- reconnect with the body
- improve focus
- release early tension
- let go of the pressure to “make something good”
As both hands moved together, attention slowly shifted from busy thoughts toward the body’s experience in the present moment.
Part 2: Beginning from a Single Dot
Participants were then invited to draw starting from one dot.
This approach was inspired by art practices connected to Rudolf Steiner, where creativity begins not with a finished result, but with a small starting point that slowly grows.
A single dot becomes a line, a form, a space, and eventually meaning.
It also offers an important reminder: we do not need to know everything at the beginning. Sometimes all we need is one small point of courage to begin.
Art as a Gentle Entry Point
These two activities were offered as an early reflection tool. The goal was never to assess artistic ability, but to create space for intuitive expression.
Because not every process begins with words.
Sometimes healing begins through:
- movement
- lines
- dots
- colour
- body sensations
- emotions slowly rising to the surface
For some participants, this may have been the first experience of realizing they could be present without having to explain everything.
What Began to Grow in Session One
Through the first session, participants began to:
- feel safer within the space
- understand grief more broadly
- try early forms of self-expression
- experience that healing can happen slowly
- realise they do not need to force clarity all at once
Session one was never about opening everything immediately.
It was about creating a foundation: a space safe enough to arrive, gentle enough to begin feeling, and human enough to honour each person’s pace.
A Gentle Reminder Before We Continue
Growth does not always look dramatic.
Sometimes growth looks like staying present for one more moment.
Sometimes it looks like breathing through discomfort.
Sometimes it looks like picking up a pen, drawing one line, or allowing one feeling to exist.
The first session of GROW reminds us that healing often begins quietly.
Join the Journey with GROW
GROW is a support group programme by Talk Mental Health Indonesia that offers community-based spaces for reflection and healing through grief-informed practice, emotional regulation, art, body awareness, and meaningful connection.
If you are carrying something heavy, navigating change, or simply longing for a gentler space to reconnect with yourself, you do not have to do it alone.
Follow Talk Mental Health Indonesia’s Instagram (@talkmentalhealth.id) for upcoming programmes, future GROW batches, and community wellbeing initiatives.
If this feels like a space you may need, you can learn more through our Instagram and website. Detailed information about the program is available on Instagram and on the TMH.id support group page.
If you feel ready to join, you can register here: Open Call GROW Session
Sometimes growth begins with one safe space.
And sometimes that first space is enough to change everything.
