Peer Support Through Grief: How Rick’s Place Helps Families Heal.

Peer Support Through Grief: How Rick’s Place Helps Families Heal.

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation widens the lens, looking at grief and loss as a huge factor in how families cope, heal and sometimes turn to unhelpful coping like alcohol. Host Mike Torville chats with guests Therese Ross and Betsy Flores from Rick’s Place, a community-based peer support centre for children, teens and their caregivers after a death in the family.

You’ll hear how the programme grew from supporting four families to more than 30, all without charging them a fee, and why the team believes that "once you're a Rick’s Place family, you're always a Rick’s Place family." The episode focuses on peer support as an antidote to isolation. Instead of one-to-one therapy, kids are grouped by age with trained volunteer facilitators, while adults meet separately to talk about the realities of parenting through grief.

There’s plenty here for anyone supporting children after a death, including grandparents suddenly back in a parenting role. Therese and Betsy explain why the familiar five stages of grief don’t really work in real life. Grief is described as "a hot mess of... tangled spaghetti," coming in waves over years, not months.

A powerful part of the chat is Therese sharing her own experience of losing her husband and still being hit by "grief bursts" more than a decade later, especially at milestones like her son’s wedding. The tone stays warm and down-to-earth, with gentle humour and an emphasis on being non-judgemental and honest about how hard this all is.

If you support families affected by addiction, alcohol misuse or other losses, you’ll pick up practical language, validation, and ideas for creating safe spaces where people can feel seen, heard and less alone. If grief is touching your life or the lives of people you care about, what kind of peer support community might help soften the edges a little?