gunmajet.net

As you all know Alan Buckley died on Sunday. The death of a friend is never easy, and for some of us, this is the first time to experience such a loss. Being far from our support network back home and living far apart from our friends here in Gunma can make the grieving process even harder.

Grief affects us all in different ways and can be difficult to discuss with our close friends.
To help each of you, we have talked with CLAIR, and they have made arrangements for Dr. Jim McRae, a member of the JET Programme's Counselling System Committee, to come to Gunma to provide counselling. Dr. McRae has been working with the JET Programme for many years and helped devise the current JET Programme support system (the PA system).

He will be coming to Tomioka City on Monday, August 30th and will be available for both group and individual sessions.

In order to inform your Contracting Organizations and for scheduling for Dr. McRae, those interested will need to contact myself or Brent before 13:00 Friday, August 27th. We realize that this is last minute and are sorry this announcement couldn't be made sooner.

Those interested in joining, please contact us as soon as you can and let us know if you would like to talk with Dr. McRae alone or would feel more comfortable in a group setting.

We will contact you with exact time and place, once a schedule has been finalized.

We all grieve differently and counseling may not be for everyone. Regardless, we hope that everyone remember to take care of themselves in this period of mourning.
If you should need anything, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Brooke & Brent

Brooke Brown
CIR/PA
International Affairs Division
Department of Life and Culture
Tel:027-226-3394
E-mail: brown-b[at]pref.gunma.jp

Brent Thomas
ALT Advisor
Compulsory Education Division
Gunma Board of Education
tel: 027-226-4615
fax: 027-243-7759
e-mail: thomas-br@pref.gunma.jp