Search

“You will stay up all night reading this gem” (Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author) about a widow whose life is turned upside down when she uncovers the truth about her late husband. A lyrical, witty, and deeply moving memoir of betrayal and forgiveness.While mourning her husband's sudden death, Jessica Waite discovered shocking secrets that undermined everything she thought she knew about the man she'd loved and trusted. From secret affairs to drug use and a pornography addiction, Waite was overwhelmed reconciling this devastating information with her new reality as a widowed single mom. Then, to further complicate matters, strange, inexplicable coincidences forced her to consider whether her husband was reaching back from beyond the grave. With unflinching honesty, Waite details her tumultuous love story and the pain of adjusting to the new normal she built for herself and her son. “A candid, raw chronicle of bereavement” (Kirkus Reviews), The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards is also a lyrical exploration of mental health, single parenthood, and betrayal that demonstrates that the most moving love stories aren't perfect—they're flawed and poignantly real.

'[A] remarkable account of a shifting consciousness” - Publisher's Weekly, starred review “An extraordinary, powerful book” - David Quammen, author of The Heartbeat of the Wild and Breathless A compassionate exploration of scientific wonder that offers “a fresh perspective on life, death, and the bittersweet consequences of impermanence,” (Jon Krakauer) as illuminated through the tragic dual cancer diagnoses of author Dr. Alan Townsend's wife and daughter. A decade ago, Dr. Alan Townsend's family received two unthinkable, catastrophic diagnoses: his 4-year-old daughter and his brilliant scientist wife developed unrelated, life-threatening forms of brain cancer. As he witnessed his young daughter fight during the courageous final months of her mother's life, Townsend – a lifelong scientist – was indelibly altered. He began to see scientific inquiry as more than a source of answers to a given problem, but also as a lifeboat: a lens on the world that could help him find peace with the painful realities he could not change. Through scientific wonder, he found ways to bring meaning to his darkest period. At a time when society's relationship with science is increasingly polarized while threats to human life on earth continue to rise, Townsend offers a balanced, moving perspective on the common ground between science and religion through the spiritual fulfillment he found in his work. Awash in Townsend's electrifying and breathtaking prose, THIS ORDINARY STARDUST offers hope that life can carry on even in the face of near-certain annihilation.

Bereavement is undeniably one of the most challenging experiences a child can face. It is crucial for individuals caring for such children to be well-informed about how to provide the best support. This comprehensive guide on children's grief is designed for teachers, educators, psychologists, and family members, and aims to equip them with essential knowledge about how to support the child and family through this experience.The authors delve into various aspects of grief reactions and processes in children, offering insights into bereavement in different settings, including home and school. The guide also explores therapy options, the impact on development and relationships, and the lasting effects that extend beyond childhood.Drawing from scientific research, clinical experience, and the voices of bereaved children through stories and quotes, this guide provides practical and concrete advice for those dedicated to supporting children's grief. It serves as an invaluable resource for understanding and aiding children in their journey through loss.

From Unthinkable Loss to Unbreakable ResilienceIn Keep Breathing, Dr. Kate Truitt, a renowned psychologist, applied neuroscientist, and trauma expert, shares her story of unimaginable loss, trauma, and, ultimately, healing. Faced with the sudden, gut-wrenching death of her fiancé just one week before their wedding day, Kate found her world shattered, catapulting her into a deep void of profound grief, trauma, shock, and guilt.Part memoir and part scientific exploration, Keep Breathing uses Kate's own personal account as a case study to illuminate the common experiences in our human brain—deep love and devastating loss, exhilaration and pain, life and death—that have the power to both derail our lives and ignite us to rebuild, heal, and grow. Her deeply personal loss sheds light on the human spirit's extraordinary ability to persevere and thrive in the face of suffering—providing readers with a roadmap to navigate their own paths to healing and self-discovery. With its raw yet warm candor, Kate's brave storytelling exemplifies what it means to truly come back to ourselves.

“An essential guide for anyone experiencing loss.” —Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Life Grief is a journey that can lead to powerful, personal growth. With contributions from grief experts Russ Harris, Alexandra Kennedy, Sameet Kumar, Mary Beth Williams, and Soili Poijula, this thoughtful compilation will help you heal the pain of loss—no matter the cause—and move forward in life with a renewed sense of meaning and purpose. Grief comes in many forms. You may grieve a loved one who has passed on, a romantic relationship which has ended, the loss of a job you loved, or even a place you used to go that no longer exists or has changed. You may also be dealing with another kind of loss—a sense of who you are and how you can live your life in an increasingly uncertain and changed world. But what if you could transform your grief into lasting positive growth? Featuring excerpts from the authors'previously published works, How to Grieve What We've Lost offers effective therapeutic tools based in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and more. In the book, you'll find strategies for immediate relief, including present-moment awareness and mindful breathing. You'll learn to create a safe sanctuary for your grief, so you can honor your feelings and give them the space they deserve. And you'll discover ways to create a support network, give voice to your sorrow, and share your humanity with others. This heartfelt guide also includes simple tools to help you: Identify the things that really matter to you Honor your grief Prioritize your mental health and self-care Learn and grow from your loss Whether you are struggling with your own loss or a collective sense of grief, the evidence-based skills in this book will help you mourn in healthy and resilient ways—leading to profound personal growth and a renewed sense of meaning and purpose in life.

“What is comfort but a filament between past and present with some sort of future implied? In other words, safety. In other words, care. I know it is possible to find these things without her—I know they are there. But it can be so hard to ask. So much is unknown.” Rebecca Spiegel is working as a teacher in New Orleans when she learns of her sister's suicide. Only after the funeral does shock give way to grief—and to many questions. How could Emily do this to herself? How could she have abandoned all those who loved her? And what could have been done differently to prevent this devastating loss? In the days and weeks that follow, Spiegel embarks on a search for answers. She unpacks family history, documents the last traces of her sister's life, and questions what more she could have done to prevent her death. Unsparingly honest and resistant to simple solutions, “This clear-eyed reckoning offers a path toward understanding what always exists on the other side of grief: the joyful fact of a deep and abiding love” (Camille T. Dungy).

A practical, compassionate guide to sibling loss, with research, stories, and strategies for “forgotten mourners” as they move through the stages of grief towards finding meaning. After her brother was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan, Annie Sklaver Orenstein was heartbroken and unmoored. Standing in the grief section of her local bookstore, she searched for guides on how to work through her grief as a mourning sibling—and found nothing. More than 4 million American adults each year will lose a sibling, yet there isn't a modern resource guide available that speaks directly to this type of grief that at times can be overshadowed by grieving parents and spouses and made even more difficult by the complexities of sibling dynamics. In AlwaysaSibling, Annie uses her own story and those of others to create the empathic, thoughtful, practical resource that she sought. Divided into three sections: With, Without, and Within, it creates a framework that enables the reader to ground themselves in order to process and validate this often overlooked grief. Annie guides readers to capture the memories and emotions of life with their now deceased sibling, then moves to addressing the grieving process in detail as they navigate life without them. Ultimately, readers will find ways to experience their sibling's presence within themselves and acknowledge their legacy. With practical strategies rooted in proven grief processing techniques, trauma recovery, and psychoanalysis, Always A Sibling truly supports mourners through the unique experience of sibling loss.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE HILARY WESTON WRITERS'TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTIONTHE GLOBE AND MAIL: BOOKS TO READ IN FALL 2023THE GLOBE AND MAIL BEST 100 BOOKS OF 2023CBC BOOKS BEST CANADIAN NONFICTION OF 2023Martha Baillie's richly layered response to her mother's passing, her father's life, and her sister's suicide is an exploration of how the body, the rooms we inhabit, and our languages offer the psyche a home, if only for a time. Three essays, three deaths. The first is the death of the author's mother, a protracted disappearance, leaving space for thoughtfulness and ritual: the washing of her body, the making of a death mask. The second considers the author's father, his remoteness, his charm, a lacuna at the centre of the family even before his death, earlier than her mother's. And then, the shocking death of the author's sister, a visual artist and writer living with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, who writes three reasons to die on her bedroom wall and then takes her life.In this close observation of a family, few absolutes hold, as experiences of reality diverge. A memoir of cascading grief and survival from the author of The Incident Report.'Martha Baillie's novels are thrillingly, joyously singular, that rare combination of sui generis and just plain generous. That There Is No Blue, her memoir, is all of those things too, is no surprise; still, she has gone somewhere extraordinary. This triptych of essays, which exquisitely unfolds the “disobedient tale” of the lives and deaths of her mother, her father, and her sister, is a meditation on the mystery and wonder of grief and art making and home and memory itself. It made me think of kintsugi, the Japanese art of repair, in which the mending is not hidden but featured and beautifully illuminated. Baillie's variety of attention, carved out of language, is tenderness, is love.'– Maud Casey, author of City of Incurable Women'This is a stunning memoir, intense and meticulous in its observations of family life. Baillie subtly interrogates and conveys the devastating mistranslations that take place in childhood, the antagonism and porousness of siblings, and the tragedy of schizophrenia as it unfolds. I couldn't put it down.'– Dr. Lisa Appignanesi, author of Mad, Bad and Sad and Everyday Madness''Exquisite.'– Souvankham Thammavongsa, author of How to Pronounce Knife'I am grateful for this profound meditation on family and loss.” – Charlie Kaufman, filmmaker'This strange, unsettling memoir of outer life and inner life and their bizarre twining captures the author's identity by way of her mother's death, her sister's failing battle with mental illness, and the mysterious figure of her father. It combines anguished guilt, deep tenderness, and bemused affection in highly evocative, often disturbing prose. Its brave honesty is amplified by a persistent lyricism; its undercurrent of fear is uplifted by a surprising, resilient hopefulness. It is both a plea for exoneration and an act of exoneration, an authentic meditation on the terrible difficulty of being human.'– Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon

Compassion-Based Approaches in Loss and Grief introduces clinicians to a wide array of strategies and frameworks for engaging clients throughout the loss experience, particularly when those experiences have a protracted course. In the book, clinicians and researchers from around the world and from a variety of fields explore ways to cultivate compassion and how to implement compassion-based clinical practices specifically designed to address loss, grief, and bereavement. Students, scholars, and mental health and healthcare professionals will come away from this important book with a deepened understanding of compassion-based approaches and strategies for enhancing distress tolerance, maintaining focus, and identifying the clinical interventions best suited to clients'needs.

Modern society has a warped sense of the partner-caregiver role, especially for men. Too often, men are ill equipped to handle switching from provider to caregiver, and the “just suck it up” advice so many offer up falls as flat as the Kansas prairie in the face of the reality of life and death.Ride or Die takes its audience through the intimate conversations and thoughts of a Gen-X latchkey-generation husband—a man who has always had to fend for himself and believed that it's up to him to solve his own problems—as and after his wife, Jane, succumbs to a terminal disease.Jarie Bolander wrote this raw, heartfelt tribute to Jane and her handling of her illness to help men and the people who love them through the experience of loss and grief. A frank chronicle of how an intimate relationship can change and grow—even when the people involved feel there is nothing left to give—Ride or Die offers a detailed exploration of the male experience of grief, in the hopes that others suffering through it will not feel so alone.

An essential grief guide and recovery workbook for those who have said,'I thought I'd feel better by now.'Grief does not follow a timeline or a set path. It is nonlinear and messy, doubling back on itself just when you thought you were out of the woods. Those who have experienced the loss of a loved one know this unequivocally, but Western society still seems to think that grief should only last six months to a year—tops—when in fact, grief can last throughout a person's entire life and manifest as serious mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, anger, and despair.The Long Grief Journey, co-written by a psychotherapist and a clinical psychologist who have both worked with grieving individuals for decades, is for the people who are past the acute pain and effects of a sudden loss and are now learning to live beyond that. It is for those who by all appearances seem to have'moved on.'They're working, carrying out their responsibilities, showing up for important life events, yet they quietly bear the weight of their sadness and longing for their loved one. There's a name for this type of long-term, unresolved grief. In fact, there are several: complicated grief, traumatic grief, complex bereavement, prolonged grief, extended grief, abnormal grief, exaggerated grief, and pervasive grief disorder. If you feel'stuck'after experiencing the death of a loved one, even if much time has passed, this book is for you.With exercises, journal prompts, and rituals that will further help readers along their grief path, The Long Grief Journey, co-written by one of the authors of the classic grief book, I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye, is designed to educate, support, and coach you to rekindle a desire to live life fully, all while still cherishing and embracing the memories of your loved one.Named one of Choosing Therapy's'14 Best Books on Losing a Parent for 2022.'

NEW STATESMAN, THE TIMES AND EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023'Full of sense, heart and hope... the friend you need when you're grieving'PHILIPPA PERRY'This book is a game-changer. Read it before you need to'DR KATHRYN MANNIX'It's honest and warm and funny (in all the right places)'JULIA SAMUELWhen Cariad Lloyd was just fifteen, she became the person-whose-dad-had-died; a mess of emotions and questions. She turned to the Five Stages of Grief model for guidance, but found its framework of loss was hard to reconcile with her messy and non-linear experience of grief.In this wise and witty book, Cariad shares her grief road map – a collection of years of profound insights from experts and guests featured on her podcast, Griefcast – to remind us that you cannot do grief wrong. The flexibility of the map acknowledges that no two experiences of grief are the same and assists us in building a life around our grief.So, welcome to the club. We know you didn't ask to be here. But you will be okay. Because you are not alone.'A blackly funny, honest, thought-provoking and compassionate book'THE TIMES'Feels like a warm bath... Lloyd's chatty writing style is familiar and funny'NEW STATESMAN'A moving and funny meditation on loss'OBSERVER

Essays mourning the losses of the COVID pandemic, and a guide to writing your own: “A wonderful resource for those seeking an outlet for their grief.” —Publishers Weekly In 2020, Martha Greenwald invited mourners to write memories of loved ones lost to COVID on the Who We Lost website. The site has been growing ever since, as the bereaved continue to write and publish stories, and the writers'toolbox section of the website offers guidance and prompts for anyone wishing to contribute their story to this grassroots public memorial. The resultant book, Who We Lost: A Portable COVID Memorial, contains dozens of essays and a writing guide for those wishing to add their own story about a loved one who died from COVID. It is a community-generated tribute, a eulogy, and a collective memorial—the first book that focuses on the grief of the COVID-bereaved, and offers a purposeful activity that respects mourners as well as the mourned. “Who We Lost manages, in its specificity, to immortalize not only the people whose lives and losses are represented here but also so many others whose names have gone unlisted.” —Third Coast Review

An Oprah Daily Spring 2023 Reading List Pick Zibby Media Award for'Best Book For the Griever'2023 A Kirkus Best Book of 2023'...striking a deeply resonant chord for anyone who has experienced the obsessive self-searching that often accompanies a sudden loss.'-- Oprah Daily'A gorgeous, grief-stricken remembrance... a wise reminder that we all must'weather the storm'of loss.'--People Magazine'Carson captures the pervasive nature of grief with a poetic voice that beautifully resonates.'-- Shondaland'This is raw, heartfelt, beautiful, soul-opening and real.'-- Zibby Owens for Good Morning America From an exciting new literary voice: a memoir that explores grief, Blackness, and recovery after the death of a dear friend. After an unexpected phone call on an early morning in 2018, writer and model Eirinie Carson learned of her best friend Larissa's death. In the wake of her shock, Eirinie attempts to make sense of the events leading up to Larissa's death and uncovers startling secrets about her life in the process. THE DEAD ARE GODS is Eirinie's striking, intimate, and profoundly moving depiction of life after a sudden loss. Amid navigating moments of intense grief, Eirinie is overwhelmed by her love for Larissa. She finds power in pulling moments of joy from the depths of her emotion. Eirinie's portrayal of what love feels like after death bursts from the page alongside a timely, honest, and personal exploration of Black love and Black life. Perhaps, Eirinie proposes, “The only way out is through.”

A true story about the ways loss can transform us into the people we want to become.“What Looks Like Bravery is a gorgeous, tender, and beautiful book. I'm in tears with the happy-sad truth and beauty of it. Laurel is a magnificent writer.” —Cheryl Strayed, New York Times bestselling author of WildLaurel Braitman spent her childhood learning from her dad how to out-fish grown men, keep bees, and fix carburetors. Diagnosed young with terminal cancer, he raced against the clock to leave her the skills she'd need to survive without him. This was one legacy. Another was relentless perfectionism and the belief that bravery meant never acknowledging your own fear.By her mid-thirties Laurel is a ship about to splinter on the rocks, having learned the hard way that no achievement can protect her from pain or remove the guilt and regret her dad's death leaves her with. So, she determines to explore her troubled internal wilderness by way of some big exterior ones—Northern New Mexico, Western Alaska, her Tinder App. She finds help from a wise birder in the Bering Sea, a few dozen grieving kids, and a succession of smart teachers who convince her that you cannot be brave if you're not scared. Along the way, she faces a wildfire that threatens everyone and everything she cares about and is forced by life to say another wrenching goodbye long before she wants to. This time she may not be ready, but she's prepared. Joy in the wake of loss, she learns, isn't possible despite the hardest things that happen to us, but because of the meaning we forge from them.

The unflinching Pulitzer Prize–winning essay on mourning and recovery in the wake of an inconceivable tragedy. An Atlantic Edition, featuring long-form journalism by Atlantic writers, drawn from contemporary articles or classic storytelling from the magazine's 165-year archive.When Bobby McIlvaine died in the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, his loved ones spun off in radically different directions, each mourning in his or her own distinct—and often highly idiosyncratic—way. Twenty years later, Jennifer Senior, a family friend and award-winning reporter, revisits the McIlvaines, examines their present lives, and contemplates what grief really means, in all its jagged complexity.

Winner: Silver Nautilus Book Award, Death & Dying/Grief & LossLicensed grief and trauma therapist Gina Moffa illuminates a non-linear path through grief, with tools and practices to grieve at your own pace and use loss as a catalyst for a more connected, meaningful life moving forward—perfect for readers of Grief Day by Day and It's OK That You're Not OK. After nearly two decades of clinical experience and her own journey after losing her mother to cancer, Gina Moffa, LCSW offers knows all too well how disorienting, painful, and lonely grief can be. In Moving on Doesn't Mean Letting Go, she offers a heartfelt, practical map through loss—one that can shift the pain of your grief even when things feel unpredictable and overwhelming. With her help you'll learn to: Navigate the initial shock of the “griefall” Recognize your unique grief rhythm Get in touch with your needs, feelings, and boundaries Mange social media and interactions with the outside world Connect mind and body through somatic exercises and self-reflections Gina gives readers permission to grieve authentically—with none of the toxic positivity that bypasses the possibility of true healing and transformation—because you don't have to choose between falling apart or staying strong. You can learn to be empowered by the very thing you imagined would swallow you whole. “A must read. Help your mind feel less heavy and open the door to deep personal growth'—Yung Pueblo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lighter and Clarity & Connection.

A searching, heartfelt exploration about what it means to process grief, by a bestselling author and journalist whose experience with two devastating losses inspired her to bring comfort and understanding to others. Since losing her mother to cancer in 2018 and her sister to alcoholism less than three years later, author and journalist Dina Gachman has dedicated herself to understanding what it means to grieve, healing after loss, and the ways we stay connected to those we miss. Through a mix of personal storytelling, reporting, and insight from experts and even moments of humor, Gachman gives readers a fresh take on grief and bereavement—whether the loss is a family member, beloved pet, or a romantic relationship. No one wants to join the grief club, since membership comes with zero perks, but So Sorry for Your Loss will make that initiation just a little less painful.In the spirit of Elizabeth Kubler Ross books like On Grief and Grieving, or C.S. Lewis's A Grief Observed, So Sorry for Your Loss is the perfect gift for someone who is grieving. With her blend of personal experiences, expert advice, and just a little bit of humor, Gachman has provided a compassionate and compelling resource for anyone looking for grief books.

“No matter how much I enjoyed parenthood, I found myself having to accept its fundamental truth: that nothing ever turns out quite as you'd expect.”It was a journey that most parents would hope to avoid: a son born with a congenital heart defect, a fateful decision to take a family trip abroad, and an emergency hospitalization that left them stranded on the other side of the world with no obvious way home. Despite these difficult circumstances, More Than We Expected is not a tragedy. Instead, this memoir offers valuable lessons about the privilege of parenthood and the practice of medicine: the mysterious ways in which the body forms and grows, giving life; how we find the faith to live with our decisions, even if the consequences are beyond our control; and a family's extraordinary capacity—when something goes wrong—to compensate and heal. More Than We Expected is a story of finding strength in the most unexpected places. Our children have a special ability to reveal the goodness in the world—their eyes a window to a life full of wonder. Like them, this book is a vivid reminder of what it means to be human—a miraculous, inexplicable gift, however fleeting.

Grief and loss are fundamental aspects of the human experience. Narrative and Grief examines the desire to make sense out of the nonsensical by exploring specific stories of loss and grief, spanning from the loss of a parent, child, or partner, loss within larger family systems; and ambiguous and anticipatory loss to broader cultural aspects of grief. The autoethnographic essays in this book reflect on the unique and individual experiences of each contributor's story. Simultaneously, these essays reveal that although each grief experience is unique, it is also collective, evoking broader cultural themes related to loss and grief. Scholars of communication, sociology, and family studies will find this book of particular interest.

'This is a story about a team that becomes a family and a family that becomes a team... a wonderful book.'-- Cal Ripken, Jr.'A MUST READ!'--USA TODAY (ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2023)An achingly heartfelt and surprisingly funny memoir about family, grief, and moving forward. When her brother dies from cancer, and then her mother just four months later, Teresa Strasser has no one to mourn with but her irresponsible, cantankerous, trailerpark-dwelling father. He claims not to remember her chaotic childhood, but he's a devoted grandpa, so as her son embarks on his first season pitching in Little League, Teresa and Nelson form a grief group of two in beach chairs lined up behind the first base line. There are no therapeutically trained facilitators and no rules other than those dictated by the Little League of America, and the human heart. For Teresa and her father, the stages of grief are the draft, the regular season, and the playoffs. One season of baseball becomes the framework for a memoir about family, loss, and the fundamentals of baseball and life. They cheer, talk smack about other teams, scream at each other in the parking lot, and care way too much about Little League. Making It Home is a bracingly honest journey through grief, self-doubt, and anxiety armed with humor and optimism. After all, America's pastime may be just a game, but it always leaves room for redemption, even at the bottom of the lineup.

'The Urgent Life shines a bright light on the intricacies of the shadows she's been in, and illuminates the beauty of her urgent life.” —Serena WilliamsFrom iconic leader Bozoma Saint John, comes a memoir of grief, and one woman's drive to thrive in the face of lossWhen Bozoma Saint John's husband, Peter, died of cancer, she made one big decision: to live life urgently. Bozoma was no stranger to adversity, having lost her college boyfriend to suicide, navigated an interracial marriage, grieved a child born prematurely--a process that led to her and Peter's separation--and coparented the daughter who she and Peter shared. When Peter knew his cancer was terminal, he gave Bozoma a short list of things to do: cancel the divorce, and fix the wrongs immediately. In The Urgent Life, Bozoma takes readers through the dizzying, numbing days of multiple griefs, and the courage which these sparked in her to live life in accordance with her deepest values time and time again. We witness Bozoma's journey forward through the highs and the lows, as she negotiates life as a woman determined to learn from tragedies to build a remarkable life worth living even in her brokenness.Bozoma's story is extraordinary, but her grief is not uncommon, and her courage is sure to touch any reader who has loved, mourned and is finding a path through loss and grief, as well as anyone who is maneuvering a pivot and wants to live life to its fullest.

As her sweetheart's body lies cooling on the living room floor, Joni Sensel—shattered but not surprised—revisits her premonition about this moment. From nearly the start of their fairy tale romance less than four years ago, she knew she would lose Tony, the man she considered to be her soul mate. He was in great health, but fate had other plans—a hard truth that visited Joni in the form of a startling vision during their second weekend together. Though she kept the premonition a secret while Tony was alive, upon his death she's compelled to share it with his spirit in the form of a letter. A grief memoir with a paranormal twist, Feeling Fate explores how a dark intuition magnified Sensel's love and gratitude in the time she and Tony had together before her premonition came true. Faced with evidence of a grand design alongside her grief, she's torn between faith and skepticism. While she's nearly undone by the pain of her loss, she eventually discovers that a sassy imagination and the irrational insights of the heart can both defeat despair and transform her grief into meaning.

Clearing the Path is a collection of clinical stories that illustrate practical, applicable communication tools for professionals in work with end-of-life patients and families. These vignettes from practice demonstrate how impending death, death itself, and the loss of a relationship affect the lives and grief of both patients and survivors. Written 13 years after its companion volume The Weeping Willow, the book brings even more complex encounters and nuanced emotions from additional years of experience in the field. The stories are woven in with the counseling process, thought process, and dilemmas of the counselor. Each story is then followed by'Notes to the Practitioner'with clear, practical and professional advice on navigating various communication issues and end with'Conclusions'which are short summaries of each vignette's teachings. At the end of each chapter the reader will find recent, annotated references for those who wish to read more about the topic. Chapters provide new, in-depth tools for dealing with death, grief, and loss from both the griever and the counselor or medical professional's perspective. What is unique to this book is the insight into the authentic human emotions experienced by both counselors and clients in these encounters with dying and grieving, making it useful for both the caregivers and the recipients of end-of-life care. Acknowledging that communication is individual and dependent on all the involved parties, these stories were selected to demonstrate many ways of communication through a range of situations, as well as the various attitudes, harmful and helpful, revealed in responses from people surrounding the patient or griever. Clearing the Path is not a conventional'how- to'book and it aims instead to teach by example from the hands-on counseling experiences of two experts who have worked in the field of field of death and dying, grieving and loss with responsibility and care. For professionals at all levels of experience those looking to navigate the difficulties of end-of-life care, this is the perfect guide.

A mother's beautiful elegy to her son lost to overdose.Holden After and Before is a moving meditation on grief: a stunning book that traces Tara McGuire's excavation and documentation of the life path of her son Holden, a graffiti artist who died of an accidental opioid overdose at the age of twenty-one. Beginning with Holden's death and leaping through time and space, McGuire employs fact, investigation, memory, fantasy, and even fabrication in her search for understanding not only of her son's tragic death, but also his beautiful life. She navigates and writes across the many blank spaces to form a story of discovery and humanity, examining themes of grief, pain, mental illness, trauma, creative expression, identity, and deep, unending love inside just one of the thousands of deaths that have occurred as a result of the opioid crisis. With poignant honesty and a heart laid bare, Holden After and Before is a beautiful and moving elegy to a son lost to overdose.

An intensely moving and revelatory memoir of enduring and emerging from exceptional grief To grieve after a profound loss is perfectly natural and healthy. To be debilitated by grief for more than a decade, as Andrea Gilats was, is something else. In her candid, deeply moving, and ultimately helpful memoir of breaking free of death's relentless grip on her life, Gilats tells her story of living with prolonged, or “complicated,” grief and offers insight, hope, and guidance to others who suffer as she did. Thomas Dayton, Andrea Gilats's husband of twenty years, died at 52 after a five-month battle with cancer. In After Effects Gilats describes the desolation that followed and the slow and torturous twenty-year journey that brought her back to life. In the two years immediately following his death, Gilats wrote Tom daily letters, desperately trying to maintain the twenty-year conversation of their marriage. Excerpts from these letters reveal the depth of her despair but also the glimmer of an awakening as they also trace a different, more typical course of the grief experienced by one of Gilats's colleagues, also widowed. Gilats's struggle to rescue herself takes her through the temptation of suicide, the threat of deadly illness, the overwhelming challenges of work, and the rigor of learning and eventually teaching yoga, to a moment of reckoning and, finally, reconciliation to a life without her beloved partner. Her story is informed by the lessons she learned about complicated grief as a disorder that, while intensely personal, can be defined, grappled with, and overcome.Though complicated grief affects as many as one in seven of those stricken by the loss of a close loved one, it is little known outside professional circles. After Effects points toward a path of recuperation and provides solace along the way—a service and a comfort that is all the more timely and necessary in our pandemic-ravaged world of loss and isolation.

Death itself is already a major taboo in the Western world. The same can be said about grief, particulalry when it is not seen as such - the so-called symbolic and/or ambiguous losses. With this reality in mind, Gabriela Casellato has gathered fundamental texts to better understand the subject. Divided into four parts -'GRIEF IN EARLY-LIFE LOSSES','GRIEF IN LOSSES BY NON-NORMATIVE LIFEE-COUSE TRANSITIONS','Grief in Care Giving'and'Social Engagement: From Silence to Action'– this book also includes an afterword on the Covid-19 pandemic, which has swept the world and continues to devastate Brazil. Topics covered include: -Fraternal mourning, widowhood, and falling ill with cancer; -Grief faced by those outside of heteronormativity; -Mourning of women who fail to get pregnant; -Subjective and objective losses of immigrants; -Emotional difficulties of formal and informal caregivers and palliative care teams; -Grief of patients who lose their therapist; - Silenced grief of people in religious roles.'This new book edited by Gabriela Casellato is a great contribution to the subject of disenfranchised grief. This volume features chapters by psychologists specialized in the subject, as well as texts written by people who have lived through these losses. Casellato not only expands the dimensions of symbolic/ambiguous loss, but also applies the concept to the specifics of Brazilian culture, integrating theory and intervention. Mandatory work for psychologists, educators and all those who deal with losses without the support and validation they need.'KENNETH J. DOKA PHD, author of Disenfranchised grief: new connections, challenges, and strategies for practice.'In her book, Disenfranchised Grief in Contemporary Society, Gabriela Casellato assembles a capable cast of contributors who ask the hard questions and offer authoritative answers regarding the marginalized, stigmatized or simply invisible losses that abound in human life, and that call for greater communal and societal recognition and support. More than simply sounding a call to consciousness, it stretches the boundaries of our understanding of disqualified, disenfranchised loss, whether it arises in connection with the death of a person, place, project or possibility that had once been life-defining. I recommend it to every professional seeking greater clarity, competence and compassion regarding the silent suffering of many of those they serve, and to every one of us who carry the private weight of our own hidden losses.'ROBERT A. NEIMEYER, PhD, editor of New Techniques of Grief Therapy: Bereavement and Beyond, and Director, Portland Institute for Loss and Transition

Winner: Gold Nautilus Book Award, Death & Dying/Grief & LossExpanding on Pauline Boss's seminal work on ambiguous loss, this book explores the complications and deviations from traditional grief when mourning a loss, but not a death—and offers real solutions for healing. Grief isn't always the result of something finite, marking a death or complete end. Soul-shattering grief can also be activated by a dramatic shift in an important relationship, such as a divorce or significant breakup, a life-changing medical diagnosis, or a broken connection with an addicted child. How do we grieve people who are still alive, but no longer who they once were to us? Most people will experience this type of traumatic event over the course of their lifetime, yet the complications of these situations often leave grievers feeling alienated or ashamed. Soulbroken is a guidebook that recognizes this often-misunderstood grief, validates the unique challenges posed by its ambiguity, and champions tools for healing. In it, Stephanie Sarazin presents the ambiguous grief process, offering insights to help readers better understand the nuances of their grief experience when a loved one is not lost to death. With intimate stories of others'path to recovery using Sarazin's advice, this book will help anyone ready to find a way through their own grief, regardless of where they are on their journey.

A poignant meditation on mortality from a beloved Canadian poet A writer friend once pointed out that whenever Stuart Ross got close to something heavy and “real” in a poem, a hamburger would inevitably appear for comic relief. In this hybrid essay/memoir/poetic meditation, Ross shoves aside the heaping plate of burgers to wrestle with what it means to grieve the people one loves and what it means to go on living in the face of an enormous accumulation of loss. Written during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, shortly after the sudden death of his brother left him the last living member of his family and as a catastrophic diagnosis meant anticipating the death of his closest friend, this meditation on mortality — a kind of literary shiva — is Ross's most personal book to date. More than a catalogue of losses, The Book of Grief and Hamburgers is a moving act of resistance against self-annihilation and a desperate attempt to embrace all that was good in his relationships with those most dear to him.

NPR SciFri Book Club PickNext Big Idea Club's'Top 21 Psychology Books of 2022'Behavioral Scientist Notable Books of 2022A renowned grief expert and neuroscientist shares groundbreaking discoveries about what happens in our brain when we grieve, providing a new paradigm for understanding love, loss, and learning.In The Grieving Brain, neuroscientist and psychologist Mary-Frances O'Connor, PhD, gives us a fascinating new window into one of the hallmark experiences of being human. O'Connor has devoted decades to researching the effects of grief on the brain, and in this book, she makes cutting-edge neuroscience accessible through her contagious enthusiasm, and guides us through how we encode love and grief. With love, our neurons help us form attachments to others; but, with loss, our brain must come to terms with where our loved ones went, or how to imagine a future without them. The Grieving Brain addresses:Why it's so hard to understand that a loved one has died and is gone foreverWhy grief causes so many emotions—sadness, anger, blame, guilt, and yearningWhy grieving takes so longThe distinction between grief and prolonged griefWhy we ruminate so much after we lose a loved oneHow we go about restoring a meaningful life while grievingBased on O'Connor's own trailblazing neuroimaging work, research in the field, and her real-life stories, The Grieving Brain combines storytelling, accessible science, and practical knowledge that will help us better understand what happens when we grieve and how to navigate loss with more ease and grace.

This powerful memoir follows a father's journey to make sense of his world after losing his son to addiction and suicide.Fifteen years ago, Richard Boothby received a fateful call from his ex-wife that their twenty-three-year-old son, Oliver, was dead. Although Richard had been dreading this news, given Oliver's prolonged struggle with drug dependency, nothing could have prepared him for the devastating shock. He became obsessed with uncovering the truth of why Oliver shot himself—had he been self-medicating an undiagnosed mental illness?—and what they could have done to prevent it. In an attempt to stem the pain, Boothby turned to psychoanalysis. He was no stranger to the concept—as a professor of philosophy, he had focused his career on the intersection between psychoanalytic theory and contemporary philosophy—but this was far from an academic exercise. Through his time in talk therapy, as well as psychedelic experiences in a research study on psilocybin, he would gradually find a sense of acceptance of the unknown, and a renewed appreciation for life. Exploring the epidemics of substance abuse and gun violence from an intimate perspective, Boothby's poignant account of grief shows how the death of a loved one can in some ways bring us closer to them and ourselves.

The loss of a loved one can be overwhelming. How do we endure grief? Can we simply forget, or'get over it?'This book explains the science behind bereavement, from emotion to the persistence of memory, and shows readers how to understand and adapt to death as a part of life. Responses to loss are typically associated with negative emotions, traumatic memories, or separation distress, but we grieve because we care. This book demonstrates how negative emotional responses experienced in grief often follow experiences with positive emotional memories. Dr. Lamia emphasizes an understanding and acceptance of post-loss emotions.Grief Isn't Something to Get Over aims to expand our understanding of bereavement, placing it in alignment with how emotions work. Using numerous case examples and personal vignettes, this book helps readers recognize the ways in which emotions are connected to memories and influence our experiences of loss.

A trusted grief expert shares advice on how to navigate the loss of a loved one in this incisive and compassionate guide: “calm, lucid prose… humanizing exploration of coping with the life-changing tides of loss” (Kirkus Reviews).In Grief is Love, author Marisa Renee Lee reveals that healing does not mean moving on after losing a loved one—healing means learning to acknowledge and create space for your grief. It is about learning to love the one you lost with the same depth, passion, joy, and commitment you did when they were alive, perhaps even more. She guides you through the pain of grief—whether you've lost the person recently or long ago—and shows you what it looks like to honor your loss on your unique terms, and debunks the idea of a grief stages or timelines. Grief is Love is about making space for the transformation that a significant loss requires. In beautiful, compassionate prose, Lee elegantly offers wisdom about what it means to authentically and defiantly claim space for grief's complicated feelings and emotions. And Lee is no stranger to grief herself, she shares her journey after losing her mother, a pregnancy, and, most recently, a cousin to the COVID-19 pandemic. These losses transformed her life and led her to question what grief really is and what healing actually looks like. In this book, she also explores the unique impact of grief on Black people and reveals the key factors that proper healing requires: permission, care, feeling, grace and more. The transformation we each undergo after loss is the indelible imprint of the people we love on our lives, which is the true definition of legacy. At its core, Grief is Love explores what comes after death, and shows us that if we are able to own and honor what we've lost, we can experience a beautiful and joyful life in the midst of grief.

Welcome to the club that no one ever wants to join but so many of us end up needing. We're so sorry that you're here. Based on her own experience with grief—the author's partner died when both were in their late twenties—and those of other Grief Club members, Janine Kwoh uses brief writings, illustrations, and creative diagrams to explore the wide range of emotions and experiences that grief can encompass. For anyone who has lost a loved one or who is close to someone who is grieving, Welcome to the Grief Club is a book of solace, connection, hope, and reassurance. It addresses with empathy and honesty the aspects of grief that so many of us experience but that aren't widely discussed: the variety and volatility of emotions—sadness, anger, guilt, joy; the physical symptoms of grief; and how grief isn't linear, but it does change and soften over time. It affirms that there is truly no right or wrong way to grieve and assures us that the things we feel that surprise us or seem strange are often common and always valid. Humor helps us to survive, and the book uses a lighthearted approach to cover powerful topics, like supremely unhelpful things that people say to those who are grieving, grief trigger bingo, and everyday acts of resilience. This book is a companion that says, I see you and you are not alone, from one grieving person to another. It is a gentle reminder to give yourself permission to grieve for as long as—and in whichever ways—you need.

The second installment in Ann Hood's Gracie Belle imprint challenges the traditional solemnity that characterizes nonfiction books of grief, loss, and sorrow.”Few readers will fail to be gripped by this tragically common story about death and what comes after for those left behind...A haunting and thought-provoking consideration of death and'how utterly it rips apart our lives.''--Kirkus Reviews, Starred review'Porter has written a memoir about the year after [Claire] died, a year he spent grieving and grappling with how to live and how to remember.'--Talk of Iowa'An inherently absorbing, thoughtful and thought-provoking read, Planet Claire: Suite for Cello and Sad-Eyed Lovers is laced with unexpectedly effective blend of humor and heartbreak, love and loss, that is as intimately personal as it is recognizably universal.'--Midwest Book Review'Through his turmoil and grief, readers are plunged into 274 pages of Porter's past and present, and through space as he navigates what he calls'Planet Claire.'The piece beautifully describes what his life with her was like and what it will be like with her not there.'--Daily Iowan'In elegiac prose, the bereft Porter grieves by reminiscing about the life [he and Claire] shared together...Porter's memoir is a wistful, often painful, but beautifully written account of the trauma of grief, and also embodies the way writing provides solace from the bleak absurdities of life.'--Booklist'[A] warmly rich, wholly enveloping and vividly ambient memoir.'--Exclusive Magazine'A searing account of love lost.'--MuggleNet'Jeff Porter has given us an incredibly warm, rich, vivid memoir, a love letter to his deceased wife and an autobiography of love attained and lost. When a person dies a world passes away, yet Porter has created a cabinet of wonders out of a thousand bits of the world that vanished when his wife died. The sentences are sharp and surprising, perfectly formed, by turns painful, funny, haunting, and inevitably right.'--Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone'Jeff Porter indelibly conjures his lost, beloved Claire in a'spiral galaxy'of memory, while offering the story of a delicious marriage in prose that is elegiac but also gorgeous, funny, and endearingly modest.'--Honor Moore, author of The Bishop's DaughterPlanet Claire is the story of the untimely death of the author's wife and his candid account of the following year of madness and grief. As his life unravels, Porter analyzes his sadness with growing interest. He talks to Claire as if to evoke a presence, to mark a space for memory. He reports on his daily walks and shares observations of life's sadness, while reminiscing about various moments in their life together. Like Orpheus, the author searches for a lost love, and what he finds is not the dog of doom but flashes of an intimate symmetry that brighten the darkest places of sorrow.The second title from Ann Hood's Gracie Belle imprint, Planet Claire takes readers on a journey of sorrow that recalls memorable works by C.S. Lewis (A Grief Observed), Joan Didion (The Year of Magical Thinking), and Julian Barnes (Levels of Life). Porter's memoir, however, is also playful, quirky, and self-ironic in a way that challenges the genre's traditional solemnity. Like the novel Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter, this is an unpredictably funny account of heartbreak, as if to say there's something about the magnitude of loss that troubles even earnestness.

A powerful exploration of grief and resilience following the death of the author's son that combines memoir, reportage, and lessons in how to heal Everyone deals with grief in their own way. Helen Macdonald found solace in training a wild gos­hawk. Cheryl Strayed found strength in hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. For Carol Smith, a Pulitzer Prize­ nominated journalist struggling with the sudden death of her seven-year-old son, Christopher, the way to cross the river of sorrow was through work. In Crossing the River, Smith recounts how she faced down her crippling loss through reporting a series of profiles of people coping with their own intense chal­lenges, whether a life-altering accident, injury, or diag­nosis. These were stories of survival and transformation, of people facing devastating situations that changed them in unexpected ways. Smith deftly mixes the stories of these individuals and their families with her own account of how they helped her heal. General John Shalikashvili, once the most powerful member of the American military, taught Carol how to face fear with discipline and endurance. Seth, a young boy with a rare and incurable illness, shed light on the totality of her son's experiences, and in turn helps readers see that the value of a life is not measured in days.Crossing the River is a beautiful and profoundly moving book, an unforgettable journey through grief toward hope, and a valuable, illuminating read for anyone coping with loss.

'Wonderful, thoughtful, practical'- Cariad Lloyd, Griefcast'Encouraging and inspiring'- Dr Kathryn Mannix, author of Amazon bestseller With the End in MindWe all know how this ends is a new approach to death and dying, showing how exploring our mortality really can change our lives.End-of-life doula Anna Lyons and funeral director Louise Winter have joined forces to share a collection of the heartbreaking, surprising and uplifting stories of the ordinary and extraordinary lives they encounter every single day. From working with the living, the dying, the dead and the grieving, Anna and Louise reveal the lessons they've learned about life, death, love and loss. Together they've created a profound but practical guide to rethinking the one thing that's guaranteed to happen to us all. We are all going to die, and that's ok. Let's talk about it. This is a book about life and living, as much as it's a book about death and dying. It's a reflection on the beauties, blessings and tragedies of life, the exquisite agony and ecstasy of being alive, and the fragility of everything we hold dear. It's as simple and as complicated as that.

A funeral celebrant from the Shetland Islands reveals how celebrating mortality—and creating a personalized space for grief—enriches lives and gives meaning to death. Part self-help, part memoir, this is a funny and thoughtful journey into the world of undertakers and death cafes, of pilgrimages and taboos... After a close encounter with death, Tom Morton realized he needed a change of pace and perspective. He decided to become the only independent funeral celebrant on the remote Shetland Islands, an unusual new profession that would lead him on an extraordinary journey into the world of the dead. In a vivid narrative that reveals the fascinating realm of the unspoken—from extraordinary undertakers and death cafés, to pilgrimages and taboos—Tom quickly learns that death and speaking for the dead requires you to think on your feet and often take a magpie approach to faith and philosophy. From Humanism to hymns, Theravada Buddhism to Star Wars theology, he discovers the importance of ritual, humor, and the empowering act of trying to find words for something beyond language itself. This is an accessible and thought-provoking guide to celebrating mortality. When grief must be an inevitable part of life, Tom shows how we can mourn together in a way that feels appropriate to the life of the one who has passed on, and ultimately cultivate a healthy attitude to our own eventual demise.

How does a mother say goodbye to her baby before she can even say a proper hello?In the memoir Love You Still, after years of infertility, when Maria Price learned she was carrying her second child, Julia, a healthy baby girl, she felt like she had moved past the pain into her miraculous happily ever after... until one day, without warning, at the end of a textbook pregnancy, Maria and her husband, Joe, sat staring at an ultrasound screen that was now, heartbreakingly, still.After birthing and then burying their daughter, Maria and Joe needed to navigate their separate grief journeys without losing each other. Despite Joe's seemingly unconditional love and endless patience, Maria still had to find a way to live in a world without her daughter through the depression, crisis of faith, and unplanned pregnancy that followed Julia's death.Had God failed Maria? Had she failed Him? Had she failed as a mother? Could she still parent her son, while grieving her daughter? Was there enough room in her heart for another baby? Could she survive another loss? Could she learn to live with the constant pain of Julia's absence? Was she willing to try?This is a path of inexplicable heartbreak, unexpected healing, and, through it all, unfailing love.

Life's never just about happiness, it's about meaning… We all suffer from loss and grief at some stage in our life, whether that's from losing a job or business, or health, mobility, fertility, to losing family, pets, your home or even one's sense of self and dignity. All losses lead to grief in varying degrees for the person experiencing it. International author and bereavement nurse educator, Karon Coombs has sensitively interviewed these well-known people about their personal experiences around loss. These inspiring stories will give you courage and help you work out ways to manage your grief journey. This book is full of easy and practical advice that will guarantee your road to successful recovery. You'll learn:- Essential strategies to help rebuild your life after loss- Tips and secrets from well-known people that will help you on your journey- How to break through the emotions of anger, sadness, fear and guilt to find forgiveness- Five golden rules to create meaning from your loss- Practical strategies to manage your waves of grief- About the challenges of intimacy and sex after loss- Why being of service to others can help heal your soul Be inspired to find meaning and happiness today!

From the globally acclaimed, best-selling novelist and author of We Should All Be Feminists, a timely and deeply personal account of the loss of her father: “With raw eloquence, Notes on Grief … captures the bewildering messiness of loss in a society that requires serenity, when you'd rather just scream. Grief is impolite... Adichie's words put welcome, authentic voice to this most universal of emotions, which is also one of the most universally avoided” (The Washington Post).Notes on Grief is an exquisite work of meditation, remembrance, and hope, written in the wake of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's beloved father's death in the summer of 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged around the world, and kept Adichie and her family members separated from one another, her father succumbed unexpectedly to complications of kidney failure. Expanding on her original New Yorker piece, Adichie shares how this loss shook her to her core. She writes about being one of the millions of people grieving this year; about the familial and cultural dimensions of grief and also about the loneliness and anger that are unavoidable in it. With signature precision of language, and glittering, devastating detail on the page—and never without touches of rich, honest humor—Adichie weaves together her own experience of her father's death with threads of his life story, from his remarkable survival during the Biafran war, through a long career as a statistics professor, into the days of the pandemic in which he'd stay connected with his children and grandchildren over video chat from the family home in Abba, Nigeria. In the compact format of We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, Adichie delivers a gem of a book—a book that fundamentally connects us to one another as it probes one of the most universal human experiences. Notes on Grief is a book for this moment—a work readers will treasure and share now more than ever—and yet will prove durable and timeless, an indispensable addition to Adichie's canon.

This'graceful, captivating'(New York Times Book Review) story from a singular new talent paints a portrait of grief and the search for meaning as told through the prism of three generations of her Chinese American family—perfect for readers of Helen Macdonald and Elizabeth Alexander. Kat Chow has always been unusually fixated on death. She worried constantly about her parents dying---especially her mother. A vivacious and mischievous woman, Kat's mother made a morbid joke that would haunt her for years to come: when she died, she'd like to be stuffed and displayed in Kat's future apartment in order to always watch over her. After her mother dies unexpectedly from cancer, Kat, her sisters, and their father are plunged into a debilitating, lonely grief. With a distinct voice that is wry and heartfelt, Kat weaves together a story of the fallout of grief that follows her extended family as they emigrate from China and Hong Kong to Cuba and America. Seeing Ghosts asks what it means to reclaim and tell your family's story: Is writing an exorcism or is it its own form of preservation? The result is an extraordinary new contribution to the literature of the American family, and a provocative and transformative meditation on who we become facing loss. AN NPR BOOKS WE LOVE 2021 PICK • A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF 2021 PICK • A NEW YORK TIMESNOTABLE BOOK OF 2021 • A HARPER'S BAZAAR BOOK YOU NEED TO READ IN 2021 • A TOWN & COUNTRYBEST BOOK OF 2021 PICK • A FORTUNE BEST BOOK OF 2021 PICK

In this instructive and uplifting narrative, Dr. Barry explores how to recover from loss, trauma, grief, and loneliness by helping readers identify their emotions and providing the steps to emotionally heal yourself.When we experience trauma, loss or grief the pain can feel as if it will last forever. We begin to wonder if our old selves—the ones who felt hope and happiness and joy—are lost to us. And our emotions can lead us into damaging behaviours that compound our problems. Dr Harry Barry acknowledges there is no magic wand that will take our pain away completely, but he uses his clinical experience, combined with cognitive behavioural therapy, to show that emotional healing is always possible. You can put yourself back together with the simple exercises and straightforward advice that have helped countless others. Healing is the process of restoring the healthy mind and body of someone in distress, and Dr. Barry offers a holistic approach to the whole person. Emotional Healing is a practical, compassionate companion for anyone who feels that their emotional wounds are preventing them from fully embracing life. Learn to feel like yourself again.

Written by two women who were bereaved at a young age It's Your Loss explores different approaches to grieving, to help navigate any loss.Any kind of loss - whether the death of a loved one, breakdown of a relationship, or loss of your job - can be devastatingly painful, with far-reaching effects. Even subtle losses can trigger a sense of grief. But, loss is a natural part of life, one we all go through, and one that can feel like the world is ending. By treading the path through your loss and taking time to sit with it, look at it and ultimately understand your reaction to it, the authors hope that you'll find ways to sit comfortably in your new normal.Emma Hopkinson and Robyn Donaldson believe that there is no right or wrong way to navigate loss, and explore their natural inclination to either keep their feelings in (Emma) or let them all out (Robyn), while offering key things they learned along the way. Expert commentary from psychologist Dr Sheetal Dandgey anchors their differing viewpoints in scientific fact.This ebook is a how-to for loss. A little walk through the moments, feelings and barriers you might encounter, whoever you are and whatever you lost. From understanding what kind of griever you are to forging your new path in life, it aims to start a conversation you'll want to keep having.

For anyone who has suffered loss, a collection of meditations and poses for working through grief.So often, we think that grief lives only in our hearts and minds. But what about the emotions that weigh us down and the grief that gets stuck in our body? Our emotions need motion, and Healing Through Yoga is a unique, simple, and powerful way of healing. Grief Yoga founder Paul Denniston takes you through the stages of Awareness, Expression, Connection, Surrender, and Evolution with clear and compassionate instruction, poses, exercises with easy-to-follow photos, and meditations specifically designed to move you through that particular step. Learn how to release pain and suffering without expectation or judgment and reconnect to life, love, and strength. Even if you have never done yoga before, with Healing Through Yoga you can process your grief and use it as fuel for transformative healing.FOR READERS OF: Healing After Loss, On Grief and Grieving, Chair Yoga,The Body Keeps the Score, and Grief Day by Day.EXPERT AUTHOR: Paul Denniston is the founder of Grief Yoga, a program he created with David Kessler (co-author of On Grief and Grieving) and tours worldwide, working with bereavement groups, cancer support centers, addiction and Alzheimer's groups, and people dealing with breakups, divorce, and betrayal. Denniston has a mailing list of 100,000 subscribers, and he teaches a weekly class to the 18,000 members in his public Grief Facebook group.NOT JUST FOR YOGIS: Paul's audience is mostly made up of people who had never thought of yoga as a way to work through grief. This practice is not as much about physical flexibility as it is about emotional liberation.GREAT RESOURCE FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS: Paul has taught this practice to over 10,000 therapists, counselors, and healthcare professionals around the world.A NEW TOOL FOR ALL TYPES OF LOSS: Paul teaches this class to workshops dealing with all kinds of loss, including breakups, divorce and betrayal, bereavement groups, cancer support centers, addiction groups, death by suicide, Alzheimer's support groups, bereaved parents and many more. This book can help with new and old losses and traumatic experiences that often go unattended.Perfect for: 18+, Yoga enthusiasts. grief help, self-help

Living Through Loss provides a foundational identification of the many ways in which people experience loss over the life course, from childhood to old age. It examines the interventions most effective at each phase of life, combining theory, sound clinical practice, and empirical research with insights emerging from powerful accounts of personal experience.The authors emphasize that loss and grief are universal yet highly individualized. Loss comes in many forms and can include not only a loved one's death but also divorce, adoption, living with chronic illness, caregiving, retirement and relocation, or being abused, assaulted, or otherwise traumatized. They approach the topic from the perspective of the resilience model, which acknowledges people's capacity to find meaning in their losses and integrate grief into their lives. The book explores the varying roles of age, race, culture, sexual orientation, gender, and spirituality in responses to loss. Presenting a variety of models, approaches, and resources, Living Through Loss offers invaluable lessons that can be applied in any practice setting by a wide range of human service and health care professionals.This second edition features new and expanded content on diversity and trauma, including discussions of gun violence, police brutality, suicide, and an added focus on systemic racism.

Odyssey of Ashes: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Letting Go begins with the sudden death of Cheryl Krauter's spouse. Five months later, in a stroke of irony and magic, her husband wins a long-desired guided fly fishing trip in a raffle—and Cheryl decides to go in his place, fulfilling a promise to scatter his ashes by a trout stream. Part I of this memoir is an account of the first year after Cheryl's husband's death, where she becomes an explorer in the infinite stream of grief and loss, a time traveler between the darkness of sorrow and the light of daily life. Part II concludes with stories of the poignant and humorous adventures she had during the ensuing year. Tying it all together and woven throughout is Cheryl's account of the creation of an altar assembled during the three-day ritual of Los Días de los Muertos. Poetic and mythological, Odyssey of Ashes is a raw story of loss and the deep transformation that traveling through darkness and returning to light can bring.

Reading this book, caregivers will find ways to increase their effectiveness by understanding more fully what their care receivers are experiencing, by finding creative ways to assist them in processing what is happening, and by working with them to discern responses to loss that are emotionally healthy, intellectually coherent, spiritually genuine, culturally sensitive, relationally authentic, and personally fulfilling.

A journalist pieces together the mysteries surrounding her ex-husband's descent into drug addiction while trying to rebuild a life for her family, taking readers on an intimate journey into the world of white-collar drug abuse.“A rare combination of journalistic rigor, personal courage, and writerly grace.”—Bill Clegg, author of Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man Something was wrong with Peter. Eilene Zimmerman noticed that her ex-husband looked thin, seemed distracted, and was frequently absent from activities with their children. She thought he looked sick and needed to see a doctor, and indeed, he told her he had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. Yet in many ways, Peter seemed to have it all: a beautiful house by the beach, expensive cars, and other luxuries that came with an affluent life. Eilene assumed his odd behavior was due to stress and overwork—he was a senior partner at a prominent law firm and had been working more than sixty hours a week for the last twenty years. Although they were divorced, Eilene and Peter had been partners and friends for decades, so when she and her children were unable to reach Peter for several days, Eilene went to his house to see if he was OK. So begins Smacked, a brilliant and moving memoir of Eilene's shocking discovery, one that sets her on a journey to find out how a man she knew for nearly thirty years became a drug addict, hiding it so well that neither she nor anyone else in his life suspected what was happening. Eilene discovers that Peter led a secret life, one that started with pills and ended with opioids, cocaine, and methamphetamine. He was also addicted to work; the last call Peter ever made was to dial in to a conference call. Eilene is determined to learn all she can about Peter's hidden life, and also about drug addiction among ambitious, high-achieving professionals like him. Through extensive research and interviews, she presents a picture of drug dependence today in that moneyed, upwardly mobile world. She also embarks on a journey to re-create her life in the wake of loss, both of the person—and the relationship—that profoundly defined the woman she had become.

Whether it be the death of a friend or family member, this book was written in consultation with teens to ensure it meets their needs. Inside these pages are moments you will identify with and guidance that will help you on your painful journey. There are no secrets here—this book can be your safety net, your comfort, your help. This unique book divides moments of grief into six colours of emotion as the road map forward. Each'moment'has two entries, one from the perspective of the person suffering from a loss, and another as a guide for a companion response, whether a friend, family member, colleagues or therapist. Blank pages are also included for reflection.