Explaining the important difference between grief and mourning, this book explores every mourner's need to acknowledge death and embrace the pain of loss. Also explored are the many factors that make each person's grief unique and the many normal thoughts and feelings mourners might have. Questions of spirituality and religion are addressed as well. The rights of mourners to be compassionate with themselves, to lean on others for help, and to trust in their ability to heal are upheld. Journaling sections encourage mourners to articulate their unique thoughts and feelings.

This spiritual companion for mourners affirms their need to mourn and invites them to journey through their very unique and personal grief. Detailed are the six needs that all mourners must yield to and eventually embrace if they are to go on to find continued meaning in life and living, including the need to remember the deceased loved one and the need for support from others. Short explanations of each mourning need are followed by brief, spiritual passages that, when read slowly and reflectively, help mourners work through their unique thoughts and feelings. Also included in this revised edition are journaling sections for mourners to write out their personal responses to each of the six needs. This replaces 1879651114.

Grief as a Family Process draws on many sources, such as developmental psychology, psychoanalytic and family systems theory, and cultural anthropology. Using examples from a wide variety of cultural traditions, this book argues for a transformation of attachment to, instead of detachment from, the deceased family member to sustain and enhance family development.

Your heart is crushed. Finding it even difficult to breathe, you wake up to the reality that someone you treasure is gone. Death has stolen your loved one from your arms. Now the seemingly insurmountable difficult work of living through grief begins. Is there anything that can soothe this overwhelming ache? Is there a safe place for the anger? Will depression become a constant companion? Does the painful malaise last forever? How can I just get through the day? Comfort for the Day offers a personalized grief recovery experience, drawn from the source of all comfort– God. His Word will become a guide and friend as the reader lives through the confusing and painful seasons of grief. Comfort for the Day is what each grieving heart longs for. Used either as a gift for the bereaved or for your own personal needs, Comfort for the Day brings real help for really hurting people.

When watching a friend or loved one grieve a loss, you certainly want to help. But how, exactly; can you help? In what manner? With which tasks? In A Good Friend for Bad Times, grief counselors Deborah Bowen and Susan Strickler offer advice and concrete suggestions for helping a friend throughout the grief experience. A remarkably practical resource, this book first grounds you with an understanding of normal responses to grief, then offers insight for expressing sympathy and emotional support. In subsequent chapters, the authors give specific suggestions for both "what to do" and "what not to do" when providing assistance all through your friend's grief journey -- when anticipating a loved one's death, immediately after that death, and in the months and years beyond. In addition, this book relates how you can be supportive when the death involved particular circumstances, such as Alzheimer's disease, cancer, AIDS, suicide, or the death of a child. Special chapters advise how to comfort a friend whose loved one died in a catastrophic event; how to acknowledge your friend's grief on holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries; and how to reassure and console young children. In short, this hands-on guidebook will help you act on your impulse to be a good friend in bad times. Book jacket.

A handbook to enable ministry leaders to help others through bereavement Grief is a difficult topic that ministry leaders deal with on a regular basis. Do they have confidence in helping those who are suffering the loss of a loved one? Do they feel equipped to meet the differing needs that occur in the life of a survivor? Can they lead someone through a process of grief reconciliation? Are they able to plan and implement a bereavement ministry in their church or parish? Here is a book that can help leaders in a practical way to minister to those who are grieving. In addition, they will discover essential tools to deal with grief’s difficult questions. Drawing upon his thirty years of experience as a pastor and as a professional grief counselor, Dr. Michael provides a valuable resource for pastors and other grief leaders to use within their churches and organizations, and their surrounding communities. This work is a practical guide that will bring a greater understanding of the impact that loss has upon individuals and will provide competent counsel for ministering to them. In addition, it will equip the leader to implement a ministry of grief education and bereavement within a church or organization.

The classic New York Times bestseller about the many forms of loss we experience throughout our lives, and the necessity of letting go. In Necessary Losses, Judith Viorst turns her considerable talents to a serious and far-reaching subject: how we grow and change through the losses that are a certain and necessary part of life. She argues persuasively that through the loss of our mothers’ protection, the loss of the impossible expectations we bring to relationships, the loss of our younger selves, and the loss of our loved ones through separation and death, we gain deeper perspective, true maturity, and fuller wisdom about life. She has written a book that is both life-affirming and life-changing. Drawing on psychoanalysis, literature, and personal experience, Necessary Losses is a philosophy for understanding and accepting a universal human experience. “One of the most sensitive and comprehensive books about the human condition I have read in a long time.” —Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People “Viorst has synthesized a vast amount of research into a very readable and generous whole.” —The New York Times Book Review