When we're grieving the death of someone loved, we need the support and compassion of our fellow human beings. Grief support groups provide a wonderful opportunity for this very healing kind of support. This book is for professional or lay caregivers who want to start and lead an effective grief support group for adults. It explains how to get a group started and how to keep it running smoothly once it's underway. The group leader's roles and responsibilities are explored in detail, including communication skills, trust building, handling problems, and more.This Guide also includes twelve meeting plans that interface with the second editions of Understanding Your Grief and The Understanding Your Grief Journal. Each week group members read a chapter in the main text, complete a chapter in the journal, and come to group ready for you to guide them through an exploration of the content. Meeting plans include suggestions for how to open each session as well as engaging exercises and activities. A Certificate of Completion you can photocopy and give to group members in the final meeting is provided.

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.

A practical introduction to setting up and facilitating bereavement support groups, guiding the reader through all stages. It examines the different skills needed, and uses case studies and research to suggest models of best practice across a range of group settings. The guidance will help make groups successful for participants and facilitators.

This classic resource helps guide the bereaved person through the loss of a loved one, and provides an opportunity to learn to live with and work through the personal grief process.

The Grief Support Group Curriculum provides a basis for assisting children and teenagers as they learn about mourning through facing death of a close or special friend. The aim of this curriculum is to facilitate healthy variations of mourning and positive adaptations following the death of a friend or family member. The work illustrates mourning in four stages of development and is accordingly divided into four separate texts. The texts focus on preschool-aged children, children in kindergarten through grade two, children in grades three through six, and teenagers.

Filling the gap between the challenges to conventional grief psychology and the practice of bereavement counseling, this structured guide will also inspire readers with a new way of thinkingNincluding the stories and love that remain after death. Here is a model for folding the deceased person's values, legacies, meanings, and connections into the lives of the living.

For anyone who has experienced the suicide of a loved one, coworker, neighbor, or acquaintance and is seeking information about coping with such a profound loss, this compassionate guide explores the unique responses inherent to their grief. Using the metaphor of the wilderness, the book introduces 10 touchstones to assist the survivor in this naturally complicated and particularly painful journey. The touchstones include opening to the presence of loss, embracing the uniqueness of grief, understanding the six needs of mourning, reaching out for help, and seeking reconciliation over resolution. Learning to identify and rely on each of these touchstones will bring about hope and healing.