Helping Children Cope With Separation And Loss Revised Edition

Advice for parents and professionals. Covers death, divorce, illness, and other challenges.

Explains techniques for aiding children in dealing with their feeling resulting from the loss of a loved one because of death, divorce, and other reasons. Bibliog.

A clear and practical guide for adults facing the responsibility of helping a child through the pain of separation and loss. Based on years of working with hundreds of bereaved children, this study describes the various stages of mourning and the type of behaviour shown by children at each delicate stage of the grieving process. It describes the many simple techniques that any adult can use to help children through their grief and guide them to its timely resolution. The author uses case histories and sample dialogues between helper and child, which help to explain the long-term impact of separation and loss in a wide variety of situations. This book aims to be helpful to any adult, whether parent, social worker, therapist, counsellor, teacher or friend who is faced with the responsibility of helping a grieving child.

A compassionate, step-by-step guide to help children cope with and recover from any kind of loss.

Whether it’s the grief of bereavement, the strain of divorce or the uncertainty of a new home or school, loss and change affect children in countless ways. Nevertheless, teachers and parents frequently find themselves ill-equipped to help children struggling with the difficult feelings that these situations, and others like them, bring. Helping Children Cope with Loss and Change offers guided support for teachers, health professionals and parents. Designed for use with children aged 4-10, this guide offers: Case studies illustrating various signs of grief and loss, to help the caregiver spot and manage a child’s pain. Therapeutic stories designed to be read with the child, and with prompt questions to encourage discussion. Creative activities and exercises that can be developed into a therapeutic ‘toolkit’ to support the child and the caregiver themselves. With chapters that move from Loss and Change to Resolution and Resilience, addressing the needs of both the child and caregiver, Helping Children Cope with Loss and Change will be an invaluable therapeutic tool.

Now in a fully updated second edition, this professional guidebook has been created to help adults provide emotional support for children who have experienced the loss of somebody they know, or something they loved. Written in an accessible style and with a sensitive tone, Helping Children with Loss provides adults with a rich vocabulary for mental states and painful emotions, paving the way for meaningful and healing conversations with children who are struggling with difficult feelings. Practical activities provide opportunities for conversation and will empower the child to find creative and imaginative ways of expressing themselves when words fail. Key features of this resource include: Targeted advice for children who defend against feeling their painful feelings by dissociating from grief Tools and strategies for helping children cope with loss, including engaging activities to help children explore their feelings in a non-threatening way Photocopiable and downloadable resources to help facilitate support Written by a leading child psychotherapist with over thirty years’ experience, this book will support children to develop emotional literacy and connect with unresolved feelings affecting their behaviour. It is an essential resource for anybody supporting children aged 4-12 who have experienced loss.

This is a guidebook to help children who: are suffering from the pain of loss or separation from someone or something they love deeply; have had a parent, relative or important friend leave or die; are obsessed with their absent parent; have lost someone they love, but have never really mourned; are trying to manage all their painful feelings of loss by themselves; feel that they have lost the love of someone they love deeply; are suffering from separation anxiety; and are adopted or fostered children who miss their birth parent terribly. Helping Children with Loss Using this engaging story and practical guidebook you can help children suffering from the pain of loss or separation. They may be: grieving for the death of a parent, relative or important friend; obsessed with an absent parent; struggling to mourn a loss; trying to manage all of their painful feelings by themselves; suffering from separation anxiety; and adopted or fostered children who miss their birth parent.

“Finally, someone has written about the best kept mental health secret: how dogs save psyches, hearts, minds, and sometimes, quite literally, lives . . .”—Belleruth Naparstek, LISW, author of Invisible Heroes As the more than 65 million dog-owners in America will attest, there’s something about the presence of a dog that inspires confidence, nurtures emotional well-being, and brings out the best in ourselves. But for some people, the presence of a dog can do even more. Written by the leading expert in an emerging new field of therapy, Healing Companions is the first book to detail how dogs are increasingly benefiting those who suffer from a range of emotional ills, from eating disorders and anxiety, to agoraphobia, depression, and post-traumatic stress. Healing Companions will teach you: What criteria to consider when choosing the right dog for you. What kind of training service dogs require. What to expect and how to respond when you take a service dog out in public. How a dog can complement other forms of therapy. How to navigate the procedural regulations that apply to a service dog. How to recognize the dog’s needs and provide it with proper care. And much more. “Animals are more complete than people. They are wonderful teachers, therapists and role models for us all. Read Healing Companions and learn about their ability to guide and heal us all.”—Bernie Siegel, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love, Animals, and Miracles “This book should be required reading for everybody who is considering getting a psychiatric service dog or is working on training them.”—Temple Grandin, author of Animals Make Us Human