Helping Grieving People

Helping Grieving People – When Tears Are Not Enough is a handbook for care providers who provide service, support and counseling to those grieving death, illness, and other losses. This book is also an excellent text for academic courses as well as for staff development training. The author addresses grief as it affects a variety of relationships and discusses different intervention and support strategies, always cognizant of individual and cultural differences in the expression and treatment of grief. Jeffreys has established a practical approach to preparing grief care providers through three basic tracks. The first track: Heart – calls for self-discovery, freeing oneself of accumulated loss in order to focus all attention on the griever. Second track: Head – emphasizes understanding the complex and dynamic phenomena of human grief. Third track: Hands – stresses the caregiver's actual intervention, and speaks to lay and professional levels of skill, as well as the various approaches for healing available. Accompanying these three motifs, the Handbook discusses the social and cultural contexts of grief as applied to various populations of grievers as well as the underlying psychological basis of human grief. Throughout the book, Jeffreys presents the role of the caregiver as an Exquisite Witness to the journey of grief and pain of bereaved family and friends, and also to the path taken by dying persons and their families. The second edition of Helping Grieving People remains true to the approach that has been so well received in the original volume. It includes updated research findings and addresses new information and developments in the field of loss, grief and bereavement.

We want to say or do something that helps our grieving friend. But what? When someone we know is grieving, we want to help. But sometimes we stay away or stay silent, afraid that we will do or say the wrong thing, that we will hurt instead of help. In this straightforward and practical book, Nancy Guthrie provides us with the insight we need to confidently interact with grieving people. Drawing upon the input of hundreds of grieving people, as well as her own experience of grief, Nancy offers specifics on what to say and what not to say, and what to do and what to avoid. Tackling touchy topics like talking about heaven, navigating interactions on social media, and more, this book will equip readers to support those who are grieving with wisdom and love.

A compassionate resource for friends, parents, relatives, teachers, volunteers, and caregivers, this series offers suggestions to help the grieving cope with the loss of a loved one. Often people do not know what to say—or what not to say—to someone they know who is mourning; this series teaches that the most important thing a person can do is listen, have compassion, be there for support, and do something helpful. This volume provides the fundamental principles of being a true companion, from committing to contact the friend regularly to being mindful of the anniversary of the death. Included in each book are tested, sensitive ideas for “carpe diem” actions that people can take right this minute—while still remaining supportive and honoring the mourner’s loss.

Your next-door neighbor has miscarried her first baby. What will you say when you see her? Your mother calls to tell you your father has been diagnosed as having cancer. What do you say? Your daughter calls to tell you her husband has filed for divorce. What ... ?Based on her own experience as a pastor's wife, in-depth research and interviews with Christian counselors and medical professionals, the author of Helping People Through Grief believes that though most people lack the skills to really help people in crisis, these skills can be learned. The book is designed to guide the reader in how to show care and concern--by what is said and done, by being sensitive to the process, and by knowing when to do what. Each chapter is based on true experiences, and caregivers are supplied with practical advice and insight, appropriate scripture for different needs, as well as a list of recommended books.

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.

Grief and loss are inevitable, a part of life's journey. Through storytelling, this resource offers a general map of the landscape of suffering where, ultimately, love can heal grief's wound.

Frequently, people with developmental disabilities are excluded from bereavement ceremonies when a loved one or friend dies, therefore not receiving the special care needed for comprehending their own feelings of loss. Focusing on creating mourning rituals for special needs people, this guide offers specific rituals and techniques for caregivers to use while helping explain death and dying. With more than 20 examples such as the use of pictures and storytelling or drawing and music, these practical tools can substantially lend to the understanding of grief and sadness for intellectually and developmentally disabled adults and adolescents.