A 100-page softcover book in which the author happily recounts her experiences with the dogs she has shared her home with for most of her adult life. She speaks with love for her dogs and explains her fascination with their varied personality traits and behaviours. A nationally recognised expert in thanatology (the study of death and dying), the author also explores the delicate subject of losing a beloved pet and offers understanding and support for grieving pet owners. The book includes appendices: Funeral Services for a Pet and The Rainbow Bridge, a poem about the joyful reunion with our pets in the afterlife.

'Extraordinary. It is about death, but I can think of few books which have such life. It shows us what love is.' Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing With Feathers and Lanny 'There is no one quite like Naja Marie Aidt' Valeria Luiselli 'Devastating, angry, challenging, fragmented and filled with the beautiful hope that the love we have for people continues into the world even after they're gone.' Culturefly 'Fragmented, poetic, informative and truthful, Aidt faces the greatest loss we can ever know with all the force of great elegy writers like Anne Carson and Denise Riley. Essential.' Polly Clark, author of Larchfield and Tiger _______ "I raise my glass to my eldest son. His pregnant wife and daughter are sleeping above us. Outside, the March evening is cold and clear. 'To life!' I say as the glasses clink with a delicate and pleasing sound. My mother says something to the dog. Then the phone rings. We don't answer it. Who could be calling so late on a Saturday evening?" In March 2015, Naja Marie Aidt's 25-year-old son, Carl, died in a tragic accident. When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back is about losing a child. It is about formulating a vocabulary to express the deepest kind of pain. And it's about finding a way to write about a reality invaded by grief, lessened by loss. Faced with the sudden emptiness of language, Naja finds solace in the anguish of Joan Didion, Nick Cave, C.S. Lewis, Mallarme, Plato and other writers who have suffered the deadening impact of loss. Their torment suffuses with her own as Naja wrestles with words and contests their capacity to speak for the depths of her sorrow. This palimpsest of mourning enables Naja to turn over the pathetic, precious transience of existence and articulates her greatest fear: to forget. The insistent compulsion to reconstruct the harrowing aftermath of Carl's death keeps him painfully present, while fragmented memories, journal entries and poetry inch her closer to piecing Carl's life together. Intensely moving and quietly devastating, this is what is it to be a family, what it is to love and lose, and what it is to treasure life in spite of death's indomitable resolve.

When Cathy Rentzenbrink was still a teenager, her happy family was torn apart by an unthinkable tragedy. In A Manual for Heartache she describes how she learnt to live with grief and loss and find joy in the world again. She explores how to cope with life at its most difficult and overwhelming and how we can emerge from suffering forever changed, but filled with hope.

This is a moving, warm and uplifting book that offers solidarity and comfort to anyone going through a painful time, whatever it might be. It's a book that will help to soothe an aching heart and assure its readers that they're not alone.

Even from upside-down in his recently flipped truck, Frank Soos reveals himself to be ruminative, grappling with the limitations of language to express the human condition. Moving quickly-skiing in the dark or taking long summer bike rides on Alaska highways-Soos combines an active physical life with a dark and difficult interior existence, wrestling the full span of "thinking and doing" onto the page with surprising lightness. His meditations move from fly-fishing in dangerously swift Alaska rivers to memories of the liars and dirty-joke tellers of his small-town Virginia childhood, revealing insights in new encounters and old preoccupations. Soos writes about pain and despair, aging, his divorce, his father's passing, regret, the loss of home, and the fear of death. But in the process of confronting these dark topics, he is full of wonder. As he writes at the end of an account of almost drowning, "Bruised but whole, I was alive, alive, alive."

Rapid advances in modern medicine have revolutionized the way we think about death and the processes of dying. Once death was defined as the absence of respiration or heartbeat; today patients hooked up to a respirator and feeding tube can be kept alive for months or years. Ivan and Melrose carefully explain the various medical processes involved in death and dying. In doing so they also confront the many ethical, moral and legal dilemmas that face doctors today, as well as the decisions that must be taken by relatives.

With a foreword by Judy Woodruff, The Unexpected Journey of Caring is a practical guide to finding personal meaning in the 21st century care experience. Personal transformation is usually an experience we actively seek out-not one that hunts us down. Becoming a caregiver is one transformation that comes at us, requiring us to rethink everything we once knew. Everything changes-responsibilities, beliefs, hopes, expectations, and relationships. Caregiving is not just a role reserved for "saints"-eventually, everyone is drafted into the caregiver role. It's not a role people medically train for; it's a new type of relationship initiated by a loved one's need for care. And it's a role that cannot be quarantined to home because it infuses all aspects of our lives. Caregivers today find themselves in need of a crash course in new and unfamiliar skills. They must not only care for a loved one, but also access hidden community resources, collaborate with medical professionals, craft new narratives consistent with the changing nature of their care role, coordinate care with family, seek information and peer support using a variety of digital platforms, and negotiate social support-all while attempting to manage conflicts between work, life, and relationship roles. The moments that mark us in the transition from loved one to caregiver matter because if we don't make sense of how we are being transformed, we risk undervaluing our care experiences, denying our evolving beliefs, becoming trapped by other's misunderstandings, and feeling underappreciated, burned out, and overwhelmed. Informed by original caregiver research and proven advocacy strategies, this book speaks to caregiving as it unfolds, in all of its confusion, chaos, and messiness. Readers won't find well-intentioned cliches or care stereotypes in this book. There are no promises to help caregivers return to a life they knew before caregiving. No, this book greets caregivers where they are in their journey-new or chronic-not where others expect (or want) them to be.

". . . Deathing offers much comfort and reassurance, in its relief of the helplessness of those who are dying, and in its insistence on death as a joyful birth into a new life".--Patty Campbell, Wilson Library Bulletin.

A source of comfort and expert guidance

Like a knowing and sympathetic companion, this unique journal is designed to help you work through the painful emotions, thoughts, and memories that surface when you have lost someone dear to you. Written by a professional counselor, this book supplies you with important information about grief and the grieving process. But, more importantly, it invokes the healing power of writing to provide you with a means for collecting your thoughts, sorting out your feelings, and taking an active part in your own recovery.

Acclaim for The Healing Journey Through Grief . . .

"A wonderful guide for the bereaved. This journal not only provides valuable information, but it also allows the griever to make his or her own way through the painful mourning process." —Catherine Sanders, PhD, Author of Grief: The Mourning After, Surviving Grief . . . and Learning to Live Again, and How to Survive the Loss of a Child

Other books in the Healing Journey series include:

• The Healing Journey, 208 pp., Paper (0-471-24712-X)
• The Healing Journey for Couples, 288 pp., Paper (0-471-25470-3)
• The Healing Journey Through Divorce, 264 pp., Paper (0-471-29575-2)

Contents:
Part I: General Perspectives on Loss, Trauma, Coping and Positive Impacts of Loss. From Vulnerability to Growth: Positive and Negative Effects of Stressful Life Events. The Other Side of Trauma: Towards a Psychology of Appreciation. Bereavement. Helping Victims of Loss and Trauma: A Social Psychological Perspective. Victim Thinking. The Ranking of Personal Grief: Death and Comparative Loss. Parallel Selves as Ending of the Grief Work. Rational Suicide. Part 2: Loss and Trauma Associated with Specific Populations. The Role of Perceived Control in Coping with the Losses Associated with Chronic Illness. Coping as a "Reality Construction": On the Role of Attentive, Comparative, and Interpretive Processes in Coping with Cancer. Loss, Adjustment, and Growth after Cancer: Lessons from Patients' children. The Few Gains and Many Losses for Those Stigmatized by Psychiatric Disorders. The Human Costs of Organizational Downsizing: The "Irrational" Effects of The Justice Motive on Managers, Dismissed Workers, and Survivors. Transcending A Lifetime of Losses: kers, and Survivors. Transcending A Lifetime of Losses: Grief and Loss. On Being Homeless and Mentally Ill: A Multitude of Losses and the Possibility of Recovery. Part 3: Loss and Trauma Associated with Close Relationships. Loss, Resources, and Resiliency in Close Interpersonal Relationships. Negotiating Terminal Illness: Communication, Collusion, and Coalition in Caregiving. Caregiver Loss and Quality of Care Provided: Pre-Illness Relationship Makes a Difference. Adjusting to Infertility. Widowhood in Later-Life. The Loss of Loved Ones: the Impact of Relationship Infidelity. Unyielding custody disputes: Tempering Loss and Courting disaster. Cognitive Interdependence and the Experience of Relationship Loss. Part 4: Conclusion. Commentary on Field of Loss and Trauma and Chapters.

When your life is shattered in an instant, can conscious and deliberate gratitude and connection to nature help you find joy and hope again? Of Grief, Garlic and Gratitude follows the first thirty months after Sam Francoeur's death from an accidental opiate (prescription) overdose. His mother, Kris Francoeur, shares her journey from the first crushing days to her eventually being able to find light, joy, and hope again through the practices of conscious and deliberate gratitude, unconditional acceptance of others, and making strong connections to the natural world. Her story helps grieving families feel that hope and joy will return, no matter how devastating and permanent the loss. Of Grief, Garlic and Gratitude approaches grief with both a very clear understanding of the realities of the process, and also shares a very personal and honest account of living with grief. It presents healing and hope without relying on religion, formal psychotherapy, or pharmaceutical resources. Kris's story reminds readers that even as people struggle with mental health issues and addiction, they can still bring joy and love to the world, and everyone is worthy of love and acceptance.

The book covers both caring for the terminally ill and the 'actual' bereavement, thus providing guidance on the whole process of counselling patients and their families. Case studies include examples from cancer, AIDS, suicide, murder and fatal accidents. Problems counsellors may face in their work are discussed and a chapter is devoted to the needs of the counsellor themselves.

On the night of November 19, 1973, following surgery, thirty-one-year-old wife and mother Betty J. Eadie died....

This is her extraordinary story of the events that followed, her astonishing proof of life after physical death. She saw more, perhaps than any other person has seen before and shares her almost photographic recollections of the remarkable details.

Compelling, inspiring, and infinitely reassuring, her vivid account gives us a glimpse of the peace and unconditional love that awaits us all. More important, Betty's journey offers a simple message that can transform our lives today, showing us our purpose and guiding us to live the way we were meant to -- joyously, abundantly, and with love.

In February 2015, Ivan Maisel received a call that would alter his life forever: his son Max's car had been found abandoned in a parking next to Lake Ontario. Two months later, Max's body would be found in the lake. There'd been no note or obvious indication that Max wanted to harm himself; he'd signed up for a year-long subscription to a dating service; he'd spent the day he disappeared doing photography work for school. And this uncertainty became part of his father's grief. I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye explores with grace, depth, and refinement the tragically transformative reality of losing a child. But it also tells the deeply human and deeply empathetic story of a father's relationship with his son, of its complications, and of Max and Ivan's struggle-as is the case for so many parents and their children-to connect. I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye is a stunning, poignant exploration of the father and son relationship, of how our tendency to overlook men's mental health can have devastating consequences, and how ultimately letting those who grieve do so openly and freely can lead to greater healing.

Reviews from the First Edition… "Written with insight and sensitivity for people in all stages of grief and recovery, this book can be used as a resource for all caregivers, both professional and volunteer.…It is essential reading for anyone engaged in bereavement counseling." —Oncology Nursing Forum "This book for caregivers provides a theoretical framework for understanding the process of bereavement and for stimulating further research." —An Annotated Bibliography on Death and Dying "The book offers clear descriptions of the grieving process, well-illustrated with case studies, and practical interventions for assisting the bereaved." —Journal of Palliative Care

"Still is one of those rare books that catches you up and does not let you go. With grace, courage, and honesty, Emma Hansen adds an important voice to this tragic and too-often silenced subject. I loved this book." -Beth Powning, author of Shadow Child: An Apprenticeship in Love and Loss A moving, candid account of one woman's experience with stillbirth. Emma Hansen is 39 weeks and 6 days pregnant when she feels her baby go quiet inside of her. At the hospital, her worst fears are confirmed: doctors explain that her baby has died, and she will need to deliver him, still. Hansen gives birth to her son, Reid, amidst an avalanche of grief. Nine days later, she publishes a candid essay on her website sharing photos from the delivery room. Much to her surprise, her essay goes viral, sparking positive reactions around the world. Still shares what comes next: a struggle with grief and confusion alongside a desire to better understand stillbirth, which is experienced by more than two million women annually, but rarely talked about in public. At once honest, brave, and uplifting, Still is about one woman's search for her own definition of motherhood, even as she faces one of life's greatest challenges: learning to live after loss.

A down-to-earth and highly practical guide, this is the first book to explain and illustrate the relationship between family systems, illness, and loss. This updated paperback edition includes theoretical information along with specific suggestions for developing the important skills needed to manage psychosocial symptoms in the patient and family, both during illness and after death. The author explains how to understand the dynamics of the family as an interactive, intradepAndent system. He also explains how to help families define and facilitate the tasks they must take to adjust to illness and loss.

In Critical Suicidology, a team of international scholars, practitioners, and people directly affected by suicide argue that the field of suicidology has become too focused on the biomedical paradigm: a model that pathologizes distress and obscures the social, political, and historical contexts that contribute to human suffering. The authors take a critical look at existing research, introduce the perspectives of those who have direct personal knowledge of suicide and suicidal behaviour, and propose alternative approaches that are creative and culturally sensitive. In the right hands, this book could save lives.

From Facebook’s COO and Wharton’s top-rated professor, the #1 New York Times best-selling authors of Lean In and Originals: a powerful, inspiring, and practical book about building resilience and moving forward after life’s inevitable setbacks.

After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. “I was in ‘the void,’” she writes, “a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.” Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build.

Option B combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Beginning with the gut-wrenching moment when she finds her husband, Dave Goldberg, collapsed on a gym floor, Sheryl opens up her heart—and her journal—to describe the acute grief and isolation she felt in the wake of his death. But Option B goes beyond Sheryl’s loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere . . . and to rediscover joy.

Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to everyday struggles, allowing us to brave whatever lies ahead. Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl was preparing for a father-child activity. “I want Dave,” she cried. Her friend replied, “Option A is not available,” and then promised to help her make the most of Option B.

We all live some form of Option B. This book will help us all make the most of it.

Is your chid struggling to cope with a loss or trauma? This essential guide provides informed advice for parents about how to support your children when they encounter difficulties with bereavement, separation and trauma. Although loss and trauma are an inevitable part of life, some children find such events overwhelming and in some cases they can become traumatised by them. Research has indicated that children are less likely to develop problems such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) if they are provided with the appropriate support and opportunities to talk about difficult events and their impact on them. However, often parents are unsure how to go about supporting their children through potentially traumatic events, and may worry that they might actually make things worse if they talk about it. This book will help you to understand the impact that loss and trauma can have on your children; it will help to prepare your children for anticipated events and it will help to increase their resilience in coping. Helping Your Child is a series for parents and caregivers to support children through developmental difficulties, both psychological and physical. Each guide uses clinically proven techniques.

An expert neurologist explores how the mind, brain, and body respond and heal after her personal experience with profound loss. Winner of the Best Book Award (Health: Death & Dying) by American Book Fest In Before and After Loss, neurologist Dr. Lisa M. Shulman describes a personal story of loss and her journey to understand the science behind the mind-altering experience of grief. Part memoir, part creative nonfiction, part account of scientific discovery, this moving book combines Shulman's perspectives as an expert in brain science and a keen observer of behavior with her experience as a clinician, a caregiver, and a widow. Drawing on the latest studies about grief and its effects, she explains what scientists know about how the mind, brain, and body respond and heal following traumatic loss. She also traces the interface between the experience of profound loss and the search for emotional restoration. Combining the science of emotional trauma with concrete psychological techniques- including dream interpretation, journaling, mindfulness exercises, and meditation-Shulman's frank and empathetic account will help readers regain their emotional balance by navigating the passage from profound sorrow to healing and growth.