Based on Dr. Wolfelt's unique and highly regarded philosophy of "companioning" versus treating mourners, this self-care guide for professional and lay grief caregivers emphasizes the importance of taking good care of oneself as a precursor to taking good care of others. Bereavement care is draining work, and remaining empathetic to the painful struggles of mourners, death, and dying, day in and day out, makes caregivers highly susceptible to burnout. This book demonstrates how caring for oneself first allows one to be a more effective caregiver to others. Through the advice, suggestions, and practices directed specifically to caregiving situations and needs, caregivers will learn not to lose sight of caring for themselves as they care for others.

Grief is always difficult, but if yours feels especially painful, stuck, or complex, you may be experiencing complicated grief. Complicated grief is not an illness or disorder. It’s simply normal grief that’s been made more challenging by circumstances that overwhelm the person in mourning. If someone you love has died of suicide, homicide, or accidental causes; if the death was violent or premature or ambiguous; if you are struggling with additional life issues right now, such as health challenges (physical or mental), family problems, or financial stress; if your relationship with the person who died was extremely close or troubled; if you have suffered several losses in quick succession—this concise guide is for you. In this compassionate resource by one of the world’s most beloved grief counselors, you’ll learn how complicated grief is different and what you can do to soften and eventually reconcile it. You’ll inventory the reasons your grief is complicated. You’ll learn the importance of engaging with and expressing your grief. And you’ll find hope for your healing. There is a path through and beyond the wilderness of complicated grief. It’s more arduous than most, but to li

After a significant loss, grief is an everyday experience. Bit by bit, these one-page-a-day readings will help you feel supported and muster the courage and hope you need to make it through the day. Whether you’re choosing this book as a follow-up to Understanding Your Grief or as a way to engage with the teachings in a different format, you’ll find a combination of classic content mixed with new ideas and insights. Reading just one page each day will help you sustain hope and heal your heart.

This comprehensive guide to helping grieving children offers a holistic view of grief as a normal, natural process. It explores the ways in which bereaved children can not only heal but also grow through their grief, and provides the six needs of mourning and counseling fundamentals and techniques for caregivers. Also included are explorations of how a grieving child thinks, feels, and mourns; what makes each child's grief unique; and ideas to help grieving adolescents.

More and more people are considering a career in nursing or healthcare, but the thought of undertaking an academic degree at university can be intimidating. Whether you are moving straight from school or college or have been away from education for some time, Getting Ready for your Nursing Degree is essential preparation for anyone considering becoming or about to become a nursing student. It looks at all aspects of university work in a straightforward way and provides advice, examples and activities designed to help you get the most out of classes, research and assessments, from your first lecture right through to sitting exams and learning on placement. Designed with nursing students in mind, this small but perfectly formed guide is tailored to help you develop the skills you will need not only for your course but for your career and lifelong learning as a registered healthcare practitioner.

Grief overload is what you feel when you experience too many significant losses all at once, in a relatively short period of time, or cumulatively. In addition to the deaths of loved ones, such losses can also include divorce, estrangement, illness, relocation, job changes, and more. Our minds and hearts have enough trouble coping with a single loss, so when the losses pile up, the grief often seems especially chaotic and defeating. The good news is that through intentional, active mourning, you can and will find your way back to hope and healing. This compassionate guide will show you how.

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.

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.

This comprehensive handbook provides a solid foundation in helping skills related to successful funeral service practice.

You've spent most of your adult life focused on the care and raising of your children, and now they're leaving. For you and for them, this major transition is often challenging in many ways. You may feel surprised at the power of your grief—a confusing mixture of sadness, hope, emptiness, fear, excitement, and other emotions all at once. This book by one of the world's most beloved grief counselors helps parents understand their normal and necessary empty nester grief. The 100 practical tips and activities are designed to help you acknowledge and express your feelings of loss, foster love and respect, and, over time, find ways to re-instill your life with meaning. Advice is also offered for nurturing a marriage or partnership through this challenging time.

First published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

First published in 1984. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

This comprehensive handbook provides a solid foundation in helping skills related to successful funeral service practice.

Clergy are in a natural position to help people who experience a variety of losses, including death, divorce, moves, and develop-mental transitions. Historically, clergy have been involved as supporters of the bereaved, yet many clergy say that their educa-tion lacked substantive teachings in this area of caring. This book is a response to this apparent need. While directed at clergy, anyone involved in this area of caregiving will find the contents of value.

Guidelines are presented in the book of how one can create a "helping healing relationship." Through reading and participating in the activities presented, the reader will become capable of establishing a very special kind of goal-directed experience with the grieving child. Unites interpretation of human research and grief processes to accentuate the quality of caregiving to children during their grief periods. Explained are the stages through which the grieving person must travel with help, characteristics of a caregiver are expounded, and techniques presented to create the best atmosphere for a grieving child to thrive with love and care.

We don’t only experience grief after a loss—we often experience it before. If someone we love is seriously ill, or if we’re concerned about upcoming hardships of any kind, we naturally begin to grieve right now. This process of anticipatory grief is normal, but it can also be confusing and painful. Life is change, and change is hard. This book will help see you through.

For most of us, life is way too hectic. We feel scattered and distracted. We’re busy rushing from one required activity to the next, and when we have a few moments of downtime, we’re often glued to our electronics. Is this what life is really all about? Learn to slow down and live more mindfully with this daily companion. In one brief entry for each day of the calendar year, counselor Dr. Alan Wolfelt offers small, day-at-a-time doses of wisdom and practical guidance. Each entry includes an inspiring or soothing quote followed by a short discussion of the day’s theme as well as a succinct mantra to return to throughout the day. In just a few minutes a day, this little gem of a book will teach you to live every moment from a place of peace, purpose, and gratitude. Living in the now is a habit you can cultivate. Let’s get started.

Addressing the inevitable grief that accompanies the loss of a loved one, this encouraging and supportive reference provides comfort in the midst of overwhelming sadness. Preventing mourners from becoming tangled in a web of despair, this guide shows how the smallest amount of hope can be nurtured into a confident sense of being, lighting the path towards a future of love, joy, and meaning. Featuring a series of reflective passages and quotations, this handbook makes it possible to roll up one's sleeves and make healing a reality.

After a significant loss, it’s common to feel like we’re going crazy. The sudden absence of someone we love is not only devastating, it’s disorienting. They were here one moment, and now they’re…gone? Forever? How can that be? The first year or two of grief is often unbelievably painful and confusing. We’re in shock, often for weeks or months. Time seems out of whack. We feel powerless, helpless, and ineffective. We can’t think straight; we can’t get anything done. Our moods swing wildly, and we say and do crazy things. We cry, and we cling to objects that belonged to the person who died. We have bizarre dreams. We think we hear, see, or experience communications from the person who died. We wonder if we can (or should) go on. And through it all, our minds and hearts return over and over again to the impossible reality that can never again talk to or touch a person who lived and breathed and gave our lives so much meaning. There is nothing more challenging than the early months and years of a major life loss. But this compassionate book, by one of the world’s most beloved grief counselors, will help you endure and thrive.

Following a helpful introduction about the role of spirituality in grief, this practical mourning guide suggests activities based on meditation, prayer, yoga, and contemplative solitude to help with feelings of despair. For mourners who suffer from anxiety, breathing exercises are recommended, and massage is suggested for those who experience fatigue. Each description of these practices offers a brief activity to try out before continuing to read.