Healing the Bereaved Child: Grief Gardening, Growth Through Grief, and Other Touchstones for Caregivers

Rating:
Summary: Depicts grief as a normal, natural, and necessary process
Review: In Healing The Bereaved Child, Alan Wolfelt draws upon his many years of experience and expertise as the "Children and Grief" columnist for Bereavement magazine and a bereavement workshop instructor to author an outstanding book designed for parents and caregivers in dealing with children who have suffered seemingly irreconcilable loss. Wolfelt compares caregiving to bereaved children with that of a gardener tending a garden. Grief is not seen as an illness requiring a cure, but as a normal, natural, and necessary process leading to adaptation to, and reconciliation with, the processes of life and growth. Practical caregiving guidelines and insights are offers on how a grieving child thinks, feels and mourns; what makes each child's grief unique; how the bereaved child heals (the six needs of mourning); foundations of counseling bereaved children; counseling techniques; a family systems approach to counseling; support groups for bereaved kids (including a ten session model); helping grieving children at school (including a crisis response team model); helping the grieving adolescent; and self-care for the child's bereavement caregiver. Healing The Bereaved Child is essential, invaluable reading for parents, teachers, counselors, clergy, and anyone else trying to assist a bereaved child of any age or circumstance. Also highly recommended is Alan Wolfelt's How I Feel: A Coloring Book For Grieving Children.

Rating:
Summary: Depicts grief as a normal, natural, and necessary process
Review: In Healing The Bereaved Child, Alan Wolfelt draws upon his many years of experience and expertise as the "Children and Grief" columnist for Bereavement magazine and a bereavement workshop instructor to author an outstanding book designed for parents and caregivers in dealing with children who have suffered seemingly irreconcilable loss. Wolfelt compares caregiving to bereaved children with that of a gardener tending a garden. Grief is not seen as an illness requiring a cure, but as a normal, natural, and necessary process leading to adaptation to, and reconciliation with, the processes of life and growth. Practical caregiving guidelines and insights are offers on how a grieving child thinks, feels and mourns; what makes each child's grief unique; how the bereaved child heals (the six needs of mourning); foundations of counseling bereaved children; counseling techniques; a family systems approach to counseling; support groups for bereaved kids (including a ten session model); helping grieving children at school (including a crisis response team model); helping the grieving adolescent; and self-care for the child's bereavement caregiver. Healing The Bereaved Child is essential, invaluable reading for parents, teachers, counselors, clergy, and anyone else trying to assist a bereaved child of any age or circumstance. Also highly recommended is Alan Wolfelt's How I Feel: A Coloring Book For Grieving Children.