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. Including 12 meeting plans that interface with the main text and companion journal, this organizational guide deftly combines grief education with compassionate support for those who want to facilitate an effective suicide grief support group.

This companion workbook to the second edition of Dr. Wolfelt's bestseller Understanding Your Suicide Grief helps you explore the many challenging facets of your uniquely complicated grief through guided journaling. After you read a section in Understanding Your Suicide Grief, the journal asks you questions about what you' ve just read. It invites you to consider, clarify, and write down your thoughts and feelings.A good grief journal is a safe place— somewhere you can express yourself no matter what you are experiencing. If you' re grieving the suicide death of a friend or loved one, this journal and its companion text will help you understand and engage with your grief, actively mourn, and work toward healing. You' ll find that the journal can also be used to help remember the person who died and/or work through any lingering relationship issues or emotional sticking points. As you express your emotions in this journal, you will feel them beginning to soften as well as become more integrated into your ongoing life. Write as much as or as little as you' d like. Even just a little work with this journal will help you befriend your grief and give you healing momentum.

This essential resource by one of the world's most beloved grief counselors has long offered compassion and hope to mourners torn apart by the suicide of someone loved. Understanding Your Suicide Grief will help you understand the traumatic complications of suicide grief and feel less alone as you find effective ways not only to survive but eventually integrate the loss into your ongoing life. Understanding Your Suicide Grief is built on Dr. Wolfelt's Ten Touchstones, which are basic principles to learn and actions to take to help yourself engage with your grief and create momentum toward healing. This second edition maintains the content of the first edition but builds on it by adding concise wisdom on new topics such as the myth of closure, grief overload, unmourned grief, loneliness, the power of ritual, and more. Excellent as an empathetic handbook for suicide loss survivors as well as an educational text for support groups, Understanding Your Suicide Grief pairs with a guided journal (The Understanding Your Suicide Grief Journal). Not only is jotting down ideas, feelings, and experiences clarifying and therapeutic in grief, but it can also be a way to capture meaningful thoughts and stories about the life of the person who died— not just their death. These two books are used in tandem by grief support groups everywhere. If grief is a wilderness, then suicide grief occupies the harshest, most dangerous terrain.This refreshed bestseller will help you safely navigate your suicide grief and find a path that leads toward authentic mourning and reengagement with life.

When we're grieving the death of someone loved, we need the support and compassion of our fellow human beings. Grief support groups provide a wonderful opportunity for this very healing kind of support. This book is for professional or lay caregivers who want to start and lead an effective grief support group for adults. It explains how to get a group started and how to keep it running smoothly once it's underway. The group leader's roles and responsibilities are explored in detail, including communication skills, trust building, handling problems, and more.This Guide also includes twelve meeting plans that interface with the second editions of Understanding Your Grief and The Understanding Your Grief Journal. Each week group members read a chapter in the main text, complete a chapter in the journal, and come to group ready for you to guide them through an exploration of the content. Meeting plans include suggestions for how to open each session as well as engaging exercises and activities. A Certificate of Completion you can photocopy and give to group members in the final meeting is provided.

If you're thinking about starting a support group for dementia care partners, this downloadable leader's manual is for you. The Dementia Care Partner's Workbook is a new resource from Companion Press that is both a support group participant's manual and self-study guide for care partners who have a loved one with Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia. Its ten concise lessons not only walk you through the types, brain biology, and progressive symptoms of dementia but also offer practical tips for managing behaviors, coping with emotional issues, prioritizing self-care, and planning ahead—everything from diagnosis to end-of-life.If you are a medical, mental health, or other healthcare professional wanting to lead a support group for dementia care partners, or a layperson with a heart for those &“on the journey,&” A Leader's Manual for Dementia Care-Partner Support Groups is the comprehensive resource you need. The Manual provides general information about establishing and leading support groups, counseling skills for leaders and co-leaders, how to handle challenging group participants, step-by-step instructions on how to run each of the ten individual weekly meetings (including meeting-specific handouts), and lots of practical advice from co-authors Dr. Edward Shaw, physician, mental health counselor, and former dementia care partner, and Dr. Alan Wolfelt, world-renowned thanatologist, grief counselor, and author. The handouts and worksheets are number coded for easy cross-referencing with the content of The Dementia Care-Partner's Workbook.

Integrating vital information on the dynamics of the donation experience and grief education, this revised second edition provides an invaluable resource for hospital and organ procurement caregivers. Going beyond helping professionals understand the challenges of obtaining consent, this guide invites them to offer compassionate care throughout the family’s experience with the death, including the months and years following. The chapters include information on understanding the family’s initial responses, helping families understand brain death, facilitating the donation discussion, assisting families with meaningful leave-taking rituals, understanding long-term grief responses, and establishing an ongoing family support program. Three easy-to-follow sections—before, during, and after the donation experience—guarantee that caregivers can easily access the section most relevant to their role with the family.

With up-to-date information on new medical therapies, drugs, and surgeries, this authoritative guide is the definitive reference source for diagnosing, understanding, and seeking treatment for any illness--from the common cold to life-threatening cancer or heart disease. Illustrations.

This informative anthology, now in its seventh edition, helps to provide an understanding of dying, death, and bereavement that will assist individuals in better coping with their own death and the death of others. These timely articles range from personal accounts to scientific and philosophical perspectives. Additional support for this title is available at http: //www.dushkin.com/online (Dushkin Online).

This helpful, easy-to-use guide contains profiles of 30 psychological disorders plus vital information about 90 generic and over 400 brand name drugs, including facts about side effects, drug interactions, precautions, and dosage and usage.

How can an award-winning source book that helps consumers find health information be improved? Health expert Alan Rees has done just that in his sixth edition by providing practical advice on using the Internet, tips on where to find Spanish-language health pamphlets, and recommendations on what's most important in the world of alternative medicine. The sixty edition provides users with an annotated guide to health-related resources-hotlines, newsletters, pamphlets, Web sites, CD-ROMS, magazines, books, and more! Readers are given a description on each resource and how to best use it.