Bereavement: Counseling the Grieving Throughout the Life Cycle (Continuum Counseling Series) [Paperback]

David A. Crenshaw (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Crossroad (March 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082451291X
• ISBN-13: 978-0824512910
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,381,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I grew up in a rural part of Missouri where the cultural advantages were somewhat limited but the people are extraordinary. I now enjoy the cultural advantages of New York and it has been our home for 35 years. I still have a busy clinical practice but I retired as Clinical Director of the Astor Home for Children in 2001 after 30 years in the residential treatment of children. I remain affiliated with that wonderful non-profit agency that serves children and families as a member of their Board of Directors. Since my retirement from residential treatment, I have had more time and energy to write, and my new book Evocative Strategies in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy has just been released. I am quite excited about it because it contains more thant 150 practical strategies that I have developed to engage extremely challanging and sometimes oppositional children and adolescents.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Counselor's Best Friend, May 15, 2000

By 

William G. (Bill) Hoy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bereavement: Counseling the Grieving Throughout the Life Cycle (Continuum Counseling Series) (Paperback)

Most of us who work in the caregiving professions received little training in our professional education for dealing with death and loss issues. For the most part, we got even less help in understanding the way clients' "stages of life" affected their bereavement.

Enter Crenshaw's book, one of the best "little" books around for people like us. In quick, practical fashion, Crenshaw provides the "quick and dirty" on grief, introducing the reader to how normal bereavement works.

Then, he proceeds to describe the major factors likely to affect a bereaved person's experience according to his/her place in the life cycle.

If the book has a shortfall, it is that it tries to do too much for too many. This is an excellent starting point for professionals for whom grief counseling is a part--though not a major part--of their responsibilities. As such, clergymen, nurses, hospice staff, family therapists, and social workers will find a wealth of useful information here. I would also recommend it for volunteers in hospices, nursing homes, communities of faith, and the like.

There are better books for people who need a "what do I do now" approach (such as Jeanne McIntee To Comfort and To Honor) or for parents who are wanting more detailed information about their children in grief (such as Helen Fitzgerald's The Grieving Child: A Parent's Guide). For its purpose, however, I think Crenshaw's book is pretty hard to beat.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good starting point, October 7, 2008

By 

KC "KC" (SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bereavement: Counseling the Grieving Throughout the Life Cycle (Paperback)

Bereavement: Counseling the Grieving throughout the Life Cycle is a compact little book that covers the basics of grief counseling. Author David A. Crenshaw Ph.D. presents his theory of the tasks of mourning that must be accomplished in order for the grieving individual to attain a healthy resolution to the loss. These tasks appear to owe an acknowledgement to the five stages of grief proposed by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Crenshaw goes on to apply his seven tasks to six identified life cycle stages: preschool children, school-age children, adolescents, young adults, adults in midlife, and the elderly, using abbreviated case histories as examples.
The book provides an overview of the grieving process and some basic suggestions for interventions with people in the various age groups. It does not, however, give the amount of in-depth information and hands-on detail that would be required to help a counselor develop proficiency in counseling the bereaved. In attempting to cover such a wide array of populations in a small book, Crenshaw sacrifices specificity. The longest chapter is devoted to the preschool aged child with the main thrust of his recommendations being monologues that the counselor delivers to the child. He only minimally mentions play therapy, arguably the most effective type of therapy for children in this age group. This reviewer finds the omission of play therapy techniques for the bereaved child to be the most serious lack in this book.
Bereavement is an interesting and highly readable book that gives some good basic information. The counselor interested in developing effective grief resolution therapy skills would do well to use this book as a starting point from which to begin building her skills and then follow it with more in-depth publications devoted to the specific population she is counseling.

Reviewed by:
Kathleen C. Higgins, M.S., LPC
Mental Health Counselor

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for counseling, but what about immediate needs?, September 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bereavement: Counseling the Grieving Throughout the Life Cycle (Continuum Counseling Series) (Paperback)

The book gives a lot of good information about dealing with bereavement. It does not, however, tell the reader exactly what needs to be done. There is a book out there that has all the information, i.e. what happens immediately after death for those who are left behind, what needs to be done right away, how to watch out for all sorts of scams, an entire big section for military veterans and their widows and so on. It leaves nothing to the imagination and widows/widowers do not have to guess WHAT DO I DO NOW?

Having been a caregiver many times , I know that people need to know what they must do right now. Ideally, everybody should pre-plan to make sure that his/her wishes are honored after he/she is gone, but when this wasn't done, the survivors should know what to do when it becomes a fact.

Counseling is wonderful, but sound advice with cookie cutter examples (because most people are frozen by grief) must be provided for those who simply can't function. After everything has been taken care of, then the grief can take over - and the counseling can start.