Customer Reviews

Children and Grief: When a Parent Dies

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If you're looking for a book that brings together the best in scholarly research with a practical usefulness, look no further. Children and Grief is a veritable treasure chest. Worden and his colleagues did a masterful job of using data derived not only from parents (where many studies gather their data) but also through structured interviews with the children themselves.

Perhaps the section of the volume of most compelling use to professionals is the chapter in which Worden summarizes what he calls "mediators of the child's bereavement experience." Here, in useful fashion, the author draws out elements of the death itself, its cause, the relationship between the child, deceased parent, and surviving caregivers, and a host of other factors that influence how a bereaved child copes.

Dr. Worden wrote one of the landmark textbooks on grief counseling when he wrote Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy two decades ago. The present volume is destined to be of as much practical help as the first one was. It's another book that has remained at arm's length from my desk since it was first published three years ago.

This is a fantastic book if you are interested in a fact based approach. If what you need right now is sympathy and emotion, this really isn't the place to look, but for facts, truth and statistics, it doesn't get any better. With a myriad of books that approach with a sullen, soft tone, this book is straight forward and honest. As a childhood grief survivor I found this approach to be cathartic and emotionally transformative. It takes a solid, unbiased look at what works and what research says. As a child, I heard a strong message that children don't grieve and with many caregivers still ignoring the grief of children, this book is a great way to address many damaging misconceptions in non-judgmental way.

This book is a must for anyone who works with children who are dealing with grief.

Worden's book is an outstanding resource for professionals helping grieving children. I would recommend it to those who work with child suicide survivors. Children and Grief will provide insight regarding the child's tasks of grief.

Good resource on grief. Well thought out and presented.
I also use the grief video, After the Tears, A Gentle Guide to Help Children Understand Death.

The book was exactly what they said it would be. It. Shipped quickly. It fit the purposes I needed it for.