Customer Reviews

The Healing Power of Grief: The Journey Through Loss to Life and Laughter

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My wife passed away almost nineteen years ago. She was 42. I was 45. There are no words to describe the pain, devastation, and despair of such a loss. Friends urged me to attend a grief support group. There were seveal available in my area. I chose the H.O.P.E. Foundation, run by a Dr. Marilyn Stolzman. It was this program that helped me get my life together. It did not eliminate the pain and devastation, but it made it a little bit easier to cope. Today, Dr. Stolzman, in collaboration with Gloria Lintermans, has written a book, The Healing Power of Grief. I strongly urge those who have suffered a recent loss to read this book. It lays down in easy to follow steps everything that was part of the original program. The program made life a little more bearable for me. Hopefully the book will do the same for others.
Sidney Lam

The Healing Power of Grief and The Healing Power of Love don't just help you recover from the loss of a loved one, but show you how to go on from there to find new love. Unlike some other books, which may be written in an academic style or expect you to subscribe to a certain faith, these books are written in an understandable language and have practical tools you can use on your own to help you through this difficult period in your life. I particularly liked the positive, affirming manner in which they're written. The authors don't preach to you or commiserate. As you work through the program, you'll gain a better understanding of what's going on inside you and become better each day at dealing with it. Reading about how others have handled similar losses makes you feel less alone. I recommend these books to anyone who is experiencing grief, not just after a loved one has died, but also after the break-up of a relationship.

I want to tell everyone who has lost a partner or spouse to put this book at the top of their list.
I particularly enjoyed author Gloria Lintermans's insights and her candor in sharing the details of her determined effort to find a new life. The real-life stories of others, the journaling section, and the comprehensive list of resources also set this book apart from others.

This is a practical, well-written, inclusive manual on how to grieve after the loss of a spouse. It divides the grieving process into five parts: shock, denial, anger, depression, and adjustment. It describes each stage, tells the reader what to expect at that stage, and makes suggestions for moving through that stage and onto the next. Each chapter begins with narration by Gloria Lintermans in which she describes the feelings she experienced as she went through the grieving process. The authors stress that each person is different and each will go through grieving in a different way and in a different time span, but there are some components that are common to most people's experience. There are suggestions not only for the one who has lost a spouse, but also for their friends and families. There is a "Mourner's Bill of Rights" and a workbook which helps to express grief through the written word. The suggestions for helping to heal are psychologically sound and the authors do not consider any topic out of bounds in this book. It is one that I will recommend to friends and will refer to when I am next in the grieving process. I wish that I had had the book many years ago when my father died because much of the impact of the book comes from finding out that abnormal becomes normal during grieving, and strange behavior by the mourner does not indicate impending insanity. I congratulate the authors on writing an important and helpful book.

Thank you to Ms. Lintermans and Ms. Stolzman for showing us the way and helping us through our grieving process. Once I opened the book, through many tears, I could not put it down. Everyone deals with grief in their own way however this book provides credence for self expression and dealing with each day as it's own entity. I look forward to exploring The Healing Power of Love by the same authors.

THE HEALING POWER OF GRIEF

Finally I have found a book that I can relate to. I am a recent widow and the other books I found on grieving weren't helpful because they all seemed to focus on a lot of psychobabble. THE HEALING POWER OF GRIEF speaks to me in language that I can understand. It has been so helpful and reassuring finding out not only what I might expect in my grief, but that it is okay to go back - and - forth in my recovery and that I'm not "losing it" and that what I'm going through is normal which also helps me to understand that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have also found the Workbook at the back of this book to be a God-send. It really served as a useful roadmap to understanding my own feelings, and, best of all, how to cope with them. This is a book that every widow and widower should have!

This wonderful book is a primer in understanding and coping with new feelings and life struggles as a result of the death of a loved one. Gloria Lintermans shares her personal experiences struggling through the grief process and recovery. The book is a comprehensive guide in identifying the natural stages of grieving, overcoming negative feelings and strategy for recovery. Very warm, comforting, and thankfully, easy to understand.

Gloria Lintermans tells her story of losing her deeply beloved husband and dealing with the inevitably intense feelings of grief and loneliness that come with losing a spouse. By sharing her own very personal journey, she helps readers who have experienced similar loss to go on to lead fulfilled lives, and for this she is to be applauded.

My beloved wife of fifty four years passed three years and nine months ago and the word "devastation" would hardly describe my feelings of loss. I have just finished reading Ms. Lintermans book and for the first time since the sudden and unexpected death of my wife I have, through her words, come to grip with many of the feelings of guilt that have been stifling my emotions. In brief I am now on a path of "Continuation" of what is left of my life...Thank you Ms. Lintermans!

Reviewed by Susan Pettrone for Reader Views (9/06)

It is a fact of life for everyone that, at one time or another, we will lose someone close to us. We cannot bypass this experience nor can someone take the pain from us, but we can learn more through the author's personal story of how we can make this heart-wrenching journey a little less confusing and how we can come to terms with this reality of life...namely death.

Author Gloria Lintermans opens her heart and her story of the death of her husband Rick within this book, and it is the story of 24 months of healing she experienced, that brings to the reader, a new insight into losing a loved one and how to go on living without them. Though loosely based on the "stages of grief" by Elizabeth Kubler Ross, this book takes us in a new direction with grief. It explains through the author's personal experience, how there are five "time sequences of death" and how each of these fit within the timeframe of healing. Shock, Denial, Anger, Depression, and Integration-Adjustment-Transition are all addressed within this book with questions, suggestions and "do's and don'ts" within each sequence, well thought out and written in a manner that is easily read and understood. The simple, down-to-earth language and the experiences of the author, make this a book that reaches readers from all walks of life and a wide range of ages as well. From teens on up, this book could easily fill a need within many persons, needing help to deal with loss.

As I have gotten older, I have had to face the deaths of many close to me, as most my age have. Not having any idea of what was to come, I was often lost in a sea of my own grief, wishing someone would throw me a lifeline. I didn't have such a book as "The Healing Power of Grief," but I can see how it would have been exactly what I needed to get me through those confusing, grief-filled days. The honesty, the personal insight and the workbook included within this book, are amazing and exactly what is needed for many who are grieving. Not only does it address issues we may not realize were there, but "The Healing Power of Grief" helps the reader through the long process to growth and insight into our grief. It helps us see where we were and where we have come, and through this journey we see hope and comfort through the healing that eventually comes as time goes on. The mere writing of one's thoughts and feelings is not only a healing process but a way to remember our loss in a positive way. Through the simple process of writing, we can begin the long, solitary process of living without our loved one as well as living with our grief. I would sincerely recommend this book to anyone dealing with grief in their lives and wanting to learn how to grow through their grief. It is a wonderful book and one I intend to keep should that time again arise that I need the advice within its covers.

I would highly recommend "The Healing Power of Grief" to anyone who is experiencing the death of someone dear. It is a straightforward, simply-put book that puts into clear perspective, the time process of grief and how the heart can heal despite our loss. It is one I would not only use myself should the time arise, but one that I would readily purchase for a friend in need as well. It is a book that is worth reading and worth using as well.

Book received free of charge.