Understanding Grief is a response to the all too common ignorance and misconceptions about grief that are encountered in American society. It begins by providing a practical framework by which to view grief and follows with essential information about common grief reactions, the necessity of mourning, and circumstances in which professional help is advised. Focusing on cycles of grief instead of stages of grief, the human experience of significant loss is more accurately portrayed. It is written with a sensitivity that developed over many years supporting and counseling hundreds of bereaved individuals, and is thoughtful and in-depth in a way that is rare for a guidebook of this length.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Author
For the past 16 years of my professional social work life I have specialized in oncology, hospice, and bereavement. Six of those years I coordinated a large hospice bereavement program providing support to the family members of hospice patients and to many other bereaved individuals whose family member did not utilize hospice but lived in the community we served. What I repeatedly encountered, as do other bereavement professionals, was the grief-stricken individual who was greatly surprised by the depth, breadth, and intensity of the grief response to the death of his or her loved one. Many people I counseled were quite ignorant of what to expect in the way of a grief. They did not understand the distinctions between grief, bereavement, and mourning, our English language terms for our experience of loss by death, and all too often judged their grief response negatively. The times are too many to count that I heard, "I'm not handling it", "I had a breakdown", and "I guess I am not as strong as I thought I was" to describe what bereavement professionals would view as well within healthy limits for grief. In conjunction with the ignorance about what grief is, people often lacked knowledge about what to do with their grief.
The other half of the story is how others perceive the bereaved. All too often the message given to the bereaved from others is "you need to get on with your life" and act as if the deceased never existed. Ours is a society that associates grief with weakness, and lacks a sense that this universal human experience resulting from the severance of our deepest attachments could be of value to the one who is bereft. We strive to avoid the painful and disruptive experience of grief. To a great extent we have become a nation of individuals who are divorced from this timeless experience; ignorant of what constitutes a grief reaction and what to do with it.
It was in this context that I created Grief Education Class and subsequently wrote Understanding Grief: A Guide for the Bereaved. Despite all of the excellent phone and mail outreach, support groups, and individual support I was aware of within the scope of organized bereavement care, never had I seen or heard of a formalized class of the type I eventually designed for the purpose of educating people about grief, bereavement, and mourning. The bereaved people I encounter are grateful for accurate, helpful information about the profound experience they are going through. Understanding Grief is a distillation of what I believe is the most essential of the widely accepted fundamental information about grief. It parallels and reinforces what I teach in my 2 to 21/2 hour Grief Education Class.
About the Author
Howard Lunche has a Masters degree in Social Work and is a Licensed Clinical social Worker. He began his clinical specialty in life-threatening illness and bereavement in 1984 as a medical center social worker counseling patients and families in the cancer, hospice, cardiology, stroke and general surgery units. During an eleven-year period he was a home hospice social worker and coordinated a hospice bereavement program. He now has a private practice in Berkeley, California in which he continues to assist individuals, couples and families facing life-threatening illness and bereavement. He provides counseling, consultation, community education and professional training.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Helpful,
By Isoah Penn (Richmond, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Understanding Grief : A Guide For The Bereaved (Paperback)
I read this book many years ago while working with the author about my own grief about the loss of my mother. The book helped me understand that my feelings were normal, that there were ways to think about my loss that I hadn't, and ways to help me live with it. It is brief and feels a bit like a text book, but I highly recommend buying it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Understanding Grief: A Guide For The Bereaved,
By Stephanie Clements (Phoenix, Arizona) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Understanding Grief : A Guide For The Bereaved (Paperback)
Howard Lunche's guide for the bereaved, written with knowledge, compassion and understanding helped me understand my own bereavement and to understand bereavemets of loved ones and co-workers. It's brevity and clarity make this guide easy to read - important when one is in the throes of grief. I have purchased multipe copies to share with others; many of whom have expressed their deep appreciation for the guide and the help they received from it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sincerely written and understandable,
By
This review is from: Understanding Grief : A Guide For The Bereaved (Paperback)
Thank you for this book! After becoming a bereaved, I wanted to read every book I could about loss and grief. Most of them dealt with the terminology of grief or loss, but not the feelings that may sometimes be associated with loss. Howard Lunche's book really hits the mark on breavement, grief and loss. He makes sure that the reader understands the differences and realizes that there are different ways and times people experience grief. Pointing out, there is no right or wrong way to grieve...you just need to allow yourself to feel. This book was written with a great deal of compassion and knowledge about the grieving process. There is no "jargon". He get's it!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
