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Helping Grieving People - When Tears Are Not Enough

A Handbook for Care Providers

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Helping Grieving People is a training manual for care providers who will provide support and counseling to those grieving death, illness, and other losses. The author addresses grief as it affects a variety of relationships and discusses different intervention and support strategies, always cognizant of individual and cultural differences in the expression and treatment of grief.

Jeffreys has established a practical approach to preparing trainee caregivers through three basic tracks: Heart, Head and Hand. The first step, Heart, calls for self discovery, freeing oneself of accumulated loss in order to focus all attention on the griever. Head emphasizes understanding the complex and dynamic phenomena of human grief. Hand stresses the caregiver's actual intervention, and speaks to the appropriate level of skill as well as the various methods of healing available. Following these three motifs, the Handbook discusses the social and cultural contexts of grief as well as its psychological constructs.

Table of Contents

Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgements. Introduction. How to Use This Book. The Social and Cultural Context of Grief. The Human Grief Response: Grief and its Function. Loss and Death in the Family: Transitions From the World That Was. The Grief of Children and Adolescents - Parent Loss. The Grief of Parents: An Upside Down World! Older Adult Grief. Chronic Illness/Disability, Terminality, and Dying. Helping Grieving People: A Continuum of Care for Healing. Complications of the Human Grief Process. Case Studies. Epilogue. Appendix A. Suggested Readings. Appendix B. Organizational and Web Resources. Appendix C. Advanced Directive Model. References. Index.

Reviews

'This "Handbook for Care Providers" could easily be renamed "The Bible for Care Providers" given its depth of coverage, enormous range of topics, soulfulness, and its usefulness as a guide for all grief-care-providers.' - The Maryland Psychologist

‘So reader-friendly was this book that I’d happily encourage the interested bereaved to dip into it to help make sense of what they are experiencing and to gauge its normality.’ – David Kissane, Bereavement Care

"I recommend this book wholeheartedly to healthcare chaplains who are wanting an introduction to the subject of grief, looking for a guide through the maze of current thinking, or (like me) needing to bring their knowledge a little more up to date. The book includes a very helpful summary of seminal theorists from Bowlby to Neimeyer and the insights of these and others are drawn on throughout the book." - Geoff Walters, Senior Chaplain at Pilgrams Hospice, Ashford, in Association of Hospice and Palliative Care Chaplain News, February 2006.

"The author's wealth of experience, both personally and professionally, allows one to step into a world of practical clinical information, useful case studies, and deeply personal reflections that carry the reader to broader levels of understanding of the mourner's path."

"The interaction of the reader is a major component to the success of Helping Grieving People, as it allows insight into personal discovery which can only serve as a tool for working with others."

"This book well serves professionals and grieving individuals as a template of understanding of the grief process, a practical guide for care providers, and a complete wealth of information on the subject of bereaved mourners. J. Shep Jeffreys has produced an invaluable tool for anyone working with issues of loss and grief by building a strong foundation of knowledge necessary to deal with the complexities associated with bereavement in today's world." - Linda Goldman, in Death Studies, 32: 693-699, 2008.

Author/Editor Biography

J. Shep Jeffreys, Ed.D., C.T., is a licensed psychologist specializing in grief, loss, and end-of-life concerns and a Certified Thanatologist. In addition to maintaining a private practice, Jeffreys is assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and affiliate assistant professor of pastoral counseling, Loyola College in Maryland. He is a consultant to hospices, hospitals, nursing homes, educational institutions, and corporations. He served as trainer and workshop leader with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in the United States, Canada, and overseas, and as consulting psychologist for the Johns Hopkins AIDS Service. The author can be found

on the web at www.GriefCareProvider.com.