After a significant loss, grief is normal and necessary. But sometimes a mourner's grief becomes naturally heightened, stuck, or made more complex by especially difficult circumstances, such as suicide, homicide, or multiple losses within a short time period. This is called “complicated grief.” In this primer by one of the world's most respected grief educators, Dr. Wolfelt helps caregivers understand the various factors that often contribute to complicated grief. He presents a model for identifying complicated grief symptoms and, through real-life examples, offers guidance for companioning mourners through their challenging grief journeys. This book rounds out Dr. Wolfelt's resources on the companioning philosophy of grief care, making it an essential addition to your professional library.

How can complicated grief be defined? How does it differ from normal patterns of grief and grieving? Who among the bereaved is particularly at risk? Can clinical intervention reduce complications? Complicated Grief provides a balanced, up-to-date, state-of-the-art account of the scientific foundations surrounding the topic of complicated grief. In this book, Margaret Stroebe,Henk Schut and Jan van den Bout address the basic questions about the concept, manifestations and phenomena associated with complicated grief. They bring together researchers from different disciplines, providing a broad range of cultural and societal perspectives, to enable the reader to access the scientific knowledge base regarding complicated grief, on both theoretical and empirical levels. The book is divided into four main sections: An exploration of the nature of complicated grief Diagnostic categorizations Contemporary research on complicated grief Treament of complicated grief Illuminating the foundations and new innovations in research, Complicated Grief will be essential reading for professionals working with bereavement such as clinical psychologists, health psychologists and psychiatrists, researchers, as well as graduate students of psychology and psychiatry. Margaret Stroebe is Professor at the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, and the Department of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology, University of Groningen,The Netherlands. Henk Schut is Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Jan van den Bout is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Contributors: Paul Boelen, Kathrin Boerner, George Bonanno, Laurie Burke, Rachel Cooper, Atle Dyregrov, Kari Dyregrov, Francesca Del Gaudio, Ann-Marie Golden, Jennifer Jacobs, David Kissane, Rolf Kleber, Yeulin Li, Jeffrey Looi, Anthony Mancini, Mario Mikulincer, Michelle Moulds, Robert Neimeyer, Mary-Frances O'Connor, John Ogrodniczuk, William Piper, Holly G. Prigerson, Therese Rando, Beverley Raphael, Paul C. Rosenblatt, Edward Rynearson, Henk A.W. Schut, Phillip Shaver, Margaret S. Stroebe, Jan van den Bout, Marcel van den Hout, Birgit Wagner, Jerome C. Wakefield, Edward Watkins, Talia I. Zaider.

Finally, real help for grievers from a medical professional who has been there. One out of every ten grievers gets stuck in complicated grief. If you have complicated grief, you remain mired in the early, acute stages of grief indefinitely. CG affects your ability to move through grief in a healthy way and hinders your ability to function in everyday life. A Registered Nurse, Rhonda O'Neill was diagnosed with complicated grief after her husband and son died within two years of each other. She shares her struggle with CG for those years and shares how she found her way back to healthy grief and was finally able to live her life with some happiness again. It is not easy to understand the symptoms and implications of complicated grief. Here, the author uses her medical background to translate some confusing information on complicated grief into clear terms for the non-medical griever. The first section of the book is a memoir of the author's blessings and losses. She describes her loving, blended family, her descent into the fog after her husband's death, the issues she faced as the single mother of a dying son, and the love and regrets that assail a grieving mother. In section two, you will find easy-to-understand information to help you determine whether you are suffering with CG. And since the Western view on death seeks to make dying and grieving invisible, you will find real help about what you can expect and how you can care for yourself in your often lonely struggle. Finally, since grieving can awaken a yearning to understand the meaning of life and death, you will need some kind of spiritual path to help you cope, whether traditional or nontraditional. You will find ideas about how to begin the search for the answers you need.

Grief is a natural reaction to the loss of a treasured person. In time, the loss is usually assimilated, but, for some, the mourning process becomes disrupted or stuck. Grief remains long-lasting and unresolved, and the death as painful as if it had happened yesterday. This book looks at how to cope with this kind of reaction to bereavement, so that it becomes possible to accept the death and master its impact. Topics include: The difference between 'normal' and 'complicated' grief; Links with other conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression; Understanding the impact of grief; How to manage related emotions such as anger and guilt; Identifying unhelpful thinking; Using memories and visual imagery positively; Moving your loved one from your mind to your heart; How to create a lasting memorial

Presents a practical guide to dealing with grief; and offers personal case studies and advice that help individuals find peace, acceptance, and strength to move on.

This wide-ranging book on art therapy and grief provides everything an art therapist needs to feel confident in creating an effective treatment plan. It features fourteen clear-cut protocols, outlining 4-8 week curriculums for working with Complicated Grief, and explains the theory which informs the practice, including popular and evolving models such as Attachment Theory, Mindfulness, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Art Therapy Relational Neuroscience (ATR-N). Suitable for a variety of settings and clinical populations, the book breaks through the analytical jargon of the field and provides first-person narratives of art therapists exploring their own experiences of grief and client case studies.

Shares the author's personal experiences with anxiety, describing its painful coherence and absurdities while sharing the stories of other sufferers to illustrate anxiety's intellectual history and influence.

Focuses specifically on complicated mourning, often referred to as pathological, unresolved, or abnormal grief. It provides caregivers with practical therapeutic strategies and specific interventions that are necessary when traditional grief counseling is insufficient. The goal is to turn "complicated" into "uncomplicated" mourning.

The second edition of this bestselling book is designed for mental health professionals, educators, and the parent/caregiver, this book provides specific ideas and techniques to work with children in various areas of complicated grief. It presents words and methods to help initiate discussions of these delicate topics, as well as tools to help children understand and separate complicated grief into parts. These parts in turn can be grieved for and released one at a time. A new chapter is included, called "Communities Grieve: Involvement with Children and Trauma." It includes information on The Taiwan Earthquake and how the community worked with children, a school bus accident in which 36 elementary school children witnessed the death of the bus driver that was driving and how the school system worked with these children and their families; a boy who was running on a cross country team and got hit by a car, which was witnessed by teammates; and how a non-profit community grief agency worked with family, school, and community. The last study is from the Oklahoma bombing and the outgrowth of a place for the traumatized children and how they still work with kids and family today. This chapter then contains new activities to work with traumatized grieving children. The new edition also includes updated resources, books, curriculums, websites, hotlines and another new chapter on bullying and victimization issues. The chapter for educators has been expanded, including the coverage of topics such as at-risk students, gay and lesbian issues, and self-injurious behaviors.