Healing the Bereaved Child

First published in 1996. One spring morning a gardener noticed an unfamiliar seedling poking through the ground near the rocky, untidy edge of his garden ... So begins the parable that sets the tone for this inspiring, heartfelt new book for caregivers to bereaved children. By comparing grief counseling to gardening, Dr. Wolfelt frees caregivers of the traditional medical model of bereavement care, which implies that grief is an illness that must be cured. He suggests that caregivers instead embrace a more holistic view of the normal, natural and necessary process that is grief. He then explores the ways in which bereaved children can not only heal but grow through grief. Healing the Bereaved Child also contains chapter after chapter of practical caregiving guidelines: - How a grieving child thinks, feels and mourns: What makes each child’s grief unique; How the bereaved child heals: the six needs of mourning; Foundations of counseling bereaved children; Counseling techniques (play, art, writing, nature and many others; more than,15 pages!); A family systems approach to counseling; Support groups for bereaved kids, including a 10 session model; Helping grieving children at school, including a crisis response team model; Helping the grieving adolescent; Self-care for the child’s bereavement caregiver. A must-read for child counselors, hospice caregivers, funeral direc-tors, school counselors and teach-ers, clergy, parents-anyone who wants to offer support and com-panionship to children affected by the death of someone loved.

Alan Wolfelt grief gardens at his Center for Loss and Life Transition in Fort Collins, Colorado, which is set in the breath-taking Rocky Mountain foothills amid native blue columbine. A recipient of the Association for Death Education and Counseling’s Death Educator Award, Alan writes the Children and Grief column for Bereavement magazine and often speaks on childhood bereavement al workshops across North America.