The Understanding Your Suicide Grief Support Group Guide: Meeting Plans for Facilitators

For anyone who has experienced the suicide of a loved one, coworker, neighbor, or acquaintance and is seeking information about coping with such a profound loss, this compassionate guide explores the unique responses inherent to their grief. Using the metaphor of the wilderness, the book introduces 10 touchstones to assist the survivor in this naturally complicated and particularly painful journey. The touchstones include opening to the presence of loss, embracing the uniqueness of grief, understanding the six needs of mourning, reaching out for help, and seeking reconciliation over resolution. Learning to identify and rely on each of these touchstones will bring about hope and healing. Including 12 meeting plans that interface with the main text and companion journal, this organizational guide deftly combines grief education with compassionate support for those who want to facilitate an effective suicide grief support group.

Alan D. Wolfelt, PhD, is a grief counselor and the director of the Center for Loss and Life Transition. He is the author of the Healing Your Grieving Heart series, The Journey Through Grief, Transcending Divorce, and Understanding Your Grief. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.