Bereavement Support Groups: Breathing Life into Stories of the Dead

by Lorraine Hedtke

BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT GROUPS: Breathing Life into Stories of the Dead, is a must read for grief counselors, facilitators, and those who have lost a loved one. This book fills the gap between the challenges to conventional grief psychology and the practice of bereavement counseling. The deceased person has often been left behind in counseling conversations, requiring the bereaved to distance themselves from honoring memories that could soothe their heartache. Ironically, the stories about the dead person have not featured prominently in the grief experience.

This book offers a structured guide for facilitating bereavement support groups, but is intended as more than a simple “how to” book. It will also inspire readers with invigorating practice ideas. This new way of thinking includes the stories and love that remain after death. Here is a model for folding the deceased person’s values, legacies, meanings, and connections into the lives of the living. The book shows the reader how to utilize the metaphorical presence of the deceased, accessed through stories, actions and rituals, to affirm the relationship with the deceased as more than a lost memory to be shelved next to dusty old photo albums.

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 9, 2012