Quimby Memorial Library: Grief and Loss: Home

GRIEF AND LOSS

Types of grief and loss include separations from loved others, incapacitation, bereavement, migration, relocation, job losses, birth of a baby, retirement, and professional loss. A 1998 systematic review found that major bereavements, such as the loss of a partner or child increase the risk of death from heart disease and suicide as well as causing or contributing to a variety of psychosomatic and psychiatric disorders, such as clinical depression and anxiety (Parkes, 1998). Despite the bleakness of these outcomes, evidence also reveals grief and loss to foster personal growth and maturity. New research is being continuously done into the processes of grief, and new treatments being tested for mitigating its risks to health, while acknowledging its power to help individuals grow and learn from loss.

This guide features QML's resources on understanding and treating Grief and Loss, both in clinical and wider contexts. Click a tab above to view ebooks, articles, and books on this approach. While the resources provide a well-rounded survey of our holdings on the topic, they are not comprehensive. Please contact us, if you are not seeing represented here any topics, authors, or specific foci, on which you are seeking information.

You will find links to the information you need to access and effectively use the databases housing this material, at the top of each page in this guide.

EBOOKS

Featured here are some of QML's contemporary ebooks on Grief and Loss. In addition to these featured items, QML holds additional material on this topic and can access much more, via our interlibrary loan network. If you are not finding what you need here, please email us at askthelibrary@swc.edu.

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QML'S EBOOKS DATABASE

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Grief and Loss Across the Lifespan by Carolyn Ambler Walter; Judith L. M. McCoyd
ISBN: 9780826120281

Publication Date: 2015-08-01

his unique text for undergraduate and masterís level social work and counseling courses on loss, grief, and bereavement is distinguished by its biopsychosocial perspective and developmental framework. The book addresses grieving patterns and intervention strategies according to the life trajectory and provides clinical intervention tools and strategies for coping according to the developmental stage of an individual. It incorporates losses beyond death loss, with special focus on losses related to maturational development. The second edition reflects new research that has clarified and underscored the value of theories examined in the first editionóparticularly in the areas of continued bonds, disenfranchised grief, and ambiguous grief. It describes how grieving is influenced by biological responses to stress, psychological responses to loss, and social norms and support networks.The second edition includes significant new information on trauma and resilience and addresses the use of mindfulness practices with grief and loss. It also focuses on the changing role of technology including expressions of grief and loss in social media and public forums
The Impact of Loss and Grief During Childhood by Elena Merenda
ISBN: 9781863352055

Publication Date: 2020-04-30

This book describes the commonalities shared among those who have survived childhood bereavement and also highlights the ways in which each individual's loss is unique. After defining the five stages of grief, the author develops a framework for understanding grief as a process that children experience in response to different types of loss. With a focus on death, divorce, and childhood illness, this study also explores the cultural and religious aspects of the grieving process. As educators are critical sources of support for grieving children, this book empowers educators to recognize significant symptoms of grief and provides curricular strategies for acknowledging death and loss. Finally, the author suggests appropriate ways to discuss death with children and provides a section of therapeutic play experiences for educators to implement in their practice.
Using the Creative Therapies to Cope with Grief and Loss by Stephanie L. Brooke (Editor); Dorothy A. Miraglia (Editor)
ISBN: 9780398090777

Publication Date: 2015-06-29

This is a comprehensive and exciting work that illustrates the use of art, play, music, dance/movement, drama, and animals as creative approaches for helping clients cope with grief and loss issues. The editors'primary purpose is to present an array of creative treatment approaches, which cover the broad spectrum of grief, more than just loss through death. Well renowned, well-credentialed, and professional creative arts therapists in the areas of art, play, music, dance/movement, drama, and animal-assisted therapies have contributed to this work. In addition, some of the chapters are complimented with photographs of client work in these areas. The reader is provided with a snapshot of how these various creative arts therapies are used to treat children and adults diagnosed struggling with loss or complicated grief.
Moth Hour by Anne Kennedy
ISBN: 9781869408947

Publication Date: 2020-02-13

This is a complex, moving and ambitious poetic engagement with the death of a brother. The family didn't know what to do about grief. The noisy house went silent. In 1973, Anne Kennedy's brother Philip was partying on a hillside when he accidentally fell to his death. Among books and records, Philip left a poem typed in Courier on thick, cream, letter-sized paper.Come catch me little childAnd put me in a jar...In Moth Hour, Anne Kennedy returns to the death of her brother and the world he inhabited, writing ‘Thirty-Three Transformations on a Theme of Philip' and concluding with a longer poem, ‘The Thé'. Kennedy's extraordinary poems grapple with the rebellious world of her brother and his friends in the 1970s; with grief and loss; with the arch of time. The poems reach into the threads of the past to build patterns, grasped for a moment and then unravelling in one's hands.Moth Hour is a complex, ambitious piece of writing and a moving poetic engagement with tragedy.
Motherhood Missed by Lois Tonkin
ISBN: 9781785923371

Publication Date: 2018-09-10

Many women expect to become mothers but are childless through social rather than biological reasons - perhaps they haven't met the right person or they prioritised career or education earlier in life. Featuring international interviews by grief counsellor and researcher Lois Tonkin, this collection of first-person stories provides insight into the under-discussed situation of being childless by circumstance.Each story highlights the different aspects of being childless by circumstance, as women move through their 30s, 40s, and 50s, and beyond their ages of fertility. The book explores feelings of grief and loss, and also how women adapt positively to their changed life expectations, finding excitement in the alternative, rich and complex shapes their lives have taken.
Perennial by Kelly Forsythe
ISBN: 9781566895170

Publication Date: 2018-08-07

The events of 1999's Columbine shooting preoccupy Forsythe in these poems, refracting her vision to encompass killer, victim, and herself as a girl, suddenly aware of the precarity of her own life and the porousness of her body to others' gaze, demands, violence. Deeply researched and even more deeply felt, Perennial inhabits landscapes of emerging adulthood and explosive cruelty—the hills of Pittsburgh and the sere grass of Colorado; the spines of books in a high school library that has become a killing ground; the tenderness of children as they grow up and grow hard, becoming acquainted with dread, grief, and loss.
Life after Loss by Vamik D. Volkan; Elizabeth Zintl
ISBN: 9781782203926

Publication Date: 2015-08-21

How we cope with grief and come to terms with the death of a loved one shapes our world. In this comprehensive guide to the mourning process, Dr Volkan, a world-recognised authority on grief, shows how each mourning is as individualised as our fingerprints, encoded with our past history of losses. Anecdotal and compassionate, this is a profoundly moving and informative study of how grief and loss shape all our lives.
I Had a Miscarriage : A Memoir, a Movement by Jessica Zucker
ISBN: 9781558612891

Publication Date: 2021

Sixteen weeks into her second pregnancy, psychologist Jessica Zucker miscarried at home, alone. Suddenly, her career, spent specializing in reproductive and maternal mental health, was rendered corporeal, no longer just theoretical. She now had a changed perspective on her life's work, her patients'pain, and the crucial need for a zeitgeist shift. Navigating this nascent transition amid her own grief became a catalyst for Jessica to bring voice to this ubiquitous experience. She embarked on a mission to upend the strident trifecta of silence, shame, and stigma that surrounds reproductive loss—and the result is her striking memoir meets manifesto. Drawing from her psychological expertise and her work as the creator of the #IHadaMiscarriage campaign, I Had a Miscarriage is a heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, and validating book about navigating these liminal spaces and the vitality of truth telling—an urgent reminder of the power of speaking openly and unapologetically about the complexities of our lives. Jessica Zucker weaves her own experience and other women's stories into a compassionate and compelling exploration of grief as a necessary, nuanced personal and communal process. She inspires her readers to speak their truth and, in turn, to ignite transformative change within themselves and in our culture.
A Matter of Death and Life by Irvin D. Yalom; Marilyn Yalom
ISBN: 9781503613768

Publication Date: 2021-03-02

A year-long journey by the renowned psychiatrist and his writer wife after her terminal diagnosis, as they reflect on how to love and live without regret. Internationally acclaimed psychiatrist and author Irvin Yalom devoted his career to counseling those suffering from anxiety and grief. But never had he faced the need to counsel himself until his wife, esteemed feminist author Marilyn Yalom, was diagnosed with cancer. In A Matter of Death and Life, Marilyn and Irv share how they took on profound new struggles: Marilyn to die a good death, Irv to live on without her. In alternating accounts of their last months together and Irv's first months alone, they offer us a rare window into facing mortality and coping with the loss of one's beloved. The Yaloms had numerous blessings—a loving family, a Palo Alto home under a magnificent valley oak, a large circle of friends, avid readers around the world, and a long, fulfilling marriage—but they faced death as we all do. With the wisdom of those who have thought deeply, and the familiar warmth of teenage sweethearts who've grown up together, they investigate universal questions of intimacy, love, and grief. Informed by two lifetimes of experience, A Matter of Death and Life is an openhearted offering to anyone seeking support, solace, and a meaningful life.

ARTICLES

This bibliography features peer-reviewed, searchable journals and academic articles, reporting on contemporary research, analysis, and theory related to Grief and Loss in a therapeutic context. In addition to what is featured here, QML holds further material on this topic and can access much more, via our interlibrary loan network. If you are not finding what you need here, please email us at askthelibrary@swc.edu.

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QML'S ACADEMIC ARTICLES DATABASE

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The Traumatic No Man’s Land of Psychic Devastation: Beyond Mourning and Melancholia by Julie Gerhardt
Publication Date: 2020

Just as contemporary psychoanalysis has become a refuge for patients whose emotional struggles lie beyond the psychic terrain of neurosis and the dynamic unconscious, likewise, states of grief and loss may lie beyond mourning and melancholia. This essay makes a case for acknowledging a third category of loss: psychic devastation. This type of post-traumatic loss is experienced as a state of emptiness, absence, or void, and encompasses the survivor’s internal fragmentation, dissociation, frightening loss of identity, and difficulties in thinking symbolically and reflecting on experience. The state of devastation turns out to be an impediment to the process of mourning. Fragments from the author’s own experience with spousal loss are presented to illustrate the discovery of the psychic state of devastation.
Navigating Loss and Grief and Constructing New Meaning: Therapeutic Considerations for Caregivers of Transgender Youth by Shane N. Canitz; Shane Haberstroh
Publication Date: 2022

One of the most significant protective factors for transgender youth is caregiver support, but caregivers often struggle with accepting their child’s gender identity. Many of these caregivers experience ambiguous loss, grieving the gendered aspects of their child and of the caregiver-child relationship. However, disenfranchised grief often goes unrecognized by the caregiver, and/or unsupported by society, and can also be difficult to reconcile with the caregiver’s love for their child. Thus, the following article details the nature of disenfranchised grief and ambiguous loss and describes how counselors must be prepared to normalize this grief, while helping caregivers of transgender youth mourn their loss and create meaning from the adversity, in part by reframing this loss as positive change since it will enhance the emotional and physical well-being of the child.
After a Suicide Death in a High School: Exploring Students’ Perspectives by Rebecca G. Mirick; Larry Berkowitz
Publication Date: 2023

By the time they leave high school, 17% of adolescents will have experienced the suicide death of a friend, peer, or classmate. While some will be unaffected or experience a brief period of distress following the death, for others the death will cause significant disruption and distress, even increasing their risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. It is essential for social workers to be able to support at-risk adolescents after this type of loss. To do this, it is critical to understand the ways that adolescents experience the death, grieve, and recover from the loss. This qualitative study explored adolescents’ experiences with grief and loss following an adolescent suicide death in the United States. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with young adults (N = 13) who had been exposed to the suicide death of a peer, classmate, or friend while in high school examined themes about their processing of the death, yielding four themes about sense-making and making meaning about the death.
Young adults’ experiences with loss and grief during COVID-19 by Raven H. Weaver; E. G. Srinivasan; Autumn Decker; Cory Bolkan
Publication Date: 2022

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are experiencing unprecedented cumulative loss and grief. Guided by life course theory, we used inductive qualitative analysis and explored young adults’ (N = 86) written accounts of their earliest and most significant losses associated with COVID-19, as well as their coping mechanisms. Overall, participants experienced substantial loss, especially losses related to their education and social life/events. We discuss five subthemes related to approaches to coping and five subthemes related to barriers to coping. Our findings are relevant to informing strategies that support adapting to significant loss in early adulthood, beyond the pandemic.
Outcomes of collage art-based and narrative self-expression among home hospice caregivers by Girija Kaimal; Janell L. Mensinger; Katrina Carroll-Haskins
Publication Date: 2020

This mixed methods quasi-experimental study examined the outcomes of a brief art therapy-based and a narrative interview-based intervention to address the psychosocial needs of home hospice caregivers. Participants (n = 14) chose to participate either in a narrative interview (n = 7) or arts-based interview (n = 7). Qualitative findings indicated that caregivers (a) recognized their need for reducing stress and isolation; (b) experienced a learning curve related to illness and hospice care; (c) engaged in existential reflections on purpose and values; and were (d) living through progressive grief and loss. The results suggest that caregivers might need longer term interventions for sustained changes.
Grief Snow Globe: A Creative Approach to Restorying Grief and Loss through Narrative Therapy by Molly Rafaely; Rebecca M. Goldberg
Publication Date: 2020

This article describes a creative counseling intervention we call the grief snow globe. The purpose thereof is to assist grieving clients in externalizing emotions and restorying grief and loss experiences through narrative therapy. Narrative therapy allows clients to give new meanings to their stories and life experiences. In this article, we explain instructions for making the grief snow globe, offer suggestions for process questions to support the exercise, and present application of the grief snow globe through a case study.
Bereavement affinities: A qualitative study of lived experiences of grief and loss by Nathan D. MacArthur; Emma Kirby; Jane Mowll
Publication Date: 2023

Attending to bereaved peoples’ lived experiences offers considerable potential for better understanding how to improve support following loss. In-depth interviews (n = 36) and solicited diaries (n = 23) were conducted with bereaved adults following a death in palliative or residential aged care. A constructivist grounded theory approach guided data analysis, through which three themes were derived: making sense of the lived experience of bereavement; relationships in bereavement; and bereavement over time. The results reveal the nuances within everyday experiences of bereavement, in particular the multiplicity of affinities, present or lacking, in social support and recognition.

BOOKS

Collected here are books on Grief and Loss from QML's physical collection. Click a link to be taken to the book's page in the library's catalog. From there you can view additional details, check the book's availability, and place a hold. While a wealth of material on Grief and Loss is featured here, the list is not comprehensive. Please email us, to inquire about additional resources.

Remote students: keep in mind that items in QML's physical collection are accessible to you as well. Contact library staff to have an item sent via mail, request scans of needed chapters/sections, or inquire about alternative methods of accessing these books or any other resources in our library.

Complicated Grief, Attachment and Art Therapy by Briana MacWilliam (Editor)
ISBN: 1785927388

Publication Date: 2017-04-21

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.
Archetypal Grief by Fanny Brewster
ISBN: 9780415789066

Publication Date: 2018-08-30

This is a powerful exploration of the intergenerational psychological effects of child loss as experienced by women held in slavery in the Americas and of its ongoing effects in contemporary society. It presents the concept of archetypal grief in African American women: cultural trauma so deeply wounding that it spans generations. Calling on Jungian psychology as well as neuroscience and attachment theory, Fanny Brewster explores the psychological lives of enslaved women using their own narratives and those of their descendants, and discusses the stories of mothering slaves with reference to their physical and emotional experiences. The broader context of slavery and the conditions leading to the development of archetypal grief are examined, with topics including the visibility/invisibility of the African female body, the archetype of the mother, stereotypes about black women, and the significance of rites of passage. The discussion is placed in the context of contemporary America and the economic, educational, spiritual and political legacy of slavery. Archetypal Grief will be an important work for academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, archetypal and depth psychology, archetypal studies, feminine psychology, women’s studies, the history of slavery, African American history, African diaspora studies and sociology. It will also be of interest to analytical psychologists and Jungian psychotherapists in practice and in training.
The Creative Toolkit for Working with Grief and Bereavement by Claudia Coenen; Masha Pimas (Illustrator)
Call Number: RC455.4.L67 C64 2020

ISBN: 9781787751460

Publication Date: 2020-07-21

Understanding loss and its effects is integral to effective counseling and support in the treatment of grief. This book is both a guide to the key theories of bereavement, and a practical workbook that can be used with clients to help them understand and work through their grief in a positive, transformative way. Divided into two parts, the first section presents current models of grief used by thanatologists, and advice on when to apply them, these models provide a springboard to deepen the conversation with clients, allowing them to discover insights, consider memories and express their pain. In the second part of the book, creative exercises encourage clients to engage with their stories and actively apply their discoveries to their own healing. Offering a straightforward guide to bereavement models and therapeutic approaches, with photocopiable exercises and worksheets, The Creative Toolkit for Working with Grief and Bereavement is a valuable resource for information on grief and how to help grieving clients, and an invitation to explore creative possibilities for healing.
Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy by J. William Worden
Call Number: RC455.4.L67 W67 2018

ISBN: 9780826134745

Publication Date: 2018

Encompassing new content on the treatment of grief, loss, and bereavement, the updated and revised fifth edition of this gold-standard grief therapy book continues to deliver the most up-to-date research and practical information for upper-level students and practitioners alike. It’s a must have for all mental health professionals. The fifth edition includes updates to the author’s Tasks and Mediators of Mourning, new case studies, and valuable Instructor Resources. The text highlights recent initiatives to extend care to the bereaved and fosters the knowledge and skills required for effective intervention and even preventative treatment. Also addressed in this bereavement counseling book is the impact of social media and online resources for “cyber mourning,” changes in the DSM-5 as they influence bereavement work, alternate models of mourning, and new findings on the varied qualities of grief.
Transforming Grief & Loss Workbook by Ligia Houben
ISBN: 9781683730026

Publication Date: 2016-12-09

Despite any loss your client may be experiencing, you can coach them to happiness again with this new workbook from Ligia M Houben. This interactive book guides the client through The 11 Principles of Transformation, derived from CBT, positive psychology, spirituality, mindfulness and meditation. By focusing on new beginnings, experiential exercises and meaningful activities, your client will be able to start the transformative journey to wellness and wellbeing.
Techniques of Grief Therapy by Robert A. Neimeyer (Editor)
ISBN: 0203152689

Publication Date: 2012-05-23

This is a guidebook to the most inventive and inspirational interventions in grief and bereavement counseling and therapy. Individually, each technique emphasizes creativity and practicality. As a whole, they capture the richness of practices in the field and the innovative approaches that clinicians in diverse settings have developed, in some cases over decades, to effectively address the needs of the bereaved. New professionals and seasoned clinicians will find dozens of ideas that are ready to implement and are packed with useful features, including: Careful discussion of the therapeutic relationship that provides a "container" for specific procedures An intuitive, thematic organization that makes it easy to find the right technique for a particular situation Detailed explanations of when to use (and when not to use) particular techniques Expert guidance on implementing each technique and tips on avoiding common pitfalls Sample worksheets and activities for use in session and as homework assignments Illustrative case studies and transcripts Recommended readings to learn more about theory, research and practice associated with each technique.
Bearing the Unbearable by Joanne Cacciatore; Jeffrey Rubin (Foreword by)
Call Number: BF575.G7 C27 2017

ISBN: 9781614292968

Publication Date: 2017-06-27

Organized into fifty-two short chapters, Bearing the Unbearable is a companion for life’s most difficult times, revealing how grief can open our hearts to connection, compassion, and the very essence of our shared humanity. Dr. Joanne Cacciatore—bereavement educator, researcher, Zen priest, and leading counselor in the field—accompanies us along the heartbreaking path of love, loss, and grief. Through moving stories of her encounters with grief over decades of supporting individuals, families, and communities—as well as her own experience with loss—Cacciatore opens a space to process, integrate, and deeply honor our grief. Not just for the bereaved, Bearing the Unbearable will be required reading for grief counselors, therapists and social workers, clergy of all varieties, educators, academics, and medical professionals. Organized into fifty-two accessible and stand-alone chapters, this book is also perfect for being read aloud in support groups.
Griefwork, Healing from Loss by Fran Zamore; Ester A. Leutenberg; Amy L. Brodsky (Illustrator)
Call Number: BF575.G7 Z25 2008

ISBN: 9781570252273

Publication Date: 2008-01-01

Healing From Loss is for therapists, counselors, group facilitators, and other professionals working to help grieving people heal from their losses. The handouts guide clients through stages of shock, disorganization, reorganization, and a New Normal, a term to convey that everyone's grief has a unique expression and is that particular person's ''normal''. Clients are encouraged to deal with sorrow, express feelings, share with peers, develop internal and external support systems, accept, adjust, and move forward. The book helps leaders understand and empathize, and teaches participants to heal and grow. Activities facilitate introspection and interaction. The book's reproducible handouts and art work ''map'' the journey from numbness to normal. Instead of using solely with grieving groups, consider using the the activities with participants in other groups. The human experience dictates that clients have already experienced, or will face future grief/loss issues.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Call Number: RC280.L8 K35 2016

ISBN: 9780399590405

Publication Date: 2016

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

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