Honoring Grief: Creating a Space to Let Yourself Heal

Description

If you know someone who has suffered loss and is experiencing grief, simply sending a card or flowers may seem insufficient. Many people are unsure how to comfort a friend or loved-one in times of loss. This special book is filled with inspirational wisdom, practical self-help for healing, and makes a meaningful and comforting gift. Written by psychotherapist and grief expert Alexandra Kennedy, Honoring Grief provides powerful and compassionate advice for dealing with loss. Compatible with any religious or spiritual orientation, this book aims to help readers create a sanctuary-a special space where they are free to work through the difficult emotions that accompany grief. The act of grieving can be overwhelming. That's why the self-help tips in this book are simple, brief, and effective-ideal for anyone suffering the emotionally and physically exhausting effects of grief.

Alexandra Kennedy, MA, LMFT, is a psychotherapist in private practice thirty-nine years and author of Losing a Parent; The Infinite Thread: Healing Relationships Beyond Loss; and How Did I Miss All This Before? Waking Up to the Magic of Our Ordinary Lives. She is an adjunct faculty member of John F. Kennedy University and has taught at the University of California Santa Cruz Extension and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. She has been interviewed in USA Today, the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Boston Herald, as well as on NPR's Talk of the Nation, CNN's Sonja Live, and on KQED's Family Talk and New Dimensions Radio. Foreword writer Stephen Levine is an American poet, author, and teacher, who along with his wife and spiritual partner Ondrea Levine, is best known for his work on death and dying. He is the author of Who Dies, Healing into Life and Death, Turning Toward the Mystery, Becoming Kuan Yin, and many other books.

"A true pioneer in our field, Alexandra Kennedy offers a profoundly clear understanding of what it truly means to heal after a loss in her elegantly simple new book, Honoring Grief. It's sure to become a classic. For years to come, I'll be sharing this wonderful book with clients, families, friends, and communities besieged by loss." --Ken Druck, PhD, grief and resilience coach and author of The Real Rules of Life: Balancing Life's Terms with Your Own "Grief is the way that loss heals. In Honoring Grief, Alexandra Kennedy offers us a sanctuary in which to process our losses and find healing. This simple-to-use, step-by-step workbook on the healing of grief can be a nightlight for people in dark times." --Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, author of Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather's Blessings "I loved this book. Honoring Grief provides safety, comfort, and guidance for healing after loss. The format makes it easily accessible to someone experiencing deep chaotic emotions. The text is poetic and beautifully crafted. I would recommend this book to my colleagues and friends. It will become part of my teaching." --Janet M. Schreiber, PhD, director of the Grief, Loss, and Trauma certificate program at Southwestern College, Santa Fe, New Mexico "If there is one person I'd like to talk to after a loss, it is Alexandra Kennedy. She offers no platitudes for grief--no one-size-fits-all recipe--just wisdom, kindness, and empathy. Most of all, Kennedy tells us what we all need to hear: we are not alone, and, no, we are not going crazy." --Lolly Winston, MFA, author of the novels Good Grief and Happiness Sold Separately "This is a gentle, quiet book. Alexandra Kennedy has traveled these pathways; authentic, genuine, heart-shredding grief is a fiercely intimate, intensely private matter, experienced in vastly unpredictable ways. We are thrust against our will into some brand new world, unique for each and every one of us. While she offers gentle suggestions, simple tools, and practices along the way, Kennedy wisely counsels there is 'no map, no schedule.' There is tremendous mercy here. We are too often rushed through what must be allowed its time, its season, to ripen, to die, to heal. "Kennedy is wise and compassionate, and she refuses to desecrate this holy mystery of loss. Rather, she offers simply to accompany us as we walk a path only we can follow. Kennedy teaches us to trust that Death knows the way to lead us into Life. For us, we can trust that Kennedy knows of what she speaks." --Wayne Muller, author of Sabbath and A Life of Being, Having, and Doing Enough "We don't usually think of grief as a healing journey; in fact, most of us would rather not think of grief at all. But Alexandra Kennedy gently, expertly guides the reader into a depth that is neither frightening nor overwhelming, but manageable and critical to one's true well-being. In Honoring Grief, she has distilled a lifetime of listening and examining to bring forth a sacred practice that allows us to meet grief where we are, be embraced in sanctuary, heal wounds, and renew life with new eyes and a more open heart. With this book's practices, grief can be a time to break free from the pain of long-held sufferings, and expand our capacity to love and live fully." --Beth Witrogen, Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of Caregiving: The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss, and Renewal