Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy: A Handbook for the Mental Health Practitioner

This book addresses the professionals of psychology, especially the specialists in the therapy of loss and grief.

This book provides an easy to read format, with conscise information and various real-life case examples to help the novice identify important factors impacting a client's recovery and providing a good refresher for the experience mental health practicioner with useful and practical information such as the basics (grief stages) to more detailed (the mourning process; Tasks and Mediators of mourning) and the difference bewteen grief and depression; abnormal grief reactions and resolving complicated mourning among other topics. This book helps the therapist to recognized that each person grieves very differently depending on a myriad of social, environmental and familial factors; a guide to truly understand a client's grief process and how to provide them with the best "individualized" treatment plan.

It is hard to find an author who is so good that he/she understands that what needs to be said can be done in a short well organized book. This is such a book and not only covers the subject but does so with sensitivity.

As a grief therapist I am always searching for books that will be helpful in my classes. This book was one I did indeed find valuable. I also use Write from Your Heart, A Healing Grief Journal in my group classes and for the children I use After the Tears, A Gentle Guide to Help Children Understand Death.

Worden has written an inclusive, quality handbook, which is an excellent resource for those investigating the nature of grief. The book is useful to the practioner as well as the individual searching for information on grief and it's manifestations. It is a practical handbook in that it provides the reader with information they can use at the time it is needed, to help get through the crisis at hand. Wordens book is complete, without being wordly, is easily used with well defined categories. The handbook covers many different types of grief ranging from normal to complicated grief reactions, grief in children, to the counselors own grief. Practical applications to dealing with these issues in grief, are also provided. The book gives enough background to understand the topic at hand, saving the reader from 'wading' through pages of literature reviews. For those who desire a more extensive discussion, an ample and lenghty bibliography is offered