Grief Recovery Handbook, The Revised : A Program for Moving Beyond Death, Divorce, and Other Devastating Losses: Amazon.ca: John W James: Books

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"This book is required for all my classes. Themore I use this book, the more I believe that unresolved grief is themajor underlying issue in most people's lives. It is the only work of itkind that I know of that outlines the problem and provides thesolution." -- Bernard McGrane, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, ChapmanUniversity

Book Description

Incomplete recovery from grief can have a lifelong negative effect onyour capacity for happiness. Drawing from their own histories, as wellas from others, the authors illustrate what grief is and how it ispossible to recover and regain energy and spontaneity. Based on a provenprogram, now extensively revised, The Grief Recovery Handbookoffers grievers the specific actions needed to complete the grievingprocess and accept loss. For those ready to regain a sense of aliveness,the principles outlined here make this a life-changinghandbook.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Grief is the normal and natural reaction to loss of any kind. Read the first page

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Concordance

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

35 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.7 out of 5 stars (35 customer reviews)

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best in Grief Help Out There, Mar 15 2009

By

Carole Rubin (B.C. Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Grief Recovery Handbook, The (Revised): A Program for Moving Beyond Death, Divorce, and Other Devastating Losses (Paperback)

I read this book 14 months into grieving my husband and best friend, who died suddenly, in my arms, with no warning of illness. Shock, trauma and loss.

At the time, I was only 8 months into my own recovery from massive brain surgery, so had little energy reserves or coping skills available to fall back on, which turned out to be a good thing: I had little choice but to live the grief wherever it took me.

However, 14 months along, I still felt locked in grief, unsatisfied with friends' responses, advice from experts in books, widows groups, and physicians. Losing him had resurrected, unbidden, many ungrieved losses in my life so that the mass had become an enormous weight still carried in my body and spirit. I was full of dread each and every day.

My bewlidered refrain: "I don't know how to do this!"

A friend gave me a copy of this book. At first, it seemed too simple to be effective, but 20 pages in, it was clear that the authors had learned how to cut through all the stuff we carry around from infancy on, and get down to the work of cleaning up old and new losses.

Grieving may never completely end, but by doing the hard work in this book honestly and completely, I found myself clearing away regrets and sadness and fears over losses in my life that I had no idea I still carried. I also came to new insights about how to continue the grieving process for my husband enough so that I could look out on the world with an open heart.

Each time I do and redo the excercises in this book, the letting go continues, and as it takes place, old losses surprisingly surface to be honoured and resolved. I no longer feel I don't know how to do this.

The Grief Handbook is so valuable, multiple copies have been purcahsed and sent to friends who have lost loved ones, or who still carry emotional wounds from unresolved relationships with the living.

The most honest and simple guide out there.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, highly recommended, Feb 12 2012

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Angela "Sun Goddess" (Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Grief Recovery Handbook 20th Anniversary Expanded Edition: The Action Program for Moving Beyond Death, Divorce, and Other Losses including Health, Career, and Faith (Paperback)

An outstanding book - highly recommended for anyone grieving a loss and willing to work through the process. Dispells myths and stereotypes, very readable, and very effective process.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Feels like a miracle, Nov 1 2001

By

kathleen silver (los angeles, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grief Recovery Handbook, The (Revised): A Program for Moving Beyond Death, Divorce, and Other Devastating Losses (Paperback)

For more than a year after my father died, I felt as if I was going in slow motion, while the world raced past me. Time didn't seem to have done anything to heal me, in fact I was feeling worse. My friends tried to talk to me and help me, but I couldn't hear anything other than my own despair. One of my dear friends, in desperation, gave me a copy of The Grief Recovery Handbook. That simple act of kindness changed my life. In the solitude of my own home, without having to try to feel good so others would think I was okay, I began to read the book. Almost against my own will, I began to take the actions and do the exercises outlined in the book. One of the hardest parts about them, was that they were too easy. I began to realize how much I had been complicating the possibility of recovery by trying to use my head to fix my heart. As the direct result of creating an accurate picture of my entire relationship with my father, and completing what had been unsaid or unfinished, I regained the gratitude I felt toward life, and the energy with which to live it. While I have normal sadness and miss my dad from time to time, I am able to sustain a life of meaning and value, even though he is no longer physically here. What happened for me feels like a miracle, but in reality is the result of the safety and encouragement to take action provided by The Grief Recovery Handbook. I am eternally grateful.

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