1st Edition
Disenfranchised Grief Examining Social, Cultural, and Relational Impacts
Disenfranchised Grief expands the professional helper’s understanding of the grief experiences that result from social, cultural, and relational oppression, microaggressions, disempowerment, and overt violence.
The authors blend trauma-informed practice and recent research on critical race theory, cultural humility, and intersectionality to both broaden mental health professionals’ conceptualization of disenfranchised grief and its impacts and promote equity and inclusion among populations that have been marginalized.
Part One: Foundations for Understanding Disenfranchised Grief
1. Disenfranchised Grief: The Complicated Interweave of Death and Non-Death Losses
Renee Blocker Turner and Sarah D. Stauffer
2. Identity and Loss: Where Intersectionality and Disenfranchised Grief Converge
Quinn K. Smelser
3. Our Bodies: Holders of Unspoken Grief
Emily R. Keller
4. Wounds of Spirit: The Disenfranchised Nature of Spiritual Trauma
Renee Blocker Turner, Tina K. Bailey, and Brooklyn Gordon
5. Untangling Racial Trauma and Disenfranchised Grief
Chinwé U. Williams and Layla J. Bonner
Part Two: Systemic Barriers to Grief
6. Social and Systemic Barriers to Grief for Biracial Individuals and Their Families
Christina Villarreal-Davis
7. Complicated Grief and Challenges in LGBTQIA+ Communities
Doneley Meris
8. The Interplay of Disenfranchised Grief and Systemic Barriers from COVID-19 for African Americans
Theresa Libios and Edward F. Hudspeth
9. Disenfranchised Grief for Individuals With Disabilities
Rochelle Ritzi and Marshall Lyles
10. The Aftermath of Sexual Violence: Consequent Grief and Loss
Maria Haiyasoso
11. Addressing Violence and Loss in Schools
Amanda Winburn and Mary Bess W. Pannel
Part Three: Disenfranchised Grief Impacting Families
12. Loss Within the Margins of Childrearing: Disenfranchised Grief in Parenting
Mandi Meléndez
13. African American Sibling Loss: A Sister's Perspective
Tangela C. Sawyerr
14. The Grief of Parenting "Borrowed Children": A Foster Parent Perspective
Theresa Fraser
15. The Sacrifice of Service: Grief and Loss Within the Military Community
Christina Watts-Figueroa and Alton R. McCallum. Jr.
16. Ovdje nisam, a tamo me nema: The Silenced Complicated, Complex Grief of Bosnian Refugees
Selma Zakomac-Baćevac and Meyleen M. Velasquez
Conclusion
Biography
Renee Blocker Turner, PhD, LPC-S, RPT-S™, is the director of the Expressive Therapies Institute, PLLC, and an author, researcher, and speaker with 20 years of experience supporting individuals and families in grief.
Sarah D. Stauffer, PhD, LPC, NCC, NCSC, RPT-S™, Psychologue-Psychothérapeute FSP, is children’s services director at Association ESPAS in Switzerland and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Play Therapy.
"A thoughtful, compelling, and much-needed deeper dive into the world of disenfranchised grief, this volume is a handbook for a wide audience that should include clinicians, students, and academics familiar with or new to the topic. Take the time to truly engage with the important implications that arise from each chapter; you won't regret it."
Erica Goldblatt Hyatt associate professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences in the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University and author of Grieving for the Sibling You Lost
"This edited book is a powerful must-read for helping professionals to understand the multi-faceted experiences of disenfranchised grief - especially as the sociopolitical aspects of grief are often neglected. Readers will find their hearts and minds opened to not only new information, but also to the necessity of working for a more just world."
Anneliese Singh professor of social work and associate provost for diversity and faculty development/chief diversity officer at Tulane University and author of The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing
"Disenfranchised grief often includes the types of losses that you cannot give a greeting card for; losses that often lack a name or are experienced in silence or stigma. This volume, edited by Turner and Stauffer, should be on the shelf of every clinician working with grieving individuals. As a Counselor Educator who has taught a grief counseling course for over twenty years, this book addresses a myriad of topics left out by other books, such as intersectionality and grief; COVID and disenfranchised loss; the impact of disenfranchised loss on the body; racial trauma; spiritual trauma; and how disenfranchised grief impacts communities, such as the LGBTQIA+ community, folks with disabilities, African Americans, and military families. This book is a welcome addition to the existing grief literature and will help counselors and mental health professionals learn more about death and non-death losses as they bring care and compassion to those who have experiences grief on the fringes."
Michael M. Kocet assistant vice chancellor for graduate education at the University of Colorado, Denver, member of the AADA Grief Competencies Taskforce, and editor of Counseling Gay Men, Adolescents, and Boys
"Disenfranchised grief is so often unattended and disregarded in clinical work. Drs Turner and Stauffer have created an exceptional and timely resource for clinicians and clinicians-in-training to change that."
Martha Jo Atkins author of Sign Posts of Dying: What You Need to Know
