2nd Edition
Helping Grieving People - When Tears Are Not Enough A Handbook for Care Providers
Helping Grieving People – When Tears Are Not Enough is a handbook for care providers who provide service, support and counseling to those grieving death, illness, and other losses. This book is also an excellent text for academic courses as well as for staff development training. The author addresses grief as it affects a variety of relationships and discusses different intervention and support strategies, always cognizant of individual and cultural differences in the expression and treatment of grief. Jeffreys has established a practical approach to preparing grief care providers through three basic tracks. The first track: Heart – calls for self-discovery, freeing oneself of accumulated loss in order to focus all attention on the griever. Second track: Head – emphasizes understanding the complex and dynamic phenomena of human grief. Third track: Hands – stresses the caregiver's actual intervention, and speaks to lay and professional levels of skill, as well as the various approaches for healing available. Accompanying these three motifs, the Handbook discusses the social and cultural contexts of grief as applied to various populations of grievers as well as the underlying psychological basis of human grief. Throughout the book, Jeffreys presents the role of the caregiver as an Exquisite Witness to the journey of grief and pain of bereaved family and friends, and also to the path taken by dying persons and their families. The second edition of Helping Grieving People remains true to the approach that has been so well received in the original volume. It includes updated research findings and addresses new information and developments in the field of loss, grief and bereavement.
Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgements. How to Use this Book. The Exquisite Witness Grief Care Provider. The Socio-Cultural Influence on Grief Experience. The Human Grief Response: Origin and Function. Loss and Death in the Family. The Grief of Children and Adolescents. The Grief of Parents: An Upside Down World. Older Adult Grief. Chronic Illness/Disability, Terminality and Dying. Helping Grieving People: A Continuum of Care for Healing. Complications of the Human Grief Process. Case Studies. Epilogue. Appendix A: Organizational Resources. Appendix B: Advanced Directive.
Biography
J. Shep Jeffreys, Ed.D., F.T., is a licensed psychologist specializing in grief, loss, and end-of-life concerns and is a Fellow in Thanatology (Association for Death Education and Counseling). In addition to maintaining a private practice, Jeffreys is assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and affiliate assistant professor of pastoral counseling, Loyola University Maryland. He is a consultant to hospices, hospitals, nursing homes, educational institutions, and corporations. He has served as trainer and workshop leader with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in the United States, Canada, and overseas, and as consulting psychologist for the Johns Hopkins AIDS Service. His column, "Grief Psychologist’s Corner" is a regular feature in Living with Loss Magazine. The author can be found on the web at www.GriefCareProvider.com.
"Helping Grieving People: When Tears Are Not Enough is appropriate for anyone seeking specific and practical directions on change, loss, and grieving. Jeffery’s writing style and the book's organization facilitate intellectual, emotional, and experimental understanding of grief responses for all readers. It is an excellent choice for a textbook in gerontology and end-of-life courses. It is a must-have book for libraries." -Cheryl Osborne, California State University Sacramento
"I found this book very positive, helpful and detailed. Information is subdivided into easy chunks with clear headings. There are helpful questions to ask oneself or others." –The Transactional Analyst
"Making an excellent book even better, Jeffreys’ updated edition richly integrates professional and personal information to provide caregivers with the tools to best enable coping in the dying and bereaved. A superb resource!" - Therese A. Rando, PhD, BCETS, BCBT, The Institute for the Study and Treatment of Loss, Rhode Island, USA
"Shep Jeffreys provides a great tool for clinicians and a gift for individuals struggling with loss. This book offers compassionate observations … as well as an integration of the most contemporary theories and research." - Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, Professor, The Graduate School, The College of New Rochelle, New York, USA; Senior Consultant, The Hospice Foundation of America
"What makes this book unique is how Dr. Jeffreys blends his own experiences with the loss of his son into the fabric of what is a most useful book. I highly recommend it." -William Worden, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University, California, USA
"Shep Jeffreys models admirably his own ideal as an ‘exquisite witness care provider’ for grieving people, drawing upon lessons learned from his own loss experiences and experiences of grieving people in diverse life circumstances." - Thomas Attig, PhD, Past President, Association for Death Education and Counseling
"The additional research adds greater breadth and depth to an array of outstanding clinical and pastoral resources. [This is] a valuable clinical and pastoral reference." - Rev. C. Kevin Gillespie, SJ, PhD, Associate Professor, Loyola University of Chicago’s Institute of Pastoral Studies, USA
"In Helping Grieving People, Jeffreys artfully combines theory and research with clinical and personal experience. The book captures the complexity of the grief process and offers useful and practical guidelines for anyone supporting the bereaved." - Carol Wogrin, PsyD, RN, Director, National Center for Death Education, Mount Ida College, Massachusetts, USA
"Some books hook a reader early. This one hooked me with a story—of a boy named Steven who died too young and a family who chose to embrace grief. Only a professional who has experienced grief so ‘close up,’ and who has spent his career caring for grievers, can write so powerfully and so authentically." - Harold Ivan Smith, DMin, FT, Saint Luke’s Hospital, Kansas City, USA
"Shep Jeffreys has presented a clear and unmistakably informative resource for any caring adult working with the grieving population. His work personifies an experienced professional from the heart quality of this book, to self awareness exercise, grieving principles, and useful interventions and resources." - Linda Goldman, MS, LCPC, FT, private practice, Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA
"This is a wise, helpful, accessible book with excellent grounding in the literature and the author's practice and personal experience. It is an invaluable foundation for beginners at helping the bereaved, and there are also many riches for experienced helpers." - Paul C. Rosenblatt, PhD, Professor of Family Social Science, the University of Minnesota, USA
"This edition is even better and more complete than the original. It is a must-must have, must-read for caregivers. It overflows with good advice and good sense, clearly the work of someone who has known both ends of the healing process, as a healer and as one who needed healing and found it." - Rabbi Harold Kushner, Author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People
"Dr. Jeffreys presents a clear understanding of the nature of grief based on empirically supported models and time-tested theories. This book is an invaluable resource and deserves a place in the core curriculum of any helping professional who wishes to be of service to people who are grieving." - Ira Byock, MD, Director, Palliative Care Service, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, New Hampshire
