Description
A compassionate guide to the experience of loss as an essential growth process
• Explores the nature of loss as a profound mystery shared by all human beings
• Offers sensitive and practical advice for experiencing grief and preparing for the healing journey that follows
• Includes CD of the author reading selections from the text
We grieve only for that which we have loved, and the transient nature of life makes love and loss intimate companions. In Good Grief professional grief educator Deborah Morris Coryell describes grief as the experience of not having anywhere to place our love, of losing a connection, an outlet for our emotion. To heal grief we have to learn how to continue to love in the face of loss.
In this compassionate guide, Coryell gives inspiring examples of how embracing our losses allows us to awaken our most profound connections to other people. Though our society tends to rank losses in a “hierarchy of grief,” she reminds us that all losses must be grieved in their own right and on their own terms, and that we must honor the “small” losses as well as the “big” ones. Paying attention to even the most minute experiences of loss can help us to be more in tune with our responses to the greater ones, allowing us to once again become part of the rhythm of life from which we have become disconnected. This 10th anniversary edition includes a 60-minute CD of the author reading select passages from the text.
Praise and Reviews
“[For] people who are dealing with grief or who are going through other major life transitions. I draw upon Deborah Coryell’s wisdom and expertise and recommend Good Grief as a resource for both patients and physicians.”
Andrew Weil, M.D., author of Eight Weeks to Optimum Health
"Coryell has written a compassionate and quietly inspiring book explaining why we should grieve, how to grieve without getting lost in despair, and what healing can occur when you grieve. . . . I highly recommend this book. It's exceptionally well-written, with a gentleness and strength that supports those experiencing loss, as well as their friends and family members who wish to help, but need direction to do so."
Karen Phillippi, The Beltane Papers, Issue 35, Oct 2005
"This slim yet powerful book will help readers to not just deal with grief, but also to benefit from it."
Whole Body & Living Soul, October 2004
“Helps families deal with grief in a way that is nurturing, honoring, and life-affirming.”
Gershon Winkler, director of the Walking Stick Foundation and author of The Way of the Boundary Crosser
“An insightful and compassionate guide to one of life’s essential growth processes. Grieving is not to penalize us; it is love’s healing work for loss.”
Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi, coauthor of From Age-ing to Sage-ing
“[Deborah Morris Coryell] writes in a compassionate voice that offers comfort as well as a challenge to encourage transformation through the experience of loss. An excellent companion . . . a helpful and validating resource for grief counselors, for anyone working with people in grief, and for many working with their own grief issues.”
The Library Letter, Bastyr University
"In this compassionate guide, the author gives inspiring examples of how embracing our losses allows us to awaken our most profound connections to other people."
Joint Forces Journal, May 08
"The book is small, but every word is well chosen, thoughtful and filled with wisdom. The additional CD really impacts listeners because Deborah reads her book with deep compassion, sincerity, and emotional commitment to the subject of grieving. One gets the sense that Deborah really does know, at a very profound level, of the pain we suffer when we must say goodbye to someone we love."
Carole Devereux, Alaska Wellness, March 2009
