Extras

Resources for Grief

• • •  Coryell, Deborah Morris (2007) Good Grief, Healing Through the Shadow of Loss

    •  Doka, Kenneth J. (2002) Disenfranchised Grief

    •  Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth, & Kessler, David (2005) On Grief and Grieving

    •  Neimeyer, Robert A. (2001) Meaning Reconstruction & the Experience of Loss

    •  Worden, J. William (2009) Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy (4th ed.)

    •  Wolfelt, Alan, Understanding your Grief

    •  Hone, Lucy (2017) Resilient Grieving

    •  O’Connor, Mary-Frances (2023) The Grieving Brain

    •  Westberg, Granger E. (1997) Good Grief

    •  Winston, Lolly (2004) Good Grief

    •  Kumar, Sameet K. (2005) Grieving Mindfully

    •  Stang, Heather (2014) Mindfulness and Grief

    •  Kushner, Harold S. ((2001) Living a Life that Matters

    •  Seligman, Martin E. (2006) Learned Optimism

    •  Mitchell, Kenneth R and Anderson, H. (1983) All Out Losses, All Our Grief

Picture Books

I love pictures books for the way pictures and text build on each other to engage readers.  Quality picture books present ideas, emotions, and experiences without talking down to readers, no matter how old the readers are. I, Rachel, have a huge collection, so this list will expand.  Check back. :-)

• • Because of a Shoe (2026) by Julie Fogliano follows a mother and child through the experience of stubborn anger (e.g., "I don't want to!).  The shift from illustrations in color to black and white and back to color does a marvelous job depicting how our vision narrows when anger takes over.  

  • The Big Orange Splot (1977) by Daniel Pinkwater explores what can happen if you choose to pause and think about what you want rather than doing what was and/or going with what people pressure you to do.  Your house can be the house of your dreams rather than “all the same.”

  • The Book of Mistakes (2017) by Corinna Luyken transforms “mistakes” into new ideas. 

  • Lost and Found (2005) by Oliver Jeffers invites readers on a journey of transformation that starts with an incorrect assumption (Penguin is lost).

  • They All Saw a Cat (2016) by Brendan Wenzel explores the concept of the lense through which you see the world.  The cat is a cat always, but the mouse sees the cat very differently (the cat is a terrifying thing) than the dog than the fish than the boy.  

  • The Shrinking of Treehorn (1971) by Florence Parry Heide highlights the experience of a child trying to be seen in a world of adults creating their own explanations.

Memoirs

Memoirs offer opportunities to see the world from another person's perspective, ways they navigate and make meaning of their life, and how they tell their story.  

• The Color of Water (1996) by James McBride

• Educated (2022) by Tara Westover

• Hunger by Roxane Gay

• The Only Girl in the World by Maude Julien

• An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison

• What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma (2023) by Stephanie Foo

Other Books

• Divinity in Disguise: Nested Meditations to Delight the Mind and Awaken the Soul by (2003) Kevin Anderson

• Far from the Tree: Parents Children and the Search for Identity (2013) by Andrew Solomon 

• I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Mail Depression (1998) by Terrence Real

• In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction (2010) by Gabor Maté

• Let Your Life Speak: Listening to the Voice of Vocation (1999) by Parker Palmer.  Palmer asks and explores the question, "Is the life I am living the same as the life that wants to live in me?"  

• Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope (2005) by Joan Chittester

• Us: Getting Past You & Me to Build a Better Relationship (2022) by Terrence Real

Guided Meditations

• Weigh Anchor

• Why

• Take Time for a Puzzle

• Draw a Picture