Building Continuing Bonds for Grieving and Bereaved Children: A Guide for Counsellors and Practitioners

The period following the death of a friend or loved one can be tumultuous for anyone, but can be especially difficult for children, with lasting effects if the loss is not acknowledged or supported. This book emphasises the importance of listening to children and helping them to create positive bonds that can sustain them as they go through their lives. It provides practical, creative approaches to support children in their time of bereavement and to those whose loved one is dying. By recognising feelings of pain, anger, and confusion through open and positive discussions, a child is able to build emotional resilience and create enduring memories of the person they have lost. The author explains the importance of developing continuing bonds between children and loved ones in times of bereavement and offers practical ways in which these bonds may be nurtured through creative activities, memory making, and personal storytelling.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; 1. Keeping Love in Your Heart; 2. Harvesting stories; 3. Keeping Up Conversations; 4. Guiding Lights: Dreams and Spirituality; 5. Loving Yourself when Someone You Love Had Died; 6. Making Memories Together when Someone You Love is Dying; 7. 'I'll Always Love You' - Reading Resources; References; Index

About the Author :
Brenda Mallon is a certified counsellor with over 30 years' experience working in bereavement counselling in schools, national conferences and hospices. She is author of 16 books on the topic, and continues to write on grief and bereavement.

Review :
Brenda Mallon elegantly combines the practical with a continuing bonds perspective; addressing the ongoing grieving needs of bereaved children with useful strategies to enable them to keep their links from the past into their future. Brenda Mallon's well-informed, practical application of continuing bonds to supporting bereaved children is comprehensive and timely. She expands the concept's contemporary significance to equip practitioners with a range of tools to help bereaved children not only adjust to their loss but also grow and thrive. Reading Brenda Mallon is akin to sharing a conversation with a respected colleague. This book provides a reference library within two covers for all those who support bereaved children as they move in and out of their grief. The book is for adults to whom children from preschool to late adolescence turn after significant deaths. The overview of contemporary ways of understanding grief provides the adults with a good intellectual and emotional framework to share with the kids that trust them with their stories. A good book for parents, grandparents, and other family members as well as an excellent resource for a wide variety of professionals.