Healing after Parent Loss in Childhood and Adolescence

Therapeutic Interventions and Theoretical Considerations

Edited by Phyllis Cohen, K. Mark Sossin, Richard Ruth

Not available to order

Publication date:

31 January 2014

Length of book:

344 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442231764

In Healing after Parent Loss in Childhood and Adolescence: Therapeutic Interventions and Theoretical Considerations, experts explore the varied, often complex, and always tragic circumstances under which young people face losing a parent. Profound grief and feelings of powerlessness may accompany loss of a parent at any age, but distinctly so when such loss is experienced during formative years. Whenever these individuals seek help, therapists must be psychically prepared to enter into arenas of trauma, bereavement, and mourning. The children, teens, and adults presented are diverse in age, culture/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. A diverse group of contributors showcase a wide range of effective approaches—from traditionally structured short- and long-term psychotherapies and psychoanalysis, to psycho-educational, supportive, and preventive interventions.

The writers in this volume do not shy away from tough matters such as urban violence, AIDS, and war; they address concerns practicing clinicians face, such as when to work with children, adolescents, and adults individually, and when and how to involve their surviving parents and families. Included in this book are issues related to the self-care and professional development needs of therapists who take on this difficult but essential work, including peer support and supervision.

This volume is likely to spark important re-examinations across all fields of mental health practice. It will equip and empower clinicians of all kinds who undertake work with those who are grieving.
Healing after Parent Loss in Childhood and Adolescence promises to be a vital and stimulating read for supervisors, teachers, and trainers of child, adolescent, and family clinicians.
This is one of those rare books that clinicians will return to many times over for insight, wisdom, and comfort in their work with grieving children, adolescents, and adults. The individual contributions are noteworthy for the depth of exploration of the complexities of mourning the death of a parent, whether anticipated or unexpected. The breadth of the clinical material and the contributors’ thoughtful approaches to this difficult work strikingly demonstrate that, in this exemplary case, the whole is truly greater than the sum of its impressive parts.