Grief Lending Library

A book for both those who are grieving and those who wish to be helpful to grievers. Gives practical suggestions as well as thoughtful insights for one’s grief journey.

• General

• Professional

These essays survey the complex issues surrounding the crisis of bereavement.

• Professional

This work considers the potential effects of slavery, racism, and white ignorance and oppression on the African American experience and conception of death and grief in America. This book documents, describes, and analyzes the key phenomena of the unique African-American experience of grief.

• Professional

Examines the child's tie to the mother and also explains why this vital relationship is so crucial to the development of the child's personality.

• Professional

• Historical

Examines the effect of separation on the development of the child and the psychopathology that often follows separation.

• Professional

• Historical

The author analyzes the effects of a death in the family on the lives of children and adults.

• Professional

"This study examines how consumers think and feel about death and funerals, and updates a comparable study done in 1974 by the Casket Manufacturers of America."

• Professionals

• Funeral Rites

Aimed at the minister and seminary student.

• Professional

• Religious / Historical

This practical guide to the treatment of grief responses combines clinical and spiritual care. Topics addressed include universal grief processes and responses, dysfunctional grieving, therapies and treatment priorities, reorganization and recovery, the ways that perceptions, thoughts, and beliefs influence care, and more.

• Professional

• Religious

Looks closely at the pioneering legacy of the work of Kubler-Ross and discusses how professional understanding of dying and grief has progressed and developed. Readers will find spirited discourse on the most current issues surrounding the questions of how people grieve and how professionals can best support them, in chapters and tools that will augment and even challenge their work.

• Professional

A bibliography of books on death, bereavement, loss and grief from 1935-1968.

• Professional

• Historical

A refreshing and practical approach to working with children who are suffering the loss of a loved one due to suicide. Rubel takes a very difficult topic and creates a manageable path for parents and professionals to follow when helping the young suicide survivor.

• Helping Children

• Suicide

Guidance for those concerned with the depressed, the suicidal, and the terminally ill.

• Professional

• Religious / Historical

A valuable resource for those who care for dying patients and their families. A variety of articles by various professionals dealing with many end-of-life care issues.

• Professional

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

This book gives great insight into the painful journeys of donor families and how to successfully companion them before, during and after the donation experience.

• Professional

• Organ Donors

A revised edition of a cross-cultural study of rituals surrounding death that focuses on the notion that in understanding other people's death rituals we are able to gain a better understanding of our own.

• Professional

Physician-author Diane Komp uses tender stories of her work with children who have cancer to illustrate timeless biblical truth. Showing how medicine, science, and biblical faith are compatible, she gives readers inspiring insight into the spiritual re-education of a Yale medical professor by her young patients.

• Professional

• Anticipatory / Before the Death / Religious

"…deals with death and grief from a biblical and psychological perspective and offers practical advice to ministers on how to handle the grief situation and the funeral service."

• Professional

• Religious

This compassionate and practical guide offers a new model of bereavement care for nurses, physicians, social workers, chaplains and other bedside obstetric caregivers, as they companion families who have experienced miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth and other forms of perinatal loss.

• Death of a Child

• Professional

Bereavement care is draining work, and remaining empathetic to the painful struggles of the mourners and dying they serve makes caregivers highly susceptible to burnout. But if you make compassionate self-care a priority, not only will your life be richer and more joyful, you will be a more effective caregiver to others. Let this book show you how to have balance in your life and in your work.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

• Professional

“An inspiring guide for clergy and others who help bereaved families plan and carry out authentic funeral rituals…"

• Professional

• Funeral Rites and Ceremonies

Explores the ways in which caregivers and clergy can create heartfelt ceremonies that help the bereaved.

• Professional

• Funeral Rites and Ceremonies

For clergy who wish to enhance their ability to assist others during times of death and grief.

• Professional

• Religious

A comprehensive approach to death education on a development level.

• General

• Professional / Historical

For children ages 4 and up. When 5 year old Allison’s parents begin to see a change in her behavior at home they seek professional help for her. They find that Allison and other children have been ritually abused at a day care center. Thus begins Allison’s recovery.

• Children

• Abuse

Addressed to all professional practitioners who may be involved directly or indirectly with suicidal people.

• Professional

• Suicide

Funeral Service is at a crossroads--trying to maintain the history and tradition of the past while facing a public that demands services that are special, unique and personalized. The author outlines the issues and offers suggestions and solutions that can transform your firm.

• Professional

• Funeral Rites

While many books a have tackled the topic of Big Pharma, drug addiction, and our increasingly over-medicated society, Generation Rx offers an entirely new look at what the prescription pill epidemic means for today’s youth and the world around them.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Overdose/Professional

An uplifting tribute to the human spirit -- to the nurses, the doctors, the parents and relatives, and especially the children at University Hospital Center.

• Professionals

• Historical

Describes the mechanisms of grief and the procedures of helping clients accomplish the “tasks of mourning” to facilitate moving through the process of normal grieving.

• Professional

"Pastors are privileged to offer ministry in the context of bereavement grief, but in this book Oates takes us into life situations where the significance of grief, separation, and loss often go unnoticed, such as divorce and employment situations. As always, Oates discovers nuggets of biblical wisdom and spiritual insight that ground pastoral care in the Christian tradition and connect caregiving with the faith of the parishioner."

• Professional

• Religious

Drawn from stories, suggestions and insight shared by grieving children and their family members, this book explores how children view, understand and process death; how to talk with children about death at various ages and developmental stages; how to be supportive and helpful throughout their grieving process; and when to seek professional help.

• Helping Children

This practical book offers 20 simple rituals that caregivers can use with people with developmental disabilities after a death. All of the rituals can be adapted for people of all age and all levels of disability.

• Professional

• Helping Children & Teens

Learn how a death of a loved one can impact a teen, and how to help. Explains common grief reactions of teenagers, specific challenges grieving teenagers face, when to seek professional help, and advice from other parents.

• Helping Teens

"The intent of this book is to share the knowledge and experience of a variety of concerned individuals involved in the care of children facing death."

• Helping Children

• Terminally Ill Children / Historical

A collection of sermons appropriate for the Christian funeral.

• Professional

• Funeral Rites / Religious / Historical

Case histories and personal experience; as a volunteer, the author presents specific information on patient care, medication techniques, funding, staffing, administration, home care programs, and architectural requirements for inpatient units.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

• Professional / Historical

Through the description of personal experience, and case studies, the book explores how people with autism feel and express the loss of a loved one, how they process and come to terms with their feelings of grief, and offers practical and detailed advice to parents and caregivers on a range of sensitive issues. 

• Professional

• Helping Children & Teens

A booklet on the importance and the practice of self-care for caregivers to the dying and the bereaved. This practical booklet addresses: why excellent self-care is essential; the art of erasing "worktapes"; caregiver fatigue syndrome; the over caring caregiver; the bereavement caregiver's self-care guidelines.

• Professional

Provides insight into the process of grief and offers practical advice on how to be a comfort to others. With specific discussion on a variety of difficult experiences--ranging from illness to job loss to divorce to natural disasters--it also includes resources and advice from experts, professionals, and individuals whose words of wisdom can guide you through these difficult experiences.

• General

• Helping a Friend

The author has written a very moving, simple, and extremely practical book for all those who wonder how to be present to sick and dying people. This book allows for a very intimate, personal, spiritual communion when we often feel hopeless and powerless.

• Professional

• Religious

A guide for parents, educators, clergy and health care professionals to handle children’s loss and grief issues. Includes bibliographical references and index.

• Helping Children

A review of current understandings on the process of grief and an overview of the ways that grief may affect individuals at work, at school, and at worship, and how we can better create humane environments for bereaved individuals.

• Professional

A collection of articles pertaining to large-scale disasters, grief, community support, etc.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Professional

Written and edited by some of the nation’s leading authorities on ethics and end-of-life care, this book explores a range of issues – including pediatric hospice, historical, religious, spiritual and cultural perspectives of the end of life, hospice in nursing homes, surrogate decision making, physician assisted suicide, organ donation and our society’s legal tenants of end-of-life-care.

• Anticipatory / Before the Death

• Professional

This book includes perspectives from clinicians who have experienced personal trauma, such as death by suicide, supporting a community after a tragedy, and working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapters include: Supporting those bereaved by Drug Overdose and Suicide Deaths, Treating traumatic loss after Violent Death, and Trauma and grief in children and adolescents.

• Professional

• Trauma

This beautifully-illustrated storybook is designed as a tool to be read with children aged 6+ who have experienced the loss of a loved one by suicide. Suicide always causes shock, not just for the family members but for everyone around them, and children also have to deal with these feelings. The book approaches the subject sensitively and includes a guide for parents and professionals.

• Children

• Suicide

Based on the deaths of both her children as well as her professional experiences as a grief counselor, Meg Woodson offers compassionate, practical advice to see you through these darkest, loneliest days.

• General

• Death of a Child

This book is a good resource for grieving men, as well as the professionals who help them. The author addresses a wide variety topics related to men and grief and the book is divided into three major sections: 1) Grief Responses and Characteristics, 2) The Special Challenges of Specific Losses, and 3) Working Through Your Grief.

• General

• Men and Grief / Professional

“…a sociological view of the traditionally psychological domain of suicide."

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Professional / Suicide

Brings suicide survival from the darkness into light, speaking frankly about the overwhelming feelings of confusion, guilt, shame, anger, and loneliness that are shared by all survivors. Fine draws on her own experience and on conversations with many other survivors--as well as on the knowledge of counselors and mental health professionals. She offers a strong helping hand and invaluable guidance to the vast numbers of family and friends who are left behind by the more than thirty thousand people who commit suicide each year, struggling to make sense of an act that seems to them senseless, and to pick up the pieces of their own shattered lives.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Suicide

Are you looking for ways to better understand the impact of the loss – and how to help? This booklet was written specifically for surviving adults, such as family members, caregivers, and close friends. It might also be of interest to teachers, counselors, clergy, healthcare professionals, and others who work with young people and, most importantly, care about them

• Helping Children

Intended for those interested professionals such as teachers, counselors, ministers, religious educators, social workers and others in the helping professions.

• Professional

To help pet parents everywhere, she opened the first standalone pet funeral home in the United States in Indianapolis. In this guidebook, she helps pet parents, veterinarians, death-care professionals and others celebrate the special bonds we share with our animal companions.

• Death of a Pet

The first book ever to systematically expound the piece-by-piece reconstruction and synthesis of events surrounding the terminal phase of life.

• Professional

• Historical

A rich store of wisdom to help man face his own death bravely, and to aid his loved ones to work through their bereavement to continued meaningful life.

• Professional

• Historical

This book consists of poems, letters, diary entries, and essays written by parents, grandparents, professional counselors, siblings, friends, and babysitters-all of whom discuss their personal experiences in confronting SIDS. After an informational opening chapter, the remaining 17 chapters focus on confronting one's loss and that of loved ones and how to move forward.

• Death of a Child

• SIDS

… promises to give those in the counseling field a fuller understanding of their work with suicide survivors.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death / Professional

• Suicide / Historical

Techniques of Grief Therapy is an indispensable guidebook to the most inventive and inspirational interventions in grief and bereavement counseling and therapy. Individually, each technique emphasizes creativity and practicality.

• Professional

Activities promote healing when they are offered freely and when the children and teens can choose their level of participation. Activities don't heal; they create an atmosphere of warmth, comfort and safety, which allows the child and teen to work through the healing process. The goal of these activities is to promote the sharing of feelings, to normalize the grief experience and to encourage peer support.

• Professional

Provides guidance to fight this tragic trend, informing both the concerned layman and the professional counselor.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Suicide

Provides helpful advice for those who are grieving – and it is given in a manner which is both professional and practical.

• General

Information intended to assist mental health professionals to increase their knowledge of advances in the field of youth suicide.

• Sudden & Traumatic Death

• Suicide / Professional