Surviving Traumatic Grief Volume 2, For Families

A key comment after the release of Surviving Traumatic Grief Volume 1 – When Loved Ones Die in a Disaster was that more information was needed for parents and others caring for children and young people who have been bereaved in traumatic and disastrous circumstances. This volume aims to address this need.

As with the first volume, this book is based on interviews held in 2011-2012 with 31 people who tragically lost loved ones three years earlier in the February 2009 Victorian bushfires. Health professionals also provide insightful responses to the themes and issues arising from the comments of parents and their children who contributed to this book.

At the best of times, parenting is highly demanding and time consuming, requiring a lot of physical, emotional and mental energy. Trauma and grief are also highly demanding and time consuming. So, as one mother, Carol asks, “How, when you are so devastated and heartbroken yourself, how do you actually support your child when you haven’t got the energy, you haven’t got the will, you haven’t the motivation?”

“Drawing upon interviews with bereaved people this book addresses the unique needs of those caring for children and young people in the wake of bereavement following sudden, unexpected and traumatic death. This very readable book fills an important gap in meeting the needs of parents, teachers and others who are confronted with providing support to children and young people in the wake of a traumatic loss. Deftly weaving the lived experience of the bereaved with the clinical wisdom of health professionals, this practical book deals with the real issues which confront the particular needs of young people. Although traumatic loss is a challenging, exhausting and often long term challenge, this publication provides the hopeful message that with love, care and support there is much that we can do in the face of unimaginable loss.”

Christopher Hall
CEO, Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement
President, Association for Death Education and Counseling
Past Chair, International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement