From one of the leading grief therapists, this compassionate and accessible guide to grieving offers a new framework for understanding and navigating loss.

An intimate guide to grieving that offers hope and healing within loss from one of the nation’s top grief therapists.

Conscious Grieving is a book for anyone seeking guidance and support after loss. Renowned grief therapist Claire Bidwell Smith combines her deeply personal experience of loss with her long career spent working with thousands of people to introduce a new approach to grief, one that promotes hope and even transformation.

What does it mean to grieve consciously? Most of the time, when we lose someone we love, it feels like grief is just happening to us. We feel out of control, and overwhelmed. Claire reminds us that while loss is something that inevitably happens to all of us, how we choose to grieve is up to us. When we can consciously engage with our grief, rather than avoiding it, we can access profound pathways to healing.

Presented in a series of thoughtful, brief vignettes that don’t overwhelm the reader, Conscious Grieving offers a new framework for each stage of grief: Entering, Engaging, Surrendering, and Transforming.

Entering – staying present and taking care of ourselves as we navigate the shock and upheaval of a new loss.
Engaging – navigating that first year after a loss by staying in tune with our needs as more complicated feelings of depression, guilt or anger surface.
Surrendering – facing the changes to our identity and who we are becoming in the face of loss.
Transforming – through ritual, honor, hope, and grace, and learning to carry our grief with intention so that we can continue to grow, heal, and thrive.

Grief asks a lot from us. But the ability to grieve is a birthright. We grieve throughout our lifetimes. We grieve the deaths of loved ones yes, but also moves, divorce, illness, injustice, time lost, changes in the world and healing from these losses requires that we evaluate everything we ever considered meaningful. Healing means making our lives worth the pain we endure when we lose someone we love. And transforming through grief is an opportunity afforded to all.

About the Author

Claire Bidwell Smith is a therapist specializing in grief, and author of The Rules of Inheritance, a Books for a Better Life award nominee, After this: When Life is Over Where Do We Go?, and Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief. An expert in her field, she's spoken on countless news outlets, radio, and podcast shows, and consults companies like Twitter, GoodRx, Domani for Grief, and The National Funeral Home Association, and sits on the board of End Well. Her writing has been featured in many national publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Oprah Magazine.

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