Five Lessons for Learning from Loss, A Resource for Mourners and Handbook for Providers of Help

When someone dies, others are left to cope with that loss, and each mourner’s grief is different. The tasks of grieving have now been studied thoroughly, and the professional literature is summarized here and presented in five readable lessons. Mourners, as well as those who help them, can use what they learn here about loss to facilitate telling the story of what happened, exploring things that may help, and building a new life. Checklists, activities, quotes from famous authors, and dialogues between a mourner and counselor make this book easy to use as well as easy to read. Grief often involves a lonely walk down a long path to an unknown destination, and those who mourn welcome companions who understand loss.

James R. Davis, PhD is a professor and dean emeritus of the University of Denver. He holds degrees from Oberlin College, Yale University Divinity School, and Michigan State University. A published scholar of books on college teaching, he is also the author of the novels Ranch Without Cowboys, The Last Resort, and Little Texas College as well as the non-fiction work Timeless Questions: How World Religions Explore the Mysteries of Life, all published by Sunstone Press. Julie Davis Robinson, BA and PsyD, University of Denver, is a registered clinical psychologist, currently practicing independently in Calgary, Province of Alberta, Canada. She is a member of College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP) and the Psychologist’s Association of Alberta (PAA).