For most people, grief is an inevitable part of life and if you're a wellness practitioner, then the likelihood is that you will at some point work with a bereaved client. This may initially seem like a heavy responsibility and so this guide aims to help you feel prepared and confident in how you support your client. It will explain how loss and grief can place tremendous strain on the body and how it may manifest physically, mentally, and spiritually, whilst equipping you with the tools and resources you need to support your grieving client. Vanessa May draws from over 16 years' worth of experience as a registered nutritional therapist, wellbeing coach, and trauma-informed holistic grief coach. As a result, she is able to cover nutritional medicine support whilst also educating readers on grief models and theories versus the actual reality of grief through her own experiences of traumatic loss and various case studies. This is an invaluable book for all types of wellness practitioners and therapists who would like to understand how to approach and make space for their clients' bereavement.
Vanessa May is a holistic grief coach, BANT nutritional therapist and wellbeing coach. She recently trained with leading grief expert David Kessler and is now a certified grief educator. Vanessa's first book 'Love Untethered: How to live when your child dies' was published in 2022. She lives in London.
Contents Introduction Chapter 1 Types of grief Chapter 2 The skills you most need Chapter 3 Physical manifestations of grief Chapter 4 Mental health, trauma and PTSD Chapter 5 Mind, body and spirit Chapter 6 Case studies Chapter 7 Platitudes Chapter 8 Grief models and theories versus the reality of grief Chapter 9 Nutritional medicine support Chapter 10 Recommendations for your grieving client Afterword References Appendix About the author Acknowledgements
A guide for wellness practitioners on supporting grieving clients
Vanessa's courageous survival of devastating personal bereavement combines with extensive professional experience to make this a deeply insightful guide into working sensitively and confidently with clients affected by trauma and the complexity of loss or unprocessed grief. I believe this is the essential 'go to' handbook for every therapist, wellness coach or health professional. This is now required reading for our wellbeing coaching students. -- Elaine Wilkins, founder of Chrysalis Effect Health and author of The Trauma Informed Wellbeing Coaching Accreditation for Health Professionals. I would highly recommend Vanessa May's book to any nutritional therapist, or indeed any health professional, to give them an understanding of the devastating impact that grief can have on an individual's health. If you are working with a client who is stricken with grief, unless their emotional needs are heard and supported, you may well find that they don't respond to your advice as you might hope or expect and that their grief dramatically hinders any improvements in their health, mental and physical, despite your best efforts. This book gives invaluable advice and insight on how to work sympathetically with grieving clients in order to support their individual health needs, both mental and physical. -- Kate Alexander, BANT Registered Nutritionist, BANT Membership Manager Grief is messy and there's a lot of it about. Grief can contribute to chronic disease - even kill, yet most practitioners are unaware of its consequences. Vanessa May ably details the key nutritional support for grieving clients, while providing an excellent blueprint for understanding grief's impact on the gut and nervous system. A well-written, "easy" read, despite its subject, and a vital missing link in practitioner education. -- Simon Martin, editor of IHCAN magazine
