If you have ever floundered when faced with a grieving child, this book is for you. Equipped with a wealth of practical and compassionate responses, 20 contributors describe their work with bereaved children, sharing effective ways of supporting and helping them in their loss. Case studies are sensitively given, and there are moving accounts of individual, family, group and whole school work. This is an empowering book, which should be accessible to all those who come into contact with children.
Part 1 Individual work: communicating with children through play, Peta Hemmings; direct work techniques with the siblings of children dying from cancer, Maureen Hitcham and Malcolm Sargent; chairing the child - a seat of bereavement, David Waskett; non-directive play therapy with bereaved children, Jo Carroll. Part 2 Family work: ''It is impossible not to communicate'' - helping the grieving family, Barbara Munroe; a cradling of a different sort, Ann Couldrick; grieving together - helping family members share their grief, Jess Gordon. Part 3 Groupwork: creative groupwork methods with bereaved children, Margaret Pennells and Susan C. Smith; sharing experiences - the value of groups for bereaved children, Jenny Baulkwill and Christine Wood; Camp Winston - a residential intervention for bereaved children, Julie Stokes and Diana Crossley; groupwork with bereaved children, Ann Harris and Malcolm Sargent; using drama in grief work, Penny Casadagli. Part 4 Specific client groups: helping families and professionals to work with children who have learning difficulties, Judy Sanderson; transcultural counselling - bereavement counselling with adolescents, Jan Wilby; managing a tragedy in a secondary school, John Shears; voices from the crowd - stories from the Hillsborough football stadium disaster, Paul Barnard and Maureen Cane; making memory stores with children and families affected by HIV, Ruth Neville. Part 5 USA: embracing fears and sharing tears - working with bereaved children, Jennifer Levine and Debra Noell; group interventions with bereaved children, 5-17 years - from a medical centre-based young person's grief support programme, Ben Wolfe; coaching children's grief through art, Clifford Davies.
The strength of the book is its emphasis on what can actually be done and how to do it. There are examples upon examples of how to convene, start, run and end sessions with children, how to work in different settings, with children of different needs. It is a rich store of what can be done.
