Traveling through Grief

Learning to Live Again after the Death of a Loved One

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You can live life to the fullest even after a loved one dies.

Traveling through Grief is a compassionate resource to help you find your road to recovery and discover a fulfilling life after the death of a loved one or friend. The authors, both of whom lost spouses before marrying each other, are grief counselors who show you five specific tasks to work through to aid in healing. From exploring your feelings to sifting through memories, reshaping a sense of self-identity to reengaging in your own life, these crucial tasks help you handle grief with purpose and intention. Thoughts on how loss affects both your spiritual and mental well-being are covered separately, so you can choose which is most helpful--or read the sections together for the fullest exploration of healing.

Your experience of grief will change your journey forever. Let Traveling through Grief help you develop a life that can become rich and rewarding again.


Endorsements

"In a culture that prefers grievers 'get over it' and 'move on' as quickly as possible, two authors, well-acquainted with grief, challenge such thinking. The journey through grief requires deliberate, intentional decisions. From their own journey and from their work as clinicians and companions to grievers, they offer a clear hope: life can be fulfilling and rewarding again for you! Grief is not a permanent journey but a growth process that gives the intentional griever an opportunity to find new direction and new purpose. Time and faith can be friends of the intentional griever. Do yourself a favor: Read this book with a yellow highlighter. You will find grief-changing wisdom on every page: wisdom that can help you and can help friends and family members traveling through grief."--Harold Ivan Smith, grief educator, author of Grieving the Death of a Friend

"The dynamic duo has given us yet another fine book by grabbing hold of the fracturing impact of grief. Grief rips people, stories, and feelings right out of us. It leaves us cast out on unfamiliar ground, lost, confused, doubtful. Of course each person expresses these things differently, but we often find it so very hard to bring together our 'head' (insights, traditions, understandings about grief, rituals) with our 'heart' (faith and values). The disruptions of loss often twist around us, blinding us to the fact that we have, at least for a time, lost the centeredness that comes when head and heart embrace each other. This book will inform, equip, comfort, shield, nudge, and hug you, who you are, what you are all about, the significance of your loss experience, and your faith."--Richard B. Gilbert, executive director, The World Pastoral Care Center

"It is refreshing to find a resource which has both a strong spiritual component as well as an abundance of practical and useful suggestions for the grief journey. This is a welcomed resource."--H. Norman Wright, grief & trauma therapist, author and seminary professor


The Authors

  1. Susan J. Zonnebelt-Smeenge R.N., Ed.D

    Susan J. Zonnebelt-Smeenge R.N., Ed.D

    Susan J. Zonnebelt-SmeengeRN, EdD, is a licensed clinical psychologist now in private practice in Marietta, Georgia. She worked at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for over 20 years. She speaks...

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  2. Robert C. De Vries

    Robert C. De Vries

    Robert C. De Vries, DMin, PhD, is professor emeritus of church education at Calvin Theological Seminary and an ordained pastor. He speaks nationally to churches, community groups, and professional organizations and facilitates a variety of...

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