Healing Children’s Grief

Healing Children’s Grief: Surviving a Parent’s Death from Cancer
By Grace Hyslop Christ, 2000
ISBN: 0195105915
ISBN13: 9780195105919

In this unique book, Grace Christ relates the powerfully moving stories of 88 families and their 157 children (ages 3 to 17) who participated in a parent-guidance intervention through the terminal illness and death of one of the parents from cancer. The book is divided into two major sections. The first summarizes the theoretical background and methodology. The second presents the findings of the five developmentally derived age groups (3-5, 6-8, 9-11, 12-14, and 15-17).

Using qualitative analytic methods, these findings clarify important differences in children’s grief and mourning processes, in their understanding of events, in their interactions with families, and in their varying needs for help and support.

The author gives numerous examples of the ways parents and extended family interacted with the children. She describes how parents participated in healing their children’s grief by:

• preparing, informing, and guiding children through the experience;
• understanding their developmental needs;
• supporting and resonating with their unique expressions of grief;
• helping them construct a positive legacy;
• and reconstituting relationships without the day to day presence of the parent who died.

Healing Children’s Grief: Surviving a Parent’s Death from Cancer provides practical guidance and direction for physicians, nurses, social workers, therapists, guidance counselors, and teachers as well as for families undergoing similar experiences and for the friends and neighbors whose informed help is invaluable.