Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss by Hope Edelman

Although a mother's mortality is inevitable no book has discussed the profound lasting and far reaching effects of this loss until Motherless Daughters, which became an instant classic. More than twenty years later, it is still the go-to book that women of all ages look to for comfort, help, and understanding when their mother dies. Building on interviews with hundreds of mother loss survivors, Edelman's personal story of losing her mother, and recent research in grief and psychology, Motherless Daughters reveals the shared experiences and core identity issues of motherless women:

• Why the absence of a nurturing hand shapes a woman's identity throughout her lifespan

• How present day relationships are defined by past losses

• How a woman can resolve past conflicts and move toward acceptance and healing

• Why grief really is not a linear passage but an ongoing cyclical journey

• How the legacy of mother loss shifts with the passage of time

Radical Acts of Love: How we find hope at the end of life by Janie Brown

In this profound and moving book, oncology nurse Janie Brown recounts twenty conversations she has had with the dying, including some close to her. Each conversation uncovers a different perspective on, and experience of death, while at the same time exploring its universalities. Offering extremely sensitive and wise insight into our final moments, Brown shows practical ways to facilitate the shift from feeling helpless about death to feeling hopeful; from fear to acceptance; from feeling disconnected and alone, to becoming part of the wider, collective story of our mortality.

Quiet your mind and get to sleep: Solutions to Insomnia for Those with Depression, Anxiety or Chronic Pain by Colleen Carney and Rachel Manber

A busy and hectic life can profoundly affect your ability to get a good night's rest. And it's even more difficult to feel relaxed when you stay awake worrying that you won't fall asleep. This vicious circle can quickly rob you of your quality of life, which is why it is so important to seek the most effective treatment for your insomnia.
This workbook uses cognitive behavior therapy, which has been shown to work as well as sleep medications and produce longer-lasting effects. Research shows that it also works well for those whose insomnia is experienced in the context of anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. The complete program in Quiet Your Mind and Get to Sleep goes to the root of your insomnia and offers the same techniques used by experienced sleep specialists.

You'll learn how to optimize your sleep pattern using methods to calm your mind and help you identify sleep-thieving behaviors that contribute to insomnia. Don't go without rest any longer-get started on this program and end your struggles with sleep.

When Things Falls Apart by Pema Chodron

There is a fundamental opportunity for happiness right within our reach, yet we usually miss it – ironically while we are caught up in attempts to escape pain and suffering. Drawn from traditional Buddhist wisdom, Pema’s radical and compassionate advice for what to do when things fall apart in our lives goes against the grain of our usual habits and expectations. There is only one approach to suffering that is of lasting benefit, Pema teaches, and that approach involves moving toward painful situations with friendliness and curiosity, relaxing into the essential groundlessness of our entire situation. It is there, in the midst of chaos, that we can discover the truth and love that are indestructible.

Information on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapy that has been shown to be effective in over 1,000 research studies. It is a time-sensitive, structured, present-oriented psychotherapy that helps individuals identify goals that are most important to them and overcome obstacles that get in the way. CBT helps people get better and stay better.

MyGrief.ca

MyGrief.ca can help you understand grief and work through some of the difficult issues you may be facing. MyGrief.ca has been developed by a team of national and international grief experts together with people who have experienced significant loss in their own lives (see Who developed MyGrief.ca). It is not meant to replace professional counselling or other health care services.

Hope for Wellness Chat: Grief support for Indigenous peoples across Canada

The Hope for Wellness Help Line offers immediate mental health counselling and crisis intervention to all Indigenous peoples across Canada. Experienced and culturally competent Help Line counsellors can help if you:

• want to talk

• are distressed

• have strong emotional reactions

• are triggered by painful memories

If asked, counsellors can also work with you to find other wellness supports that are available near you. Phone and chat counselling is available in English and French. On request, phone counselling is also available in:

• Cree

• Ojibway

• Inuktitut

What’s Your Grief: A Grief Website

As mental health professionals who have experienced significant losses ourselves, we know individual grief is unique and there is no “right” way to cope. Our goal is to create a community that provides hope, support, and education to anyone wishing to understand the complicated experience of life after loss.

Soothe Your Nerves: The Black Woman's Guide to Understanding and Overcoming Anxiety, Panic, and Fear

Thousands of Black women suffer from anxiety. What's worse is that many of us have been raised to believe we are Strong Black Women and that seeking help shows weakness. So we often turn to dangerous quick fixes that only exacerbate the problem -- like overeating and drug and alcohol abuse -- or we deny that we have problems at all.
In Soothe Your Nerves, Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett explains which factors can contribute to anxiety, panic, and fear in Black women and offers a range of healing methods that will help you or a loved one reclaim your life. Here finally is a blueprint for understanding and overcoming anxiety from a psychological, spiritual, and Black perspective.

Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief by David Kessler

In this book, Kessler gives readers a roadmap to remembering those who have died with more love than pain; he shows us how to move forward in a way that honors our loved ones. Kessler’s insight is both professional and intensely personal. His journey with grief began when, as a child, he witnessed a mass shooting at the same time his mother was dying. For most of his life, Kessler taught physicians, nurses, counselors, police, and first responders about end of life, trauma, and grief, as well as leading talks and retreats for those experiencing grief. Despite his knowledge, his life was upended by the sudden death of his twenty-one-year-old son.

It’s Always Something by Gilda Radner

To honor the twentieth anniversary of beloved comedienne Gilda Radner’s death from ovarian cancer comes a commemorative edition of her memoir, It’s Always Something—featuring a newly updated resource guide for people living with cancer and a tribute by Radner’s former colleagues at Saturday Night Live.

As a cast member on the original Saturday Night Live, Gilda Radner created a compelling character named “Roseann Rosannadanna” who habitually ended her routine with the line, “It’s always something,” which was her father’s favorite expression about life. Radner chose the catch- phrase she made famous as the title to her brave, funny, and painfully honest memoir: the story of her struggle against cancer and her determination to continue laughing.

The Long Goodbye by Meghan O’Rourke

What does it mean to mourn today, in a culture that has largely set aside rituals that acknowledge grief? After her mother died of cancer at the age of fifty-five, Meghan O'Rourke found that nothing had prepared her for the intensity of her sorrow. In the first anguished days, she began to create a record of her interior life as a mourner, trying to capture the paradox of grief-its monumental agony and microscopic intimacies-an endeavor that ultimately bloomed into a profound look at how caring for her mother during her illness changed and strengthened their bond. 

Things I Wish I Knew Before My Mom Died: Coping with Everyday Loss by Ty Alexander

Ty Alexander has touched many lives with her popular lifestyle blog, Gorgeous in Gray. But in her early 20s, her own life was upended when her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Ty was suddenly forced to become not just a loving daughter, but a caregiver, patient advocate, and researcher. And when her mom passed the pain was overwhelming. Though she still grieves every day, her experience has taught her how to move on while still honoring the love that endures.

In this beautiful, honest, and intensely personal guidebook, Ty provides the insight and inspiration that every mourner needs to make it through this time of unrelenting emotional pain and sadness. Her deep compassion, understanding, and enlightening true stories will help readers along every step of their grieving journey, from the shock of discovery through anger, disbelief, and despair, and ultimately to acceptance and healing.

We all grieve differently, but the pain of loss is universal. Things I Wish I Knew before My Mom Died can provide a reassuring voice, a helping hand, and a shining beacon of hope for anyone who is heartsick and suffering.

The Aftergrief: Finding Your Way Along the Long Arc of Loss by Hope Edelman

Aren’t you over it yet? Anyone who has experienced a major loss in their past knows this question. We’ve spent years fielding versions of it, both explicit and implied, from family, colleagues, acquaintances, and friends. We recognize the subtle cues—the slight eyebrow lift, the soft, startled “Oh! That long ago?”—from those who wonder how an event so far in the past can still occupy so much precious mental and emotional real estate.

Because of the common but false assumption that grief should be time-limited, too many of us believe we’re grieving “wrong” when sadness suddenly resurges sometimes months or even years after a loss. The AfterGrief explains that the death of a loved one isn’t something most of us get over, get past, put down, or move beyond. Grief is not an emotion to pass through on the way to “feeling better.” Instead, grief is in constant motion; it is tidal, easily and often reactivated by memories and sensory events, and is re-triggered as we experience life transitions, anniversaries, and other losses. Whether we want it to or not, grief gets folded into our developing identities, where it informs our thoughts, hopes, expectations, behaviors, and fears, and we inevitably carry it forward into everything that follows.

How grief and loss affect your brain

Holidays are never quite the same after someone we love dies. Even small aspects of a birthday or a Christmas celebration — an empty seat at the dinner table, one less gift to buy or make — can serve as jarring reminders of how our lives have been forever changed. Although these realizations are hard to face, clinical psychologist Mary-Frances O'Connor says we shouldn't avoid them or try to hide our feelings.

"Grief is a universal experience," she notes, "and when we can connect, it is better."

O'Connor, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, studies what happens in our brains when we experience grief. She says grieving is a form of learning — one that teaches us how to be in the world without someone we love in it. "The background is running all the time for people who are grieving, thinking about new habits and how they interact now."

Circle Camps

Circle Camps provides free summer camp for girls
​who have experienced the death of a parent.
Through multi-year programming, Circle Camps prepares campers for adulthood.

Over the past 20 years, we have learned that hosting a group of grieving young girls in an overnight camp environment, supported by dedicated, compassionate volunteer counselors dramatically impacts the lives of the girls who attend our programs. We have also learned that the mental health community underserves grieving girls, in particular teens, due to the long-term nature of grief. Our four-year Leaders in Training (LIT) program addresses this gap in services.
 
Grieving youth and teens often feel isolated and removed from the world of their peers. The Circle program gives them the tools, support, and skills to cope with their losses and enables them to make lasting friendships with others who understand their losses. Circle is unique in its integration of age-appropriate grief activities into a traditional overnight camp program.