In this comprehensive handbook, a leading group of experts improve our understanding of the challenges faced by children when coping with death, dying, and bereavement. Organized into three parts, the volume addresses specific issues involved in confrontations with death; discusses the role of bereavement; and explains specific therapeutic interventions for caregivers. The reader is introduced to four distinct periods within childhood--infancy, toddlerhood, early childhood, and middle childhood. Through case examples, the contributors illustrate a child's experience with death and bereavement in all four areas. The book's practical orientation and emphasis will appeal to a broad array of caregivers including counselors, therapists, nurses, and mental health practitioners concerned with child and adolescent death and bereavement.

In this comprehensive handbook, Charles Corr and David Balk improve our understanding of the challenges faced by adolescents when coping with death, dying, and bereavement. The volume is organized into three parts. Part I addresses specific issues involved in confrontations with death. Part II focuses on the role of bereavement. Part III explains specific therapeutic interventions for caregivers. The authors introduce us to adolescence as a special time in the human life cycle, a period quite separate from childhood and adulthood. They establish normative adolescents, and explain developmental tasks that are typical of early, middle, and late adolescence.

"Capturing from the start that 'Childhood is, and always has been, a vulnerable time,' we have a rich in gathering of contributed pieces that bring us into the raw, fragile arena of children traumatized by life events and behaviors..." --Illness, Crisis, and Loss "Balk and Corr again have edited a book that will set the direction of the field for yet another decade....Caregivers can count on this book...for insight and intervention." --From the Foreword by Kenneth J. Doka, PhD Professor, The Graduate School, The College of New Rochelle Author, Counseling Individuals With Life-Threatening Illness Over a decade has passed since the publication of Balk and Corr's groundbreaking Handbook of Adolescent Death and Bereavement. This new book, Adolescent Encounters With Death, Bereavement, and Coping, analyzes the challenges faced by adolescents coping with death, dying, and bereavement, and examines the new, unique circumstances and advances that have transpired over the last decade. These include: Grief and coping with HIV/AIDS Adolescents, humor, and death Technology and the Internet: coping with loss in the digital world Bereavement over the deaths of celebrities The book also explores critical, imaginative conceptual frameworks and models that have emerged on the scene, including: The dual process model for understanding loss Ideas about assumptive worlds Debates about the benefit and harm of grief counseling New research on recovery and resilience following bereavement Written from the interdisciplinary perspectives of expert sociologists, psychologists, educators, social workers, nurses, and anthropologists, this book offers a breadth and depth of insight into the complex nature of adolescent bereavement. Nurses, counselors, social workers, and educators will find this book to be an invaluable resource when they try to understand and help adolescents coping with death-related issues.

Bringing together fourteen experts from across the United States and Canada, Bereaved Children and Teens is a comprehensive guide to helping children and adolescents cope with the emotional, religious, social, and physical consequences of a loved one's death. The result is an indispensable reference for parents, teachers, counselors, health-care professionals, and clergy. Topics covered include what to say and what not to say when explaining death to very young children; how teenagers grieve differently from children and adults; how to translate Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish beliefs about death into language that children can understand; how ethnic and cultural differences can affect how children grieve; what teachers and parents can do to help bereaved young people at school; and activities, books, and films that help children and teens cope.

This acclaimed work describes a range of counseling and therapy approaches for children who have experienced loss. Practitioners and students are given practical strategies for helping preschoolers through adolescents cope with different forms of bereavement, including death in the family, school, and community. Grounded in research on child therapy, bereavement, trauma, and child development, the volume includes rich case presentations and clearly explains the principles that guide interventions. Eleven reproducible assessment tools and handouts can also be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.

Few books written for practitioners provide any practical information regarding grief and loss issues with children and adolescents. In a clear and concise manner, Children and Loss: A Practical Handbook for Professionals details the strengths perspective of grief and loss developed by the editors. It discusses grief and loss in relation to individual children while also addressing issues and strategies for families and professional teams. The handbook specifically focuses on the dynamics of grief and assessment issues and provides in-depth case examples. This realistic and usable application of essential techniques and resources will immediately enhance practitioners' skills with children and adolescents in specific settings where children are most likely to present with grief and loss issues. This book is a great resource for all practitioners who work with children, from foster care professionals and therapists specializing in divorce to counselors in schools and churches. This book can also be used to academic settings for any course related to child development, child psychology, children and families, grief and loss, end of life, and death.