Storymaking in bereavement - Alida Gersie

This book is about a specific way of helping people work through their losses, even though such losses may have occurred many years before. It is written for professionals in the health and social services who facilitate bereavement groups. Teachers who offer death education programmes will also find the book helpful. It contains reflections on the process of grief.;These are followed by 12 folk tales. The ancient stories vividly convey mankind's struggle with death and loss. They also describe our engagement with despair, hope, bitterness and love. Each story is accompanied by three suggested structures for groupwork around the themes of death, loss and mourning.;The story-making structures have been carefully designed to ensure the expression of the group members' creative abilities and to activate the group's coping and helping skills. The story-making process thereby becomes a journey through loss and mourning towards a renewed consent to life.;The individual reader may find much in this book which is comforting. However, it needs to be recognized that grief is a lonely experience, and the presence of someone we trust may well be important. As such, the individual reader is encouraged to undertake these journeys with a family-member or friend.