Handbook of Traumatic Loss

The Handbook of Traumatic Loss adopts a broad, holistic approach that recognizes traumatic loss much more fully as a multidimensional human phenomenon, not simply a medical condition. Initial chapters build a foundation for understanding traumatic loss and explore the many ways we respond to trauma. Later chapters counterbalance the individualistic focus of dominant approaches to traumatic loss by highlighting a number of thought-provoking social dimensions of traumatic loss. Each chapter emphasizes different aspects of traumatic loss and argues for ways in which clinicians can help deal with its many and varied impacts.

Neil Thompson is an independent writer, educator, and adviser based in Wales. He was formerly the editor of the US-based international journal, Illness, Crisis, & Loss and currently runs the Avenue Professional Development Programme. Gerry R. Cox is professor emeritus of sociology/archaeology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, former director of the Center for Death Education & Bioethics, and a member of the board of directors of the National Prison Hospice Association. Robert G. Stevenson is senior professor in the graduate counseling program of Mercy College in New York and a recipient of the New York State Defense of Freedom Medal. He developed the first independent course on death education at the high-school level and taught it for 25 years

List of Figures Editors and Contributors Foreword Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Part One: Making Sense of Traumatic Loss Introduction 1. Traumatic Loss: An Existentialist Perspective Neil Thompson 2. Spirituality and Traumatic Loss: Pathways to Healing through Spiritual Classics and Focusing Kimberly L. Sangster and Aoife C. Lee 3. Assisted Death and Suicide: Comparing Grief Reactions Erica G. Srinivasan 4. Traumatic Grief, Crisis, and Attachment Patterns, Susan Adams 5.Exploding Houses, Wild Animals, and Spiders: Dreams and Nightmares Following Sudden or Traumatic Death Janet Buntrock 6. Responding to Childhood Trauma Mary Walsh and Neil Thompson 7. Old Age and Assaults on the Self: A Disenfranchised Form of Trauma? Sue Thompson 8. Understanding and Managing Youth and Elderly Suicide in Developed East Asia: The Imperative of Compassion in Public Health Andy H. Y. Ho, Cheryl H. K. Chui and Monica Borshel Part Two: Responding to Traumatic Loss Introduction 9. Coping with the Aftermath of Trauma and Loss Rob Stevenson 10. Compassionate Death Telling in Sudden and Traumatic Deaths Dan Festa 11. Using Art to Aid Trauma Recovery Sandra Bertman 12. How to Say "It" When No One Can: Death Notification & Children, Teens, and Adults: Grief After Sudden or Traumatic Death Michelle Post 13. Family Therapy and Traumatic Losses Stephanie Rabenstein and Darcy Harris 14. Miming in the Choir: The Impact of Traumatic Loss and Lessons for Caregivers Irene Renzenbrink 15. The Impact of Trauma Work on Professional Staff: The Omagh Bomb Paula McFadden 16. Closure for the 96? Sudden Death, Traumatic Grief and the New Hillsborough Inquests Mike Brennan Part Three: Societal Issues and Responses Introduction 17. Theorizing Trauma: A New and Critical Understanding Jason Powell and Paul Taylor 18. A Critical Look at Trauma and its Treatment Darcy Harris and Rebecca Machado 19. Pouring Salt in an Open Grief: The Traumatizing Antics of the Westboro Baptist Church, Harold Ivan Smith 20. Family Response to Traumatic Loss Paul C. Rosenblatt 21. The Thing that Happened: Hope and Healing at Hope North Uganda Janet McCord 22. Losing inhibitions? Young Women, Alcohol, and Loss in the Nighttime Economy Melissa Stepney and Paul Stepney 23. Trauma and the American Indian Societies Gerry Cox 24. Disenfranchised Grief and Trauma Kenneth J. Doka Conclusion Afterword Index