A Counselor's Poetic Guide Through the Grief Journey

The author is not only a counselor but a mother who has experienced a great loss, the loss of her child. She takes you on a journey with her as she unpacks her grief on paper through poetry; but, she also gives the reader tools to be able to move through their grief process. Here is an excerpt from her book, A Counselor's Poetic Guide Through the Grief Journey: "My words used to hide in my chest like the extremities of a turtle in uncharted territories. Like many of you, writing poetry as a child and adolescent helped me express myself and overcome being shy. In high school, two friends and I collaborated on a poem about family trauma and death loss. The piece brought our classroom to tears and revealed to me the moving power of words. For the next decade, life happenings took precedence over my writing. However, when my son Nathaniel "Peanut" died, I desperately needed to unhook from the anchor of despair. Poetry was my expressive homeland. Now, the prodigal daughter, I found my way back to writing. The healing power of spoken word became clear when I expanded beyond writing poems to performing at open mic events. The mutual support we created, as we shared the underbelly parts of our circumstances, filled me with hope." Here you can be free to unpack whatever it is you need to heal from but may have been unable to. This book is also a tool for other counselors to use with their clients who may be suffering during a difficult loss in their lives.