Supporting yourself
Professional support
Nathalie Himmelrich offers personal one-on-one support for individuals, couples, and families dealing with loss. She also facilitates group seminars and workshops. For professional counseling and coaching, and to read more about her work, check out this page.
When is the right time to get professional support?
This is a very common question grievers ask themselves. There is no right or wrong time to get help, neither is there too soon or too late when it comes to getting help. Given that you are reading this means that you have recognized the need for help and that you are ready to find out who could support you best. Schedule your initial first meeting with Nathalie above.
Free 30 min Meeting with Nathalie
Set up your initial first meeting time here:
Newsletter
This particular email has really resonated with me. I have gone back and reread it a dozen times. Thank you for what you do- it’s helpful, even when the recipient, like me, doesn’t think there’s anything out there that can help. This helped. 💜
Lin (newsletter reader)
Peer support
Peer support is a meaningful way to get in touch with other individuals who have gone or are going through a similar situation. You can find various groups on Facebook.
If you’re a bereaved parent, we invite you to join our private May We All Heal peer support group on Facebook, a community of bereaved parents and family members who have lost a child. Here we support one another through activities and conversations about various topics, join here.
Online support – Helpful organisations
Grief Recovery Method
The Grief Recovery Method is a highly effective program recognising that grief is the normal and natural reaction to loss. It has helped many tens of thousands of people around the world.
www.griefrecoverymethod.com
They have generously offered the following ebooks as a free download: Guide to Loss – 61 tips on the experience of grief and how to help people through it and Debunking the 5 Stages of Grief
Compassionate Friends
The Compassionate Friends provides highly personal comfort, hope, and support to every family experiencing the death of a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, or a grandchild, and helps others better assist the grieving family.
www.compassionatefriends.org
The Compassionate Friends also runs a number of private Facebook groups.
Sweet Grace Ministries
Sweet Grace Ministries seeks to offer support, hope, and empathy to families enduring stillbirth, infant death, miscarriage, and ectopic pregnancy. Providing resources, support groups, photography, gowns, events, and more to families in PA and throughout the United States.
As part of our mission to support grieving parents, we offer our grief resource books at a reduced price to Sweet Grace Ministries to add to their comfort baskets. For more information, click here.
sweetgraceministries.com
Songs
There is no doubt: Music is mood-altering. You can use music to make you feel better or some music will remind you and pull you back into dark places. Decide what it is you need and want.
What is your favorite music to listen to when you’re feeling down?
There are many songwriters who put their painful experience of losing a child into a song. Here are just a few. If you know of any other, I would appreciate it if you could please send me a message.
Grief support books
These books are some of my favourite grief support books as well as those authored by me (Nathalie Himmelrich), including a collection of books suggested by members of our peer support group May We All Heal. Please join us here.
When grief is raw
- Grieving Parents: Surviving Loss as a Couple by Nathalie Himmelrich
- Surviving My First Year of Child Loss: Personal Stories from Grieving Parents by Nathalie Himmelrich
- Navigating the Unknown: An Immediate Guide When Experiencing the Loss of Your Baby by Amie Lands
Grief & Healing
- Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief by Joanne Cacciatore
- Celebrating Pregnancy Again: Restoring the lost joys of pregnancy after the loss of a child by Franchesca Cox
- Empty Cradle, Broken Heart: Surviving the Death of Your Baby by Deborah L. Davis
- Far as the Curse Is Found: Searching for God in Infertility, Miscarriage, and Stillbirth by Abigail Waldron
- Ghostbelly by Elizabeth Heineman
- Grief Reiki by Sharon Ehlers
- Grief Diaries: Loss by Suicide by Lynda Cheldelin Fell and Sharon Ehlers
- Grief Diaries: Surviving Loss of a Child by Lynda Cheldelin Fell et all
- Grief Diaries: Loss of an Infant by Lynda Cheldelin Fell
- Grief Diaries: Will We Survive by Lynda Cheldelin Fell,
Daphne Greer, and Barbara J Hopkinson - Grieving with Hope: Finding Comfort as You Journey Through Loss by Samuel J. IV Hodges and Kathy Leonard
- Healing a Parent’s Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas After Your Child Dies by Alan D. Wolfelt
- How To Go On Living When Someone You Love Dies by Therese A. Rando
- It’s Ok That You’re Not Ok: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand by Megan Devine
- The AfterGrief: Finding Your Way Along the Long Arc of Loss by Hope Edelman
- The Grief Recovery Handbook by John W. James and Russell Friedman
- Three Minus One: Stories of Parents’ Love & Loss by Sean Hanish and Brooke Warner
- Understanding Your Grief: Ten Essential Touchstones for Finding Hope and Healing Your Heart by Alan D. Wolfelt
Creative healing
- May We All Heal: Playbook For Creative Healing After Loss by Nathalie Himmelrich
- Avery’s Garden: Angel Inspired heARTwork for Bereaved Families (Volume 1) by Tara Denz
- Facets of Grief: A Creative Workbook for Grieving Mothers by Franchesca Cox
- When You Grieve from A to Z: Coloring Through Grief and the Alphabet by Ginny Limer
For grieving mothers
- Sunshine After the Storm by Alexa H Bigwarfe
- Invisible Mothers: When Love Doesn’t Die by Emily R Long
- You Are Not Alone: Love Letters From Loss Mom to Loss Mom by Emily R Long
Loss of a mother
- Motherless Mothers: How Losing a Mother Shapes the Parent You Become by Hope Edelman
- Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss by Hope Edelman
- Letters from Motherless Daughters: Words of Courage, Grief, and Healing by Hope Edelman
For grieving fathers
- A Guide for Fathers: When a Baby Dies by Tim Nelson
- From Father to Father: Letters From Loss Dad to Loss Dad by Emily R Long
- Grieving Dads: To the Brink and Back by Kelly Farley and David DiCola
- The Griefcase: A Man’s Guide to Healing and Moving Forward in Grief by R Glenn Kelly
Loss of a father
- The Fatherless Daughter Project: Understanding Our Losses and Reclaiming Our Lives by Denna Babul and Karin Luise
Supporting children
- Healing Your Grieving Heart for Kids: 100 Practical Ideas, Alan D. Wolfelt
- Lifetimes: The Beautiful Way to Explain Death to Children, Bryan Mellonie and Robert Ingpen
- Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss by Chuck DeKlyen and Pat Schwiebert
Children’s books
- Always My Twin by Valerie R. Samuels
- I Miss You: A First Look at Death, Pat Thomas
- Someone Came Before You by Pat Schwiebert
- Something Happened by Cathy Blanford
- The Invisible String by Patrice Karst
- We Were Gonna Have a Baby, But We Had an Angel Instead by Pat Schwiebert
- When Children Grieve from A to Z: Coloring Through Grief and the Alphabet by Ginny Limer
Spiritual, religious, inspirational
- A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows through Loss by Jerry Sittser
- A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
- Choosing to SEE: A Journey of Struggle and Hope by Mary Beth Chapman and Ellen Vaughn
- I’m Not Dead, I’m Different: Kids in Spirit Teach Us About Living a Better Life on Earth by Hollister Rand
- Joy Cometh in the Morning: A Story of Healing from the Loss of a Child by Fran C. Hafen
- Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff
- Understanding Death: An Introduction to Ideas of Self and the Afterlife in World Religions by Angela Sumegi
- Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born by Robert Schwartz
Memoirs
- An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir by Elizabeth McCracken
- Expecting Adam by Martha Beck
- Holding Avery: A Memoir by Heidi Chandler
- I Will Carry You by Angie Smith
- Love Mom: A Mother’s Journey from Loss to Hope by Cynthia Baseman
- Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love by Anna Whiston-Donaldson
Journals
- Life Without the Baby Journal: Redefining Life, Self, and Motherhood After Loss by Emily R Long
- On Coming Alive: Journaling Through Grief by Lexi Behrnd
Links on this page are affiliate links – all proceeds go to the Grieving Parents Support Association (GPSA) in order to donate our resource books to parents in need.
