'Supporting Your Grieving Client:
A Guide for Wellness Practitioners'
by
Vanessa May
Yes, I know, it's been less than 3 months since my first book 'Love Untethered' was published and now it's already publication day for my second book ' Supporting Your Grieving Client'.
It's just the way it's worked out that they've been published so close together. The books are with different publishers who work in different ways and to different time frames. (In fact, 'Love Untethered' was finished in 2021 and 'Supporting Your Grieving Client' only last autumn.)
Whilst 'Love Untethered' is for readers who are grieving, 'Supporting Your Grieving Client' is for the wellness practitioners who might work with them.
It was during my search for a publisher for 'Love Untethered' that I was asked by Singing Dragon Books, in my capacity as a holistic grief coach and nutritional therapist, if I would be interested in writing a book on grief for wellness practitioners. At first, I wasn't sure if I would have enough to write about but very quickly that changed when I thought about all the times, as a bereaved person, I had found doctors, counsellors and wellness practitioners to be clueless about what grief was really like and how they often seemed completely out of depth when confronted by someone like me, a traumatised bereaved mother.
Very soon, I realised I had A LOT to say and I quickly became passionate about enabling practitioners to feel better equipped to support a group of people very close to my heart (and a group to which I belong). Most wellness practitioners have little or no training in working with a bereaved client and so many are unaware about the potentially far-reaching impact of grief. My aim is to provide them with a modern way to approaching grief so that they are better able to support a client who is grieving.
In the book, I discuss outdated and unhelpful grief models versus the actual reality of grief; how grief affects the mind, body and spirit and what NOT to say to someone who is grieving. I provide cases studies and information about the impact of grief and trauma on the mental health of those who have experienced a significant loss. I also address the often overlooked physical aspects of grief, as well as providing advice from a nutritional medicine perspective and a variety of additional ways you might support your bereaved client.
Perhaps above all, I want to raise awareness around the challenging subject of grief, to communicate that grief is a different experience for everyone, that there is no timeline, no 'cure' and that sometimes the best approach to working with a grieving client is simply to listen with compassion to their story, rather than rushing to 'fix' them. There may be a vast difference between the impact of a loss on someone who has lost an elderly relative and that of someone who has lost a child; between the loss of someone who passed away peacefully and that of someone who died by suicide.
So I really hope this will be a useful book for all types of wellness practitioners - and therapists, counsellors and doctors too - who would like to understand how to approach and make space for their clients' bereavement with confidence and compassion.
'Supporting Your Grieving Client' is available today from anywhere you can buy books including Amazon and Waterstones
"A deeply insightful guide into working sensitively and confidently with clients affected by grief"
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