The Worst Loss: How Families Heal from the Death of a Child

by Barbara D. Rosof

Overview

The death of a child is like no other loss. The Worst Loss will help families who have experienced this to know what they are facing, understand what they are feeling, and appreciate their own needs and timetables.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780805032413
Publisher:	Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/15/1995
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	390,561
Product dimensions:	5.55(w) x 8.26(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

Barbara Rosof, M.S., is a child psychotherapist in private practice in Solana Beach, California.

Editorial Reviews

Parents mourning the loss of a child will find that Rosof's many insights ring true.” —Library Journal

From the Publisher

Each week some 1900 American families are faced with the death of a child-allegedly the most harrowing of losses. Research shows that the grief of parents lasts longer and is more intense than any other. Here, Rosof, a California psychotherapist who works with bereaved families, offers compassionate advice to help parents cope. After describing the many ways children (including adult children) die, she explains why grieving is crucial to recovery, how the partners' relationship may be affected and the ways surviving siblings grieve. She also shows parents how to break down psychological barriers that hinder necessary grief work and prevent full recovery. In perhaps the most enlightening-as well as painful-part, families tell of their children's deaths and their aftermath. Included is a list of national organizations that support bereaved parents. Author tour. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Rosof, a child psychotherapist who has worked for many years with families who have lost children, offers a clear, sympathetic, no-nonsense guide to surviving "a loss like no other." Using effective anecdotes from her practice, she explains why grieving is necessary, the stages of grief parents and sibling will likely go through, possible barriers to grieving, and learning to let go and create a new life. Throughout, she stresses that parents will never be the same as they were before their child's death. Rosof wisely deals with specifics such as coping with the death of a newborn or death from illness, murder, suicide, and accidents, though inevitably there is some ground she cannot cover, e.g., a stepparent's grief and the loss of an adult child or sibling. Nevertheless, parents mourning the loss of a child will find that Rosof's many insights ring true. An excellent primer that belongs in most public libraries.-Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"

Library Journal