Helping Children Grieve
Through Sacred Actions and Images
by Michelle Ryan, MA
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This book artfully shares stories of resiliency that are volunteered from the author’s own life on how to create boundaries, like the grieving tent that she designed on her farm to give grief a space in her life. This book is a guide for those who want to join the secret circle of helpers.
The format of this book offers layers of healing by exploring the transitory aspects of everyday life. These potent stories offer credible images of how resiliency can be built through practicing during the hardest times. Michelle creates an accessible path to facilitate multi-generational support in the family system. As a special education teacher, she gently shares how to guide a student touched by loss to begin to experience their own agency in the educational system. She even playfully expresses dissatisfaction with sacred tantrums.
Reviews of the Book
Michelle has written a book of immense depth and help for parents, grandparents, teachers and anyone who wants to be a model of the more fully human being. She gives personal examples of how she uses her ‘Self’ and her experiences to see, hear, feel and connect with the deep and vast inner life of her students, grandchildren, daughter and herself. Truly a profoundly sweet read.
- Jean McLendon, LCSW, LMFT
The stories in this book offer a unique perspective on how to support children to grieve.
As a parent, this book is going to be a part of my family's grieving process. I will use the stories as a reminder for myself to create the time and space to feel all the feelings and then as a guide for how to support that within my child.
- Amazon Customer
I appreciate how honest, personal and not didactic this book felt. The author gently takes you on her journey with the grief in her life and the way she studied to discover the actions that continue to help her as she navigates the ongoing cycles of grief. As a mother, grandmother, teacher and friend she has successfully recognized how to share and customize these practices to compassionately help others.
I have never been a consumer of “self help” books but came to this one when needing resources to help the important kids in my life who have been going through some very difficult times. I was surprised to recognize that I was overdue for incorporating this work into my life as well.
- Debora D.
“This author takes your heart in her hand and, through her very real and exquisitely detailed experiences, immerses your senses, imagination and humanness in potent examples of working with grief. As a therapist working with trauma and grief, I am already using the gifts in this guide. This book is a treasure and a treasure trove of resources with the implicit message that whomever we work with, including ourselves, has “all the resources needed to change and grow, and it is our duty to focus on that.”
- Debora L.
This book is incredible and is a must-read for anyone working with children who are grieving. As a previous art teacher, I would have loved to have this book as a part of my library when working with children. I enjoyed Jacob's story and how he was helped in his healing process with the tools Ryan provided.
- Kyra F.
I am an educator, counselor, stepmom, and auntie to many children and this book will be an incredible support to me in all of my roles! The author offers many examples of how we can all access our personal experiences of grief and use these as resources to inform how we support children in grief. There are many practical techniques shared in this book for connecting to children and meeting their needs in the school and home environments. The book also shares some great strategies for teaching children about emotional awareness. I will be keeping this book on my resource shelf for sure!
- KT F.
This book is a great reminder to attend to feelings, those of children and our own…Michelle Ryan's book offers us all an authentic and useful primer on how to support ourselves, those we love, and especially children through grief, disappointment, anger and sadness to resilience and freedom. Full of examples from her own life, family and work, this book isn’t just for parents and teachers. There is gold here for anyone wanting to better understand and attend to their own emotions. I am grateful to have read it.
- Lisa