Topic > Book review Finding Grace with Grief by Tasha Holland-kornegay

Grief is a monster. It's bad enough losing something or someone we care about, but having to go through the process of acceptance and moving on is the icing on the grief cake. Fortunately, a lot of work has been done studying how to process grief, and the five stages of grief developed by Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross are one of the most widely accepted methods. The five stages of the Kübler-Ross model – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance – are much better known than the official name given to the process, but what happens in these stages and how do you overcome them? We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Finding Grace with Grief by Tasha Holland-Kornegay, PhD, LPCS is a workbook that helps people through the five stages of grief. This 42-page paperback book is divided into five phases, each of which has five days of work to do. Each day presents readers with a short text explaining the stage of grief and how the included exercise can help, followed by the exercise itself with plenty of blank space for readers to work with. If one were to practice this book every day, they could potentially overcome their pain in less than a month! I really liked the structure of this book. Although it is mostly black and white, the author does a good job of applying a little color here and there. Each day's text snippets do a good job of explaining what a person might feel, and each exercise is unique to the day. For example, the first day of denial asks you to explain your loss before the second day gets more specific, using a word bank of potential emotions to choose from and going into further detail. Day three asks you to find the physical stress in your body and write it down on a rudimentary body diagram, day four asks you to specify what you're having trouble coming to terms with, and day five is a bit of guided meditation. The other phases are just as varied and each exercise makes perfect sense. I also liked that the book applies to all types of pain. It is just as applicable to someone whose parent, spouse, or pet has died as it is to someone who has had their house burned down or their phone destroyed. The author is encouraging and writes in a way that is easy to understand and follow. Although I found four grammatical errors (three of which were on one page), the writing was smooth enough for me to quickly read the book. The author also mentions that the five stages of grief do not necessarily occur in any particular order, and although the book is structured in a specific order, each stage of grief is separate. You could skip them in any order and not be confused or miss anything. Finally, although I didn't like any of the exercises, there were three that I particularly liked. Exercise 8 (Anger Day 3) explains that during grief it is easier to get angry or angry about something, but it is also difficult for friends and family to know what a grieving person wants or needs. The exercise tasks readers with listing "things you feel frustrated or upset about when approaching others" and then writing "a list of what people might say and do to help you feel supported and comforted." I think this would be helpful for all types of people, such as people with anxiety or depression. Another interesting exercise compares the feelings that accompany depression with visitors. Each visitor comes for a while, has a little chat and then leaves. The author.