Free Resources
Newborn Basics For Loss ©
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Circle Breath
With one hand on your heart and the other on your belly or abdomen, begin taking a breath in through your nose to the count of 4 or 5, and exhale through your mouth to the count of 5. Breathe in this way without pausing between inhales or exhales, in a circular breath cycle.
Austin/San Antonio Resources
The Austin Center for Grief and Loss
The Austin Center for Grief & Loss provides services to individuals and families who have experienced death loss due to brief or long-term illness, miscarriage, accident, suicide, or violence. We also provide services to those who have experienced non-death loss due to divorce, separation, relocation, immigration, serious health issues and diagnoses, and other negative life events that create grief and loss.
The MISS Foundation
The MISS Foundation provides support for families struggling with traumatic grief. We provide Family Support Packets with information and resources for bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings. Upon request, we will connect you with a volunteer HOPE mentor. The MISS Foundation also has support groups in some communities, as well as counseling options and referrals. In this section, we offer a variety of resources for bereaved family members.
Wonders & Worries
Wonders & Worries provides free, professional support for children and teenagers through a parent’s serious illness or injury, so that they can reach their full potential.
Bereavement Support of San Antonio List
This is a comprehensive and loss specific list of support services for grief, loss, and bereavement.
Book List
Recommended reading:
There are many books and resources that may be helpful and supportive. Engaging in this work is a deep and radical act of self-love. I have listed several books that have supported me and clients in grief work. They are listed in no particular order, and are linked to help you easily research the book that calls to you. The link is not an endorsement to purchase the book from any particular seller.
Reading as a resource can offer new learning and insight to widen our perspective on grief from our place in the liminal state of change. The authors share a particular view and experience of grieving, giving their readers a lay of the land. While your grieving will be unique to you and your loss, literature is a companion letting us know we are not alone on this path. Additionally, reading gives our cognitive mind a role, so that we can also spend time listening to our bodies and hearts.
1) The Grief Recovery Handbook, by John W. James and Russell Friedman unfolds the social-emotional aspects related to our cultural norms, grief and loss, change and transition.
2) Prayers of Honoring Grief, by Pixie Lighthorse offers a poetic and prayerful entry into integrating our grief as part of our selves and includes journal prompts based on the reading.
3) Healing Through the Dark Emotions: The Wisdom of Grief, Fear, and Despair, by Miriam Greenspan explores the alchemical transformative power of grief through story and experiential exercises.
4) The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, by Francis Weller unfolds our grief as an inherently communal experience, invites us to welcome the sorrow, and engage ritual to initiate healing and transformation.
5) The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss, by Mary-Frances O’Connor describes the science behind how we learn from love and loss. Alternatively, you may choose another grief centered book that is calling you.