Author: ChristianWorks

Helping a Child in Grief

Posted on | by ChristianWorks

After the death of a loved one, mourning adult family members deal with their own emotional turmoil following the loss.  Because these family members are often overwhelmed by their own grief, the children and adolescents in that family who are also grieving, may be overlooked.

Bereavement counselor, educator and author Dr. Alan D. Wolfelt has written “The Grieving Child’s Bill of Rights” to suggest to mourning adults what is most important for grieving children to remain healthy as the children remember and miss their loved one who has died.  Dr. Wolfelt writes:

l. Children have the right to their own unique feelings about the death.

2. Children have the right to talk about their grief whenever they feel like talking.

3. Children have the right to show their feelings of grief in their own way and time.

4. Children have the right to need other people to help them with their grief.

5. Children have the right to get upset about normal, everyday problems.

6. Children have the right to have unplanned “grief outbursts.”

7. Children have the right to use beliefs about God to help them with their grief.

8. Children have the right to try to figure out why the person died.

9. Children have the right to think and talk about memories of the person who died.

10. Children have the right to move toward and feel their grief, and over time, to heal.

Adapted from “Healing A Child’s Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas for Families, Friends, & Caregivers” by Alan Wolfelt, Ph.D., Center for Loss & Transition

If you know of a grieving child who you are concerned about, the following services are available for grieving children and their families through ChristianWorks for Children:

  • GriefWorks, a free children’s grief support service for ages 5-18 and their adult family members.  For more information call Janet at 972-960-9981 or email jjohnston@christian-works.org.  More information on the groups is at http://grief-works.org.
  • Grief counseling for individuals, couples, and families on a sliding scale fee.  Appointments can be made with one of the 12 Christian counselors available through CounselingWorks by calling Laurie at 972-960-9981 or emailing lgaddy@christian-works.org.  More information on counseling services is at https://www.christian-works.org.

AdoptionWorks

Posted on | by ChristianWorks

We hope you got to tune in this past weekend on CounselingWorksNow, new radio program through ChristianWorks for Children, and 100.7 KWRD. Guest speakers, Amy Monroe of IBC’s Tapestry Adoption and Foster Care Ministries, Melanie Chung-Sherman, LCSW, PLLC, CounselingWorks’ Adoption Triad Specialist, and Heather Ellis, LMSW, LCPAA, Director of AdoptionWorks, discussed the Common Questions and Challenges in Adoption. It’s amazing to know that the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex is home to one of the largest populations of adoptive families in the United States, showing how many of us have been touched by adoption in one way or another.

Since the beginning of this year, CounselingWorks has served several adoptive families, including adult adoptees, adoptive parents, adopted children, and birth parents through the Adoption Triad Counseling program. CounselingWorks is pleased to offer quality counseling services at an affordable cost to families and individuals, and especially now to members of the adoption community. Be sure to contact us if you have any questions about our Adoption Triad Counseling program.

In addition to Adoption Counseling, Tapestry Adoption and Foster Care Ministries through Irving Bible Church offers a variety of support programs to members of the adoption and foster care community. Be sure to check them out at http://tapestryministry.org/

You can never have too much support throughout the lifetime of your adoption journey. Support in the forms of counseling, church support, and friendships with other members of the adoption community are a vital help in navigating through the unique challenges that come with every adoption story. Hope to hear from you soon!

Thanks for Supporting “Love Never Dies”

Posted on | by ChristianWorks

By GriefWorks Director Larry M. Barber, LPC-S, CT

When our executive director Rob Pine first suggested that I author a grief survival guide shortly after I came to ChristianWorks for Children in April 2007, I was reluctant.  I doubted that I could say anything about grief that had not already been said in the many bereavement volumes out there in the marketplace.  But Rob continued to insist and support the need for me to document my grief story and the grief stories and insights of fellow mourners it has been my privilege to meet over the last 19 years.  I gave in finally, spent many weeks and months writing, and Love Never Dies: Embracing Grief with Hope and Promise was published in July 2011.  In the last few months, some 100-150 copies per month of Love Never Dies have been sold or distributed through ChristianWorks, GriefWorks, Xulon Press, and online around the world through bookstores such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

When readers ask me how the book came about,  I tell them that over the last 19 years God has given me a grief ministry and now a book to minister to those whom  I would never have the time or opportunity to personally meet.   Since that ministry began and into the publication of Love Never Dies, I have just been along for the sometimes bumpy and many times rewarding ride.  Thanks go to Rob Pine, the staff at ChristianWorks for Children, all the families of GriefWorks, family members including my son Christian and daughter Sarah, friends and church family who have encouraged and supported me in putting together and distributing Love Never Dies.  But the true thanks and praise goes to my Best Friend and Supporter who has personally been with me for the journey and placed all these encouraging people in my path.

Today the blessings from writing Love Never Dies continue.  Churches, service organizations and grief support ministries are using the book to minister to mourning children, teens and adults locally, nationally and internationally.  I am humbled and thankful to all who have read and are passing along the comfort to others through Love Never Dies.  I could never have foreseen how God could use my story and this book in the ways that He has.

I am reminded daily that my story and your story are intertwined with God’s Story and Purpose for all mankind and to the glory of His Name.  We serve a God who does amazing things.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21