Professional Support
I, Nathalie Himmelrich, offer personal one-on-one support for individuals, couples, and families dealing with loss. I also facilitate group seminars and workshops. For my professional counselling and coaching services and how I work, check out this page.
Online support / Organisations
Compassionate Friends
The Compassionate Friends provides highly personal comfort, hope, and support to every family experiencing the death of a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, or a grandchild, and helps others better assist the grieving family.
www.compassionatefriends.org
The Grief Recovery Method is a highly effective program recognising that grief is the normal and natural reaction to loss. It has helped many tens of thousands of people around the world.
www.griefrecoverymethod.com
They have generously offered the following ebooks as a free download: Guide to Loss – 61 tips on the experience of grief and how to help people through it and Debunking the 5 Stages of Grief
Peer support
Meeting with others who have experienced what you have is valuable support. You can find various peer support groups online. Check them out and see if their overall idea of grieving and healing fits with yours.
If you’re a bereaved parent, we invite you to join our private May We All Heal peer support group on Facebook, a community of bereaved parents and family members who have lost a child. Here we support one another through activities and conversations about various topics.
Supporting yourself
From music to movies and books, articles, and online groups – find out what helps you most in supporting yourself.
Songs
There is no doubt: Music is mood-altering. You can use music to make you feel better or some music will remind you and pull you back into dark places. Decide what it is you need and want.
What is your favorite music to listen to when you’re feeling down?
There are many songwriters who put their painful experience of losing someone into a song. Here are just a few. If you know of any other, I would appreciate if you could please send me a message.
Grief support books
These books are some of my favourite grief support books as well as those authored by me (Nathalie Himmelrich), including a collection of books suggested by members of our peer support group May We All Heal. Please join us here.
When grief is raw
- Grieving Parents: Surviving Loss as a Couple by Nathalie Himmelrich
- Surviving My First Year of Child Loss: Personal Stories from Grieving Parents by Nathalie Himmelrich
- Bridging the Grief Gap: Building a Bridge of Understanding Between the Bereaved and Their Support Network by Nathalie Himmelrich
- Navigating the Unknown: An Immediate Guide When Experiencing the Loss of Your Baby by Amie Lands
Grief & Healing
- Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief by Joanne Cacciatore
- Bridging the Grief Gap: Building a Bridge of Understanding Between the Bereaved and Their Support Network by Nathalie Himmelrich
- Celebrating Pregnancy Again: Restoring the lost joys of pregnancy after the loss of a child by Franchesca Cox
- Empty Cradle, Broken Heart: Surviving the Death of Your Baby by Deborah L. Davis
- Far as the Curse Is Found: Searching for God in Infertility, Miscarriage, and Stillbirth by Abigail Waldron
- Ghostbelly by Elizabeth Heineman
- Grief Reiki by Sharon Ehlers
- Grief Diaries: Loss by Suicide by Lynda Cheldelin Fell and Sharon Ehlers
- Grief Diaries: Surviving Loss of a Child by Lynda Cheldelin Fell et all
- Grief Diaries: Loss of an Infant by Lynda Cheldelin Fell
- Grief Diaries: Will We Survive by Lynda Cheldelin Fell,
Daphne Greer, and Barbara J Hopkinson - Grieving with Hope: Finding Comfort as You Journey Through Loss by Samuel J. IV Hodges and Kathy Leonard
- Healing a Parent’s Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas After Your Child Dies by Alan D. Wolfelt
- How To Go On Living When Someone You Love Dies by Therese A. Rando
- It’s Ok That You’re Not Ok: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand by Megan Devine
- Journey to HEALING: A Mother’s Guide to Navigating Child Loss by Lisa K. Boehm
- Our Only Time: Stories of Pregnancy/Infant Loss with Strategies for Health Professionals by Amie Lands
- Tending To Your Heart: After the Loss of Your Baby by Amie Lands
- The Grief Recovery Handbook by John W. James and Russell Friedman
- Three Minus One: Stories of Parents’ Love & Loss by Sean Hanish and Brooke Warner
- Understanding Your Grief: Ten Essential Touchstones for Finding Hope and Healing Your Heart by Alan D. Wolfelt
Creative healing
- May We All Heal: Playbook For Creative Healing After Loss by Nathalie Himmelrich
- Avery’s Garden: Angel Inspired heARTwork for Bereaved Families (Volume 1) by Tara Denz
- Facets of Grief: A Creative Workbook for Grieving Mothers by Franchesca Cox
- When You Grieve from A to Z: Coloring Through Grief and the Alphabet by Ginny Limer
For mothers
- Sunshine After the Storm by Alexa H Bigwarfe
- Invisible Mothers: When Love Doesn’t Die by Emily R Long
- You Are Not Alone: Love Letters From Loss Mom to Loss Mom by Emily R Long
For fathers
- A Guide for Fathers: When a Baby Dies by Tim Nelson
- From Father to Father: Letters From Loss Dad to Loss Dad by Emily R Long
- Grieving Dads: To the Brink and Back by Kelly Farley and David DiCola
- The Griefcase: A Man’s Guide to Healing and Moving Forward in Grief by R Glenn Kelly
Supporting children
- Healing Your Grieving Heart for Kids: 100 Practical Ideas, Alan D. Wolfelt
- Lifetimes: The Beautiful Way to Explain Death to Children, Bryan Mellonie and Robert Ingpen
- Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss by Chuck DeKlyen and Pat Schwiebert
Children’s books
- Always My Twin by Valerie R. Samuels
- I Miss You: A First Look at Death, Pat Thomas
- Perfectly Imperfect Family by Amie Lands
- Someone Came Before You by Pat Schwiebert
- Something Happened by Cathy Blanford
- The Invisible String by Patrice Karst
- We Were Gonna Have a Baby, But We Had an Angel Instead by Pat Schwiebert
- When Children Grieve from A to Z: Coloring Through Grief and the Alphabet by Ginny Limer
Spiritual, religious, inspirational
- A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows through Loss by Jerry Sittser
- A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
- Choosing to SEE: A Journey of Struggle and Hope by Mary Beth Chapman and Ellen Vaughn
- I’m Not Dead, I’m Different: Kids in Spirit Teach Us About Living a Better Life on Earth by Hollister Rand
- Joy Cometh in the Morning: A Story of Healing from the Loss of a Child by Fran C. Hafen
- Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff
- Understanding Death: An Introduction to Ideas of Self and the Afterlife in World Religions by Angela Sumegi
- Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born by Robert Schwartz
- I’m Not Dead, I’m Different: Kids in Spirit Teach Us About Living a Better Life on Earth by Hollister Rand
- Joy Cometh in the Morning: A Story of Healing from the Loss of a Child by Fran C. Hafen
- Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff
- Understanding Death: An Introduction to Ideas of Self and the Afterlife in World Religions by Angela Sumegi
- Your Soul’s Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born by Robert Schwartz
Memoirs
- An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir by Elizabeth McCracken
- Expecting Adam by Martha Beck
- Holding Avery: A Memoir by Heidi Chandler
- I Will Carry You by Angie Smith
- Love Mom: A Mother’s Journey from Loss to Hope by Cynthia Baseman
- Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love by Anna Whiston-Donaldson
- Second Half: Surviving Loss and Finding Magic in the Missing by Kelsey Chittick
Journals
- Life Without the Baby Journal: Redefining Life, Self, and Motherhood After Loss by Emily R Long
- On Coming Alive: Journaling Through Grief, Lexi Behrnd
Links on this page are affiliate links – all proceeds go to the Grieving Parents Support Association (GPSA) in order to donate our resource books to parents in need.