Repose Library

A Curated Selection of our Therapists’ Recommended Reading to Enrich Your Journey

All, Grief & Loss Kristi Spagnuolo All, Grief & Loss Kristi Spagnuolo

Healing After the Suicide of a Loved One by Ann Smolin & John Guinan

Too often people suffering the aftermath of a suicide suffer alone. As the survivor of a person who has ended his or her own life, you are left a painful legacy -- and not one that you chose. Healing After the Suicide of a Loved One will help you take the first steps toward healing. While each individual becomes a suicide survivor in his or her own way, there are predictable phases of pain that most survivors experience sooner or later, from the grief and depression of mourning to guilt, rage, and despair over what you have lost.

Read More
All, Grief & Loss Kristi Spagnuolo All, Grief & Loss Kristi Spagnuolo

The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

Read More
All, Grief & Loss Kristi Spagnuolo All, Grief & Loss Kristi Spagnuolo

A Mother's Loss Workbook by Diane Hambrook

To tell you how to use this workbook would be like giving you instructions on how to grieve. Impossible. The only thing we know for sure is that no two people will approach this work in the same way. If there is one thing you should remember as you begin this process, it is this: You are not alone. With that knowledge, you have already begun to heal.

Read More
All, Grief & Loss Kristi Spagnuolo All, Grief & Loss Kristi Spagnuolo

Motherless Daughter: The Legacy of Loss by Hope Edelman

Although a mother's mortality is inevitable no book has discussed the profound lasting and far-reaching effects of this loss until Motherless Daughters, which became an instant classic. More than twenty years later, it is still the go-to book that women of all ages look to for comfort, help, and understanding when their mother dies.

Read More
All, Grief & Loss, Race & Culture Kristi Spagnuolo All, Grief & Loss, Race & Culture Kristi Spagnuolo

Black Suicide by Alton R. Kirk, Ph.D

Only in recent years have black people begun to recognize that suicide is a major problem for the African-American community. Suicide within this population exists in far greater numbers and for a longer period than many people realize, declares Dr. Alton R. Kirk. For more than 35 years, Dr. Kirk has been studying, teaching, and researching the literature of black suicide. In this landmark study, Black Suicide: The Tragic Reality of America's Deadliest Secret, he discusses several theories about suicide. Then he examines social, economic, religious, political, psychological, and racial forces that contribute to black suicide. He provides a unique perspective in his chapter on survivors-those left behind after a suicide. They describe how the suicide of their loved ones has affected their lives, destroyed their dreams, and left them in a state of turmoil and pain. Finally, Dr. Kirk recommends ways both to help reduce the number of suicides and detect behaviors that are destructive to black people.

Read More
All, Grief & Loss Kristi Spagnuolo All, Grief & Loss Kristi Spagnuolo

After Suicide Loss by Bob Baugher

This 67-page book is written for the person whose loved one has died by suicide. With the input from 24 suicide survivors the book guides the reader through the first few days, weeks, months, year, and beyond. Includes ten stories from relatives and friends of people who've died from suicide.

Read More
All, Grief & Loss Kristi Spagnuolo All, Grief & Loss Kristi Spagnuolo

A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis

Written after his wife's tragic death as a way of surviving the "mad midnight moment," A Grief Observed is C.S. Lewis's honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. This work contains his concise, genuine reflections on that period: "Nothing will shake a man -- or at any rate a man like me -- out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself." This is a beautiful and unflinchingly honest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings.

Read More