My Books & Other Resources
A mother’s worst fear is realized at 23 weeks into the pregnancy, and a baby girl is born at the edge of viability. Melissa Fournier shares her incomprehensible grief for her daughter’s brief life in these intimate poems that reflect the power of grace to transform sorrow into resilience and hope.
In a broad array of artistic and accessible perspectives, healthcare workers from multiple disciplines bravely pull back the curtain on their experiences of loss. Despite delving into death, The Healer’s Burden eschews the twin traps of despair on the one hand and platitude on the other. Using principles of narrative medicine, editors Fournier and Pribaz catalyze a much-needed conversation about professional grief by including thoughtful questions and writing prompts. This book is a must for educators and clinicians alike who wish to constructively engage with rather than avoid their experiences of patient death.
The true stories and poems collected here are stories about life after loss—but these stories are of lives changed rather than just diminished. Trauma cleaves the world, but after loss we may also find redemption. This collection is a shared journey about loss—and about the hope we can find, AFTER.
Other Resources
Center to Advance Palliative Care--Emotional PPE: Find additional resources for improving team health and tools to help clinicians cope with moral distress, grief and trauma.
Hospice Foundation of America--This site offers additional information for coping with bereavement and loss.
Bereaved Parents of the USA--Resources for bereaved parents and siblings.