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Students: Chapter 14

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Resources For a Closer Look

In Print

Collinge, W. (2008). Partners in healing: Simple ways to provide support, comfort, and care to a loved one facing illness. Boston, MA: Trumpeter Books.

This book focuses on the struggles that intimate partners face when one of them is diagnosed with a serious illness. The chapters explain why and when to use specific comforting strategies and they give step-by-step guidance on how to enact each support strategy.

Miller, J. E. (2000). How can I help / What can help me? 12 things to do when someone suffers a loss / 12 things to remember when you have suffered a loss. Fort Wayne, IN: Willowgreen Publishing.

When you read this book from front to back, it offers helpful suggestions for individuals who are grieving to manage their grief in a healthy, healing way. When you read this book from back to front, it provides practical and useful suggestions for individuals who want to provide comfort for those who grieve. If you read both perspectives of this two-in-one book you gain useful insight into the experience of the bereaved and you gain practical advice for how to help them cope.

On the Web

http://www.hodu.com/comfort.shtml

This website offers suggestions for what you can say or do to provide words of comfort to people who are experiencing day to day misfortunes and disappointments.

http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/words-to-comfort-someone-grieving.html

This website provides suggestions for what to say and what not to say when providing support to bereaved individuals.

On Film

Crowe, C. (Director). (2006). Elizabethtown [Motion picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.

In this movie, the lead character Drew Baylor loses his job and his dad both on the same day. His mother and sister inform him that he needs to fly to Kentucky to represent his family in the funeral arrangements. On the way there, he meets a quirky flight attendant who offers support in a variety of ways. She sits down next to him on the flight to get him to talk about his feelings, she talks to him on the phone while he's in Kentucky, and she spends time with him to get his mind off of his troubles.

King, M. P. (Director). (2008). Sex and the city [Motion picture]. United States: HBO.

When acclaimed relationship columnist Carrie Bradshaw gets left at the altar by her groom, her three best friends spring to action to help her cope with the heartache. They listen patiently while she talks about the situation, they manage important tasks like getting her apartment back, and they accompany her on a trip to Mexico to get her mind off of the situation. Following her return from Mexico, Bradshaw hires a personal assistant to provide tangible support and her friends continue to provide the important emotional support she needs for months following the trauma.