Olga V. Lehmann

In Silence: The Psychology and the Craft for Emotional Wellbeing, the author—a psychotherapist, university professor, educator, and researcher—takes the reader into a thought-provoking and heartfelt journey. She offers original perspectives and vulnerable stories from her clients, students, and personal life. Drawing on, among others, ethnographic and autoethnographic accounts, Lehmann serves the reader with psychological insights, offering a timely, critical, and thorough viewpoint to contrast with an overload of misinformation about what silence is and how people should feel when quiet. The reader will be challenged to aspire to balance when communicating or connecting with themselves, with others, with nature, or with art, or, for some, as part of a spiritual path. Whether in nature, at work meetings, on the road, in a classroom, in the therapy room, or at the dinner table, silences appear as coordinates, and this book is the missing map for surviving and thriving when navigating toward well-being.

This workbook is designed to help bereaved parents find words for grief in their quest for well-being after the devastating death of a child by offering a hands-on approach to therapeutic writing that can be used as a means of self-help, in collaboration with therapists, or in the context of support groups featuring writing for well-being.The book presents a seven-week therapeutic writing program that integrates field-tested writing techniques with general psychoeducation around grief and related emotions as well as the quest for meaning in a life transformed by loss. Each module shares a common structure, checking in with the writer, introducing a theme for the week, and providing specific prompts to safely engage the loss, explore the emotions it engenders, and foster more adaptive meaning-making about a devastating life experience. Readers are given the opportunity to tailor the brief immersive writing to their unique circumstances, and to respond to reflective questions that invite greater clarity and self-compassion as they attempt to re-enter life following loss. In this respect, the book acknowledges the diversity of ways that parents can adapt to the loss of a child and offers practical counsel and self-reflective tools to support them in this effort.Bereaved parents, grandparents, and family members will find the workbook to be a valuable resource as they work to cope with their grief. It will also be of use to professionals who want to facilitate writing courses for bereaved parents or provide them with individual support.

This workbook is designed to help bereaved parents find words for grief in their quest for well-being after the devastating death of a child by offering a hands-on approach to therapeutic writing that can be used as a means of self-help, in collaboration with therapists, or in the context of support groups featuring writing for well-being.The book presents a seven-week therapeutic writing program that integrates field-tested writing techniques with general psychoeducation around grief and related emotions as well as the quest for meaning in a life transformed by loss. Each module shares a common structure, checking in with the writer, introducing a theme for the week, and providing specific prompts to safely engage the loss, explore the emotions it engenders, and foster more adaptive meaning-making about a devastating life experience. Readers are given the opportunity to tailor the brief immersive writing to their unique circumstances, and to respond to reflective questions that invite greater clarity and self-compassion as they attempt to re-enter life following loss. In this respect, the book acknowledges the diversity of ways that parents can adapt to the loss of a child and offers practical counsel and self-reflective tools to support them in this effort.Bereaved parents, grandparents, and family members will find the workbook to be a valuable resource as they work to cope with their grief. It will also be of use to professionals who want to facilitate writing courses for bereaved parents or provide them with individual support.