Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief

This book is perfect 👌

This book is sublime, overwhelming, ineffable. It's my 'go to' guide. It's consoling, it's everything I feel, every day, every hour, as a bereaved parent. It's a comfort and a blessing. A thousand thanks Dr Joanna Cacciatore for finding the courage and compassion to create this book. If you are learning to live in grief, if you crave for the words to help process the unimaginable; look no further.

Absolutely fabulous book that has helped me immensely after losing my daughter 2 years ago. Definetly recommend it.

I bought this on a recommendation and the gift was loved

Excellent book and arrived as expected

Excellent book & service. Thank you.

Interesting book, difficult subject matter.Prompt arrival. Thank you. M.

This book I don’t think really teaches you how to deal with grief it just confirms it as a never ending unbearable lifetime hell. I thought the book might help me understand how to bear the grief? It really didn’t. It made me feel 10 times worse. It’s full of stories from other peoples grief and maybe what she might consider a success or breakthrough stories. I’m afraid I am after some practical help maybe to even learn how to switch off from grief and not ruminate so much. I’m amazed it got so many good reviews. I’m sure she meant well and I’m really genuinely glad it’s helped so many people.

Excelente livro, que aborda a temática do luto de forma belíssima, acolhedora e cuidadosa! Amei

This book has brought me so much peace.

My 23 year old son recently died by suicide and this book has helped me a lot. The chapters are short, easy to read, and can help you cope with your grief in small increments. There is no easy path, but this book has helped me move slowly forward along the difficult path.

If you ever find yourself wondering what to do for someone who has experienced the death of a child or someone close to them, buy two copies of this book. Give the first copy to the bereaved, and read the other copy to educate yourself on how to comfort your grieving loved one. The cost of the book is a fraction of what it takes to have flowers delivered, and it will do far more good and have a much more lasting impact than any bouquet could offer. Of the many books I have read about grief and loss, this was by far the most helpful. Before I was even halfway finished with this book, I ordered another ten copies to give as gifts. As of this writing, I have four copies left.Writing as someone who facilitates support groups for parents whose children have died and as a bereaved parent, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is grieving or who wants to help someone who is. After the deaths of my two oldest sons at the age of 21, the depth of my grief terrified me. I dared not fully surrender to it, afraid of where it might take me and unsure of whether I could ever return to a functional life afterwards. To me, grief was a feeling I suppressed as much as possible, and something I fought like a tiger when I could not escape its clutches. Dr. Cacciatore helped me (in her words) “to understand that monster [grief] isn’t separate from me.” "Bearing the Unbearable" lays bare the process of grief, making it available for inspection and understanding. And seen in the light of day, I found it to be far less frightening.Some writers are great storytellers and some have a poetic way with words; others are masters of their subject matter. Dr. Cacciatore combined all three talents to produce a book that is loving, informative, unflinching, soothing, honest (sometimes brutally so), and uplifting. Although the book is an easy read and I am a voracious reader, I did not finish it in one sitting. I paused frequently to savor Dr. Jo’s words and let them sink into my heart and soul. I then re-read the book with a highlighter at hand, marking some passages that I believed would be valuable in a support group setting, and other sections that seemed to have been written just for me. Chapters 12 and 18, "Intensity and Coping" and "The Practice of Being With", were inspiring to me as a facilitator. "Early Manifestations of Grief", Chapter 4, is the most heavily highlighted chapter in my copy, and it has proved particularly helpful in group with the newly-bereaved. But Chapter 13, "Contraction and Expansion", truly spoke to my soul. It defined for me in hindsight a process that I have experienced time and again since the deaths of my sons. I came to see that my periods of contraction were not evidence of a failure to cope, but were instead a valuable coping mechanism.As she is well-acquainted with grief in its many forms, Dr. Cacciatore’s thoughtful words serve to make bereavement less terrifying. Her unique understanding of grief makes me certain that I can navigate this journey, and relying on "Bearing the Unbearable" gives me confidence that I can help others do it, too.Dr. Cacciatore - Thank you for this book. Harriet Beecher Stowe could have been describing you when she wrote: “There are in this world blessed souls, whose sorrows all spring up into joys for others; whose earthly hopes, laid in the grave with many tears, are the seed from which spring healing flowers and balm for the desolate and the distressed.”

I recently started reading Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief by Dr Joanne Cacciatore. Joanne is a berieved parent herself and also has a PHD in grief counseling.What I have found in reading this book is that it validates every single emotion that I have felt since we lost our daughter, the book is written simply and in a language that every person who is grieving over the loss of a loved on can understand. The book has made me realise that love and grief go together and that hopefully/eventually my love for my daughter and my grief over losing her will sit side by side in my heart.Joanne has also shown me that my life is now like a jigsaw puzzle that will always have a piece missing, but that jigsaw is still a beautiful picture. I will always carry grief in my heart for the rest of my days but, like the jigsaw with the missing piece, that piece will live on in my heart making the jigsaw complete, - my life complete although different. That grief will sit beside the love that I have for my daughter and that the love and therefore the memories will never leave me. This has given me the courage to carry on.The book has also validated that I have become a different person and that is OK despite what our society tells us and expect from us who grieve.I would recommend this book as one of the best to help any one who is walking down the road of grief. I have read a lot of books about grief and love and this is by far the best that I have read, it should be the benchmark for every grief counselor!Thank you Joanne, you have helped me more than you can ever imagine and given me a wonderful gift.Phillip Spencer JP