"No one is immune from grief. We're all vulnerable. It can affect our attitude with co-workers, production, and even indirectly, customer satisfaction."
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A Crash Course in Grief Recovery by Tom Lord Trafford Publishing
book review by RJM Terrado
Sorrow and other grief-like reaction, namely fatigue and withdrawal, are considered a natural response to the loss of something valuable or discovery of a life-threatening medical condition. This and the response of those around a grieving person are the subject of Grief Recovery.
Lord discusses a grieving person's need for a support group. By identifying potholes in the road to recovery, Lord espouses a hypothesis that is workable within a Christian perspective. For him, fear, unforgiveness, jealousy, resentment, anger, betrayal, loneliness, denial, blame, and alcohol and drugs are among the hindrances to grief recovery. Amid all these potholes, Lord believes that it is difficult to attain success without allowing the grieved to talk about God at some point. And yet, the current trend in grief counseling is the opposite: Participants are not allowed to bring up the subject.
While grief is a common fabric in almost everybody's life, training in and the provision of grief counseling in the workplace, church, and most organizations are scarce. Lord reintroduces Deming's team approach making a strong case for every business and organization to adopt a grief recovery support. He calls on for some action as he encourages organizational managers, church leaders, and even plain Jane Christians, who are concerned enough, to reach out to grieving people. The book is really insightful without a hint of a slog for readers who have no personal or professional background in business management, counseling, and/or psychology.
Overall, the book is very informative and spiritual. It identifies fundamental principles of grief recovery anchored on Christian perspective. Lord makes a compelling argument that grief recovery program is essential in varied settings, and with the appropriate communication approach, it can be highly successful.