Then Butterfly on my Shoulder  A Grief Journey of Love and Growth to Inspire Healing - fisp@earthlink.net

Helene Levin, a FISP Executive wrote this book over a period of years as she went through her grief process after losing her son.  She explains how by helping others she helped to heal for the last 24 years.  The book incorporates what she learned from others and the poems she wrote during the years expressing both her and others experiences toward the healing she finally achieved.

Dying to Be Free: A Healing Guide for Families after a Suicide
Beverly Cobain and Jean Larch, Hazelden Foundation, 2006. Co-authored by the cousin of Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of the band Nirvana who took his own life in 1994, and a crisis intervention specialist, this book combines personal accounts from survivors with practical guidance for coping with suicide loss.

Healing After the Suicide of a Loved One
Ann Smolin and John Guinan, Simon and Schuster, 1993. So many survivors struggle with wondering, "why?" and "what if?" This book contains case studies together with advice, to help survivors begin to heal.

Lay My Burden Down: Unraveling Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African-Americans
Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D., and Amy Alexander, Beacon Press, 2001. One of the few books about suicide and mental health problems within the African-American community.

Reaching Out After Suicide: What’s Helpful and What’s Not
Linda H. Kilburn, M.S.W. Available from KP Associates, LLC (KPAMASS@aol.com), 2008. The author, a clinical hospice social worker and survivor of her daughter’s suicide, offers practical advice for well-meaning friends and family who want to reach out and be supportive after a suicide, but aren’t sure what to do or say. 

Silent Grief: Living in the Wake of Suicide
Christopher Lukas and Henry Seiden, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007.
Co-authored by a psychologist and a survivor of multiple suicide losses, this book is written with sensitivity and understanding, and offers simple, constructive suggestions for healing along with straightforward information and a message of hope. 

Suicide and its Aftermath: Understanding and Counseling the Survivors
Edward Dunne, John McIntosh, and Karen Dunne-Maxim (Eds.), W.W. Norton and Company, 1987. This compilation of articles and essays captures various dimensions of the many different aspects of the experience of surviving after a suicide loss. Although written by and for professional counselors, it's very readable for the general public.

Suicide Survivors' Handbook -- Expanded Edition
Trudy Carlson, Benline Press, 2000. Providing specific suggestions and practical advice from other survivors, the author addresses the questions: Why? What about shame and guilt? How long does the pain last? What helps? How do you deal with others?

Suicide of a Child
Adina Wrobleski, Centering Corp., 2002. A basic guide for early bereavement after your child's suicide. Comfortable, compassionate, easy-to-read observations and personal messages.

Survivors of Suicide
Rita Robinson and Phyllis Hart, New Page Books, 2001. A compilation of advice and survivor stories.

Touched by Suicide: Hope and Healing After Loss
Michael F. Myers, M.D., and Carla Fine, Gotham Books, 2006. Co-authored by a psychiatrist and survivor, this book offers detailed steps, practical suggestions, and compassionate advice for how to cope with all aspects of suicide. 

Survivor Stories

A Force Unfamiliar To Me: A Cautionary Tale
Jane Butler, Hamlet Books, 1998. A mother's personal account of her son's depression and suicide. Explores some of the familiar challenges many survivor families face, such as how to handle the holidays and the struggles of grief between the parents of a child who dies by suicide.

A Special Scar: The Experience of People Bereaved by Suicide
Alison Wertheimer, Routledge, 2001. The author (who lost her sister to suicide) presents interviews with 50 survivors, and covers a wide range of issues, including the press, stigma, guilt, anger and rejection.

Before Their Time: Adult Children's Experiences of Parental Suicide
Mary and Maureen Stimming, Temple University Press, 1999. Presents adult children survivors' accounts of their loss, grief, and resolution following a parent's suicide. Separate sections offer perspectives on the deaths of mothers and fathers. Also includes the reflections of four siblings on the shared loss of their mother.

Blue Genes: A Memoir of Loss and Survival
Christopher Lukas, Doubleday, 2008. Christopher (Kit) Lukas, co-author of Silent Grief: Living in the Wake of Suicide, survived the suicide of his mother when he was a young boy. Neither he nor his brother were told how she’d died, and both went on to confront their own struggles with depression, a disease that ran throughout their family. In 1997, Kit’s brother Tony, a Pulitzer-prize winning author, took his own life. Blue Genes is Kit’s exploration of his family history, his personal journey and his determination to find strength and hope.

Dead Reckoning: A Therapist Confronts His Own Grief
David C. Treadway, BasicBooks, 1996. The author, now a successful family therapist, was just twenty when his mother, a longtime alcoholic, took her own life. Even as he counsels his clients on how to deal with death, loss and grief, he finds himself increasingly unable to manage his own. Turning to his own therapist for help, Treadway includes the reader on his journey of healing as he finally comes to terms with his mother’s death.

My Son...My Son: A Guide to Healing After Death, Loss or Suicide
Iris Bolton and Curtis Mitchell, The Bolton Press, 1995. A mother's account of her progression through the grief process after the suicide of her 20-year old son.

Never Regret the Pain: Loving and Losing a Bipolar Spouse
Sel Erder Yackley, Helm Publishing, 2008. In her memoir, Sel Erder Yackley, mother of three, provides the reader an intimate glimpse into her family’s struggle to understand, cope with, and grieve the bipolar disorder and ultimate suicide of husband, a well-respected judge.

No Time to Say Goodbye: Surviving the Suicide of a Loved One
Carla Fine, Doubleday, 1996. Following the suicide of her husband, the author interviewed over 100 suicide survivors. She weaves their experiences into her book, creating a story of loss, grief and survival.

Remembering Garrett: One Family's Battle with a Child's Depression
United States Senator Gordon H. Smith, Caroll & Graf, 2006. A personal account by the U.S. Senator from Oregon, whose 21 year-old son took his own life, and whose speech on the Senate floor led to overwhelming bipartisan support for the passage of the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, which increased federal funding to prevent youth suicide.

Sanity & Grace: A Journey of Suicide, Survival, and Strength
Judy Collins, Tarcher/Penguin, 2003. A grieving mother and celebrity shares her own story about the loss of her son to suicide and her own struggle with mental illness.

The Empty Chair: The Journey of Grief After Suicide
Beryl Glover, In Sight Books, 2000. The grief process as experienced by a variety of people dealing with different emotions following the suicide of a family member.

The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order
Joan Wickersham, Harcourt Inc., 2008. Wickersham uses an index -- that most orderly of structures -- to try to make sense of her father’s suicide. The family history, business failures and encounters with friends and doctors are assembled into a philosophical, deeply personal and beautifully-written exploration of the mystery of her father’s life and death.

Suicide and Mental Illness

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. In this memoir, the author, an international authority on bipolar disorder, describes her own struggle since adolescence with the disorder, and how it has shaped her life.

Darkness Visible
William Styron, Random House, 1990. A powerful and moving first-hand account of what depression feels like to the sufferer.

Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide
Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. Weaving together an in-depth psychological and scientific exploration of the subject, this book traces the network of reasons underlying suicide, including the factors that interact to cause suicide, and the evolving treatments available from modern medicine. Includes a particular focus on suicide by adolescents and young adults.

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
Andrew Solomon, Scribner, 2001. Winner of the National Book award. A sufferer of chronic depression, Solomon shares his own story, while presenting the problem of depression in a broader social context.

Understanding Depression: What We Know and What You Can Do About It
J. Raymond DePaulo Jr., M.D. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002. The Psychiatrist-in-Chief of the John Hopkins Hospital presents a comprehensive, user-friendly guide to depression, including the latest research in brain chemistry, psychology and pharmacology.

Helping Children

After a Parent's Suicide: Helping Children Heal
Margo Requarth, Healing Hearts Press, 2006. Written by a bereavement counselor who lost her own mother to suicide when she was just under four years old, this book offers constructive, compassionate and clear suggestions for helping children.

After a Suicide: A Workbook for Grieving Kids
Available through The Dougy Center (see Organizations, above). Developed for use with children, this workbook combines explanations of mental illness and suicide, creative exercises, practical advice, and quotations from child survivors.

But I Didn't Say Goodbye: For Parents and Professionals Helping Child Suicide Survivors
Barbara Rubel, Griefwork Center, Inc., 2000. Told from the point of view of a child, this book is intended for adults to read and then share with children.

Child Survivors of Suicide: A Guidebook for Those Who Care for Them
Rebecca Parkin and Karen Dunne-Maxim, 1995. Available through AFSP. This practical guide offers guidance for family members, educators, and others who deal with young survivors. To order, click here.

My Uncle Keith Died
Carol Ann Loehr, Trafford Publishing, 2006. Written in clear simple language easily understood by children, this book offers hope and practical ways to explain suicide to children. It explains the difference between sadness and depression, and describes how chemical imbalances in the brain cause illnesses that can result in suicide.

Someone I Love Died By Suicide: A Story for Child Survivors and Those Who Care for Them
Doreen Cammarata, Grief Guidance, Inc., 2000. An illustrated book that explains depression and suicide in child-friendly language.

 
For Adolescents and Teenagers

After
Francis Chalifour, Tundra, 2005. Nominated for the Canadian Governor General's Literary Awards 2005, this autobiographical novel tells the story of 15-year-old Francis, whose father took his own life. It explores Francis’s struggles with guilt, anger, profound sadness and search for hope, during the first year after his father’s suicide. 

After a Suicide: Young People Speak Up
Susan Kuklin, Putnam Publishing Group, 1994. Nine personal accounts of survivors, many of whom are teens. Each account focuses on a specific topic, such as losing a parent, losing a sibling, seeking therapy, support groups.

No One Saw My Pain: Why Teens Kill Themselves
Andrew Slaby and Lili Frank Garfinkle, W.W. Norton and Company, 1995. Written by an expert on suicide in young adults, this book looks at many examples of adolescent suicide and explores the complex factors that may contribute to it.

For Men

Real Men Do Cry: A Quarterback’s Inspiring Story of Tackling Depression and Surviving Suicide Loss
Eric Hipple, with Dr. Gloria Horsley and Dr. Heidi Horsley. Quality of Life Publishing Co., 2008. Hipple, former NFL quarterback for the Detroit Lions and survivor of his 15 year-old son’s suicide, candidly shares his own lifelong struggle with depression, including his bankruptcy, imprisonment for drunk driving, and ultimate decision to seek treatment.  A practical guide for men and the women who care about them.

Swallowed by a Snake: The Gift of the Masculine Side of Healing
Thomas R. Golden, Golden Healing Publishing, 1996. This book by a licensed clinical social worker explores the stereotypically “masculine” experience of grief. In the author’s words, “[a] man reading these pages will find a book that honors the uniqueness of a man’s path toward healing. A woman reading this book will benefit not only from gaining a deeper understanding of the men in her life, she will find herself in these pages.”

When Suicide Comes Home: A Father’s Diary and Comments
Paul Cox, Bolton Press 2002. A father’s perspective on the first year following his son’s suicide, this book is written in a simple, straightforward way – an easy read for early grief.  While written from a father’s perspective, female readers (especially spouses) have said that it helped them better understand the male experience of grief.

Poetry/Inspirational

Healing the Hurt Spirit: Daily Affirmations for People Who Have Lost a Loved One to Suicide
Catherine Greenleaf, St. Dymphna Press, 2006. Written by a longtime survivor of multiple suicide losses, this non-denominational book encourages survivors to explore their grief  through a series of simple readings and daily affirmations.

Incomplete Knowledge
Jeffrey Harrison, Four Way Books, 2006. The second half of this book of poetry (in particular the moving sequence titled “The Undertaking” ) speaks eloquently of the loss of the writer's brother to suicide, delving into isolated moments in the immediate aftermath and extended process of grief.