The good authors of Druid Life blog have read Susan Perrow’s Stories to Light the Night.
According to their review, the book is useful on different levels. As a grief and loss collection, you can use its stories directly by reading them to people who might be helped by them. At the same time, Stories to Light the Night lays out what it takes to write a healing story and how to use stories as a therapeutic tool. This is helped by the inclusion of stories from other therapeutic authors working in different contexts, which gives an interesting diversity of perspective and experience.
I heartily recommend this book for anyone interested in exploring stories (or for that matter any other creative writing) as a healing tool.
Druid Life
Most of the stories in the book come with a background story explaining why and for whom they were written: “Many of them are heartbreaking … They also help you face up to grief and to better understand it.”
The review contains a gentle warning: “If you have unprocessed grief, this book is going to do things to you. The work of dealing with grief is important, but make sure you don’t get caught off-guard by this. If you are looking for help with your own grief, this book might aid you, but give yourself plenty of time … I did not realise how much unprocessed grief I was carrying when I started reading, and I was caught out by that. Which is fine – books do that sometimes.”
Read the Druid Life review in full here
Stories to Light the Night: A Grief and Loss Collection for Children, Families and Communities
Susan Perrow
Stories and words have therapeutic potential. They can strengthen us, help to reframe things, and help make meaning. This book offers story medicine for children, families and communities at times of grieving, loss and separation.
