Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss

Lisa Keefauver

Book cover for Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss
Book cover for Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss
Book cover for Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss
Book cover for Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss

Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss

Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss

Lisa Keefauver

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Description

A comprehensive and compassionate guide to navigating loss.

When social worker Lisa Keefauver became a widow in 2011, she was alarmed to discover that even though 100 percent of us experience loss, we're living in a grief illiterate world. In her work as a therapist, and in her search for help in the wake of her own loss, Keefauver began to see how the misguided stories we consume about grief lead to unnecessary suffering. Responding to the problematic narratives that grief is something to move on from after completing the five stages like some sort of to-do list, Keefauver became a grief activist. Through this book and her hit podcast of the same title, she creates a safe place to be inside the messiness of it all, to discover the full spectrum of grief, and to find the tools that help grievers move forward, not on. Grief is a Sneaky Bitch is a comprehensive guide--serving as both a manual full of insights and skills and more importantly, as a thoughtful companion that helps readers feel seen and held.

Keefauver shares her personal and professional wisdom alongside the lessons she's learned from clinicians, authors, poets, and friends. In place of rigid instructions and must-do checklists, Grief is a Sneaky Bitch invites reflection, encourages self-compassion, and explores the therapeutic power of humor with, yes, a bit of profanity.

About the Author

Lisa Keefauver is a social worker, grief activist, and founder of Reimagining Grief. She is an adjunct professor of loss and grief at the University of Texas at Austin, an organizational consultant, and a keynote speaker (including at TEDx). In 2019, she created the popular podcast Grief is a Sneaky Bitch.

Critical Reviews

Grief is a Sneaky Bitch is a candid, direct, and at times humorous exploration of the life-changing tides of loss. Keefauver expertly combines her clinical background and personal experiences to provide us with a compassionate and practical guide for navigating all forms of grief. Whether your loss was long ago or last week, this book will help you find your own way of living with it.

--Marisa Renee Lee, author of Grief Is Love: Living with Loss (1/31/2024 12:00:00 AM)

When we lose a loved one, Lisa Keefauver reminds us in Grief is a Sneaky Bitch, grief becomes a part of our story. But the good news is that it will never be our whole story. What could be more hopeful than that?

--Barbara Becker, author of Heartwood: The Art of Living with the End in Mind (2/5/2024 12:00:00 AM)

An indispensable purchase...[Grief is a Sneaky Bitch] reassures readers that all their feelings and reactions are okay and dispels the myth that there is a singular "right" way to grieve...Keefauver's warm conversational tone, along with a "judicious use of cussing," permeates, exploring the physical and psychological effects of grieving and our cultural grief illiteracy...absolutely essential, highly recommended...--maybe buy two.-- "Booklist" (6/1/2024 12:00:00 AM)

After becoming a widow, social worker Lisa Keefauver was shocked to discover how woefully ill-equipped our society was to deal with grief, despite it being an unavoidable part of life. This book is her empathetic yet candid guidebook--both a skills-building manual and a supportive companion validating the rawest emotions. Integrating wisdom from clinicians, authors, and hard-won personal experience, Keefauver upends reductive, traditional narratives about grief.-- "TERTULIA" (4/25/2024 12:00:00 AM)

Through her work as a counselor and an activist, and now in her book, which takes its title from the podcast she launched in 2019, Keefauver uses humor and profanity to describe the disorientation that accompanies the ebb and flow of the grieving process.-- "Publishers Weekly" (5/3/2024 12:00:00 AM)

Publishing Information

Publisher: University of Texas Press
Pub date: 2024-06-04
Length: 272 pages

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