If you’ve lost a sibling, you feel sad, confused, or even angry. For the first time, a psychotherapist specializing in teen and adolescent bereavement offers a compassionate guide to help you discover your unique coping style, deal with overwhelming emotions, and find constructive ways to manage this profound loss so you can move forward in a meaningful and healthy way.

Losing a loved one—at any age—is devastating. But if you’re a teen who has lost a sibling, this loss can feel even more so. Siblings are also lifetime playmates, confidants, role models, and friends. After losing a brother or sister, you may feel like a part of yourself is missing. You may also feel lonely, depressed, and anxious. These are all normal reactions. But even though the pain feels unmanageable now, there are ways you can start to heal.

Grieving for the Sibling You Lostwill help you understand your own unique coping style. You'll also find effective exercises based in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you work through negative thoughts, and learn the importance of creating meaning out of loss and suffering. Most importantly, you'll learn when and how to ask for help from parents, friends, or teachers.

If you’ve lost a sibling, the pain can feel unbearable, but there are ways you can start to heal. This book will show you how.

Erica Goldblatt Hyatt's profile page

Kenneth Doka's profile page

Erica Goldblatt Hyatt, DSW, is assistant professor and department chair of psychology at Bryn Athyn College. Over the course of her career, she has served as a hospital administrator, mental health clinician, academic advisor, family-informed trauma treatment therapist, and clinical oncology social worker to both adult and pediatric populations.

To contact Goldblatt Hyatt, you can reach her at Doctor.Erica@icloud.com, or find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/doctorEricaGHyatt.

Foreword writer Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, is professor of gerontology at the Graduate School of The College of New Rochelle, and senior consultant to the Hospice Foundation of America. He is author of Improving Care for Veterans Facing Illness and Death, Ethics and End-of-Life Care, and more.

“You are not alone. This is the promise that Erica Goldblatt Hyatt so skillfully makes and delivers to you in the pages of this remarkable book. She takes you on the journeys of other teens who have lost siblings, and in the process helps you to understand your own unique grief. She offers insights and invaluable resources to help you get through the most difficult experience and I highly recommend this book to you.”
—Carol Tosone, PhD, LCSW, associate professor at the New York University Silver School of Social Work, and editor-in-chief ofClinical Social Work Journal

“Grieving for the Sibling You Lost is a first-rate guidebook for navigating one of life’s most painful experiences, the death of a brother or sister. The book speaks to teenagers as they try to come to terms with the confusing emotions associated with loss. This pioneering work by Goldblatt Hyatt offers practical guidelines and enlightening advice for teenagers, their parents, teachers, and clinicians. I recommend it highly.”
—Raymond Moody, MD, PhD, best-selling author of twelve books, includingLife After Life, and coauthor ofLife After Loss

“Erica Goldblatt Hyatt provides a wonderful resource that can help teens understand what grief is, the symptoms that often accompany it, and the various ways to cope with sibling loss. Using real stories of teens who have suffered sibling loss, this book gives teens support in a very real and relatable way. Teens of all ages will be able to use these stories as guides to help them understand and make meaning of their own grief experiences.”
—Mary Alice Varga, assistant professor of educational research at the University of West Georgia, and active member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling

“Grieving for the Sibling You Lost is a groundbreaking book, giving a much-needed voice to the experience of sibling death—one of the most unacknowledged and minimized losses today. This book does a wonderful job of providing tips, tools, and coping strategies on how to find hope and meaning after a sibling loss. It is a must-read for bereaved siblings who want to gain a better understanding of the sibling experience. I wish I had this book when my 17-year-old brother died.”
—Heidi Horsley, PsyD, LMSW,MS, executive director of Open to Hope Foundation, and adjunct professor at Columbia University

“A clear, helpful, experience-near book, this is useful not only for teens grieving the loss of a sibling but also for parents of adolescents. Written in a simple way, teens can identify with the way grief feels, think about their own feelings and behaviors that are normalized, and gain some understanding of the undertow of grief. A well-written and very direct look into the life of adolescents who face profound losses.”
—Joan Berzoff, MSW, EdD, professor and director of the End-of-Life Certificate Program, Smith College School for Social Work

“This is an exquisitely written and sensitive book on a difficult and often overlooked topic. While written for teens that have suffered the loss of a sibling, the book is also of great value to parents and clinicians. The case studies and types of grieving responses make the book easily accessible to the readers.”
—Richard J. Gelles, PhD, dean of the School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania

“Grieving for the Sibling You Lost by Erica Goldblatt Hyatt is a most excellent book. The book is amazingly written in a style that is both intimate, informative, and inspirational. What I found especially wonderful is the range of readership is so inclusive. This classic book is readable for young people who have lost their brother or sister, as well as for a professional person like myself who has been a psychologist and psychotherapist for many years. Reading this most interesting book brings you into this experiential matrix that is affectively informing, and in which the reader simultaneously experiences a personal connection with the author. I recommend this book not only for its informative content but also for the pleasure of reading an exquisitely written text.”
—Rudolph Bauer, PhD, diplomate in clinical psychology at the American Board of Professional Psychology, The Washington Center for Consciousness Studies