A Book Review

By Brian W. Carter, Sentinel Staff Writer

Grief is a word most people don’t like to utter. Even worse, it’s a feeling that none of us want to feel. Nevertheless, as uncomfortable as it is, it’s a part of the human experience. We will all have to go through at some point in time.

Dr. Brenda Wall is a licensed psychologist and an ordained minister. She has worked in the Black community through her profession, ministry and the airwaves to help people overcome life’s challenges.

Wall holds degrees from Vassar College, Boston University and George Washington University. She has served as vice president of two Black historical colleges and has a deep commitment to helping people. Wall is also the author of the Rodney King Rebellion.

Now she has put her experiences within her profession, life and ministry into a book entitled The Good Thing About Grief. This book takes a long deep look at grief: how we experience it, deal with it and get through it. The combination of both Walls’ professions gives her a unique and deep vantage point when it comes to handling grief.

She addresses the unwillingness to deal with grief and the effects that action can lead to. The book also talks about the importance of mourning and how it is essential. There are many kinds of grief that people experience depending on how someone died, like suicide, which this book addresses also.

Wall touches on family dynamics when it comes to grieving and how to deal with children when it affects them directly. Grief hits everyone in the family in a different way. Christian believers also process death in a different way based off their beliefs. Wall examines key elements to how the believer processes of grief.

As someone who’s experienced the loss of a loved one, I can attest to the difficulty that grief brings. It’s a challenged I met in my faith and as a result, I am a stronger person because I allowed myself to mourn the loss. I agree with most of Wall’s statements and approaches within her book.

Grief is an unpleasant part of life that ultimately leads to growth, strength and deeper spiritual understanding. The Good Thing About Grief is a book that will open new doors to understanding how to process and move through grief on multiple levels. It’s a recommended read.

“It is my prayer for you that the very glory of God be manifest in the grief and suffering in your walk. May it produce a witness of faith and hope for your own healing and for the supernatural enlightenment for those who look upon you.”

-Dr. Brenda Wall

Last update: 07-25-2011 01:15

Published in : Family, Education

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