A Grief Companion

A Grief Companion offers practical and supportive suggestions for anyone suffering loss. When someone you love dies it can be an overwhelming and deeply emotional time. The memoir, Languages of Loss, grew out of Sasha’s experience of grief as a bereaved wife, and from the insights she gained from her training and her work as both psychotherapist and yoga teacher. This book is a guide aimed at helping you navigate and bear the many confusing moods that assail us when we are suffering from grief and losses of any kind. Sasha’s suggestions and prompts are gentle and empathic, yet practical. They are born of my own hard-won understanding and experience of grief and mourning.

It is divided into four sections:

Mind, to help you make sense of and understand your often contradictory feelings; Body, to help you manage those times when the physical self is dominating your responses; Spirit, to encourage connection with the world around you; Everyday for dealing with the practical issues that arise when someone dies.

This is a handbook for anyone seeking help to manage the maelstrom of emotions and the pain that arises when you lose someone you love.

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What people are saying about A Grief Companion:

“This is the book I was searching for 20 years ago when my son died, thank heaven it exists now. It really is the perfect companion. It contains everything a bereaved person needs to piece together their new life without the person they loved and I will highly recommend it to my clients and to anyone accompanying a bereaved person through their grief.”

Lizzie Pickering Grief Investigator, Film and Podcast Producer

“Explaining how the mind and body work together, A Grief Companion offers insights into the process of grieving. The writing is energetic, down-to-earth and honest as Sasha Bates helps readers cope with the many layers and levels of grief. A useful as well as a moving book.”

Cathy Rentzenbrink, author

“Immensely practical and tenderly compassionate, this is the perfect companion for anyone experiencing loss. Full of lived wisdom, insights, suggestions and hope, it is above all shot through with kindness. Part guidebook, part instruction manual, part love letter, this is a book that takes you by the hand and promises the gentlest comfort in the darkest of times.”

Tamsin Greig, actor

“Sasha Bates draws on her work as a psychotherapist and her own personal experiences of loss to offer a flexible and holistic toolkit to bring comfort and hope to anyone whose life has been shattered by grief. Structured into sections on mind, body, spirit and the everyday, Bates’ new book is packed full of useful insights and resources—from vocabulary lists that help you pinpoint and communicate your emotions, to advice about funerals, relationships, anniversaries, and a range of therapeutic and creative activities. A Grief Companion will act as both a compassionate friend and an expert mentor on your grief journey, enabling you to manage life after loss in a way that is right for you.”

Dr Lesel Dawson, University of Bristol, Art & Culture lead for the Good Grief Festival

“Sasha has put all her knowledge, as an experienced psychotherapist, and all her heart, as a woman grieving, into writing this book. It’s a resource to treasure, and a great example of how to be kind to yourself from the midst of deep distress. It is beautifully laid out.  I will certainly be using it in my practice and recommending it to clients who have suffered loss.”

Toireasa McGann, psychotherapist