Book excerpt: The Toolbox for Grief and Loss is an insightful and practical guide for anyone who is suffering, whether from a loss that is recent or long past. Grief does not have a timeline; however, prolonged pain and suffering can be avoided or healed, and the joy in living restored. From her twenty years as a registered psychologist and therapist, Valerie Umscheid brings personal and compelling true stories of how we can get stuck in grief, and effective tools to help us journey through to the other side of traumatic loss. She identifies the many ways loss can affect our lives, even when we do not realize that we are in a state of prolonged grief. This book is a balm for anyone who has experienced: • Loss of a loved one • Relationship loss or divorce • Career loss • Suicide of a loved one • Miscarriage or stillbirth • Loss related to a change in ability • Ambiguous loss due to a chronic illness • Loss of a pet The Toolbox for Grief and Loss outlines a recovery plan for each grief story, and details a number of therapeutic processes that are easy to learn on your own such as: journaling, grief processing letters, mindfulness, and a memory box. Other processes can be explored with a wellness professional such as: Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), and self-hypnosis. Put an end to prolonged grief and rediscover hope for the future!