Lost Fathers: How Women Can Heal from Adolescent Father Loss »

Laraine Herring is an author, playwright, editor, teacher, and certified grief-recovery specialist. She holds an MFA in creative writing and an MA in counseling psychology, and she has developed workshops that use writing as a tool for healing through grief and loss. She currently teaches creative writing at Phoenix Community College. Ms. Herring's father died when she was a teenager after a long illness

What are the long-term ramifications for adolescent girls who lose one of the most important relationships in their life? Every year an estimated one million teen girls experience the death of their fathers. Countless more lose their fathers to divorce, addiction, incarceration or abandonment. Many helpful resources exist for teen girls dealing with such a devastating loss, but until now there hasn't been an authoritative guide for adult women to turn to in understanding how their behaviors and relationships may be shaped by losing their father at such a pivotal developmental stage. With gentle expertise, Laraine Herring blends poignant personal stories, the latest information in developmental psychology, and interactive exercises for readers in this much-needed, healing guide. Readers of Lost Fathers will feel a sense of connection to other women who struggle with issues related to commitment, trust, intimacy, self-confidence, and independence.

Publishers Weekly

The premise of this grief recovery manual is that adolescent girls suffer more than boys from the loss of a father, because females, still regarded culturally as less valuable than men, need to feel secure in the affection of a male figure. While not wholly convincing, Herring's volume argues further that from ages 12 to 21, when children begin separating from their parents, girls who lack a father can find this rite of passage more difficult or even impossible to accomplish. Herring, a creative writer (Monsoons) and certified grief recovery specialist, lost her own father to heart disease when she was 19, and she devotes a great deal of text (occasionally too much) to recounting her own experience, although she also cites some clinical research and other people's personal histories. Adopting the increasingly popular notion that "we are storytelling creatures," she suggests a variety of exercises in recording and examining one's "storyline" for those who, even many years later, haven't healed from bereavement or separation (with specific focuses on loss from parents' divorce, abandonment or incarceration) and are feeling its impact on their relationships. Herring's tone is sober but soothing, and her book may aid women having trouble resolving their grief. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.