Standing on My Brother's Shoulders: Making Peace with Grief and Suicide - Softcover

Tara J Lal

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1780289022 ISBN 13: 9781780289021

Publisher: Watkins Publishing, 2015

Synopsis

Tara's childhood was scarred by the debilitating mental illness of her father and by her mother's death from cancer when she was thirteen. Caught up in grief and despair, Tara and her older brother Adam developed a deep, caring bond, but Adam struggled silently with growing anxiety and depression. Four years after their mother's death, he killed himself, throwing himself from his study window at Oxford University. Grief and insecurity threatened to engulf Tara, but eventually she found, within her brother?s diaries, her reason to live. The story moves from London to Sydney as Tara rebuilds her life, firstly as a physiotherapist and then a firefighter. Through her search for understanding and a powerful dialogue with her brother, she eventually escapes the past and finds a life of meaning. Trained in suicide prevention, the author hopes that her story will allow the reader to identify risk factors for mental illness, as well as strategies that reduce the effect of trauma and loss. She also aims to give examples of techniques to improve resilience, and show how we can aid post-traumatic growth and improve happiness levels through positive psychology.

About this title

About the Author

Tara J Lal was born in London but now lives in Sydney, Australia. A firefighter and Mental Health First Aid Instructor, she is trained in suicide prevention and researches suicide and mental health in firefighters, as well as speaking on behalf of leading charities to raise awareness of suicide and mental illness. To find out more visit her website: www.tarajlal.com

Edition details

• Publisher: Watkins Publishing
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1780289022
• ISBN 13: 9781780289021
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224