📚 Research Resources

Navigate Loss

Complete Bibliography & Further Reading

The science behind processing non-death losses

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About These Resources

Navigate Loss is built on decades of research in transition psychology, grief studies, resilience science, and meaning-making research. This page provides a comprehensive bibliography of the academic works, books, and research papers that inform the product's 7 loss situations and 27 modules. Each source is available through Amazon with direct purchase links.

Primary Framework Sources

The foundational research upon which Navigate Loss is built:

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Core Loss & Transition Literature

Essential texts on loss, grief, and life transitions:

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Disenfranchised Grief: New Directions, Challenges, and Strategies for Practice

Kenneth J. Doka, Ph.D. (Editor)

2002 • Research Press

Doka coined the term "disenfranchised grief" to describe losses that society doesn't fully acknowledge—job loss, pet loss, divorce, friendship endings. This collection explores how to support people grieving unrecognized losses.

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4

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl

1959 • Beacon Press

The classic work on finding meaning in suffering. Frankl's logotherapy, developed partly from his Holocaust experience, shows that humans can endure almost any loss if they find meaning in it.

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Loss, Trauma, and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss

Pauline Boss, Ph.D.

2006 • W. W. Norton

Boss's pioneering research on "ambiguous loss"—losses that lack clarity or closure. Essential for understanding losses like job identity, health decline, and relationship changes that don't have clean endpoints.

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Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy

Sheryl Sandberg & Adam Grant

2017 • Knopf

Sandberg's personal journey through loss combined with Grant's research on resilience. Practical insights on building resilience when life doesn't go as planned—when you have to live "Option B."

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Resources by Loss Type

Specialized resources for specific types of non-death loss:

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Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career

Herminia Ibarra

2003 • Harvard Business Review Press

Research-based guidance on career transitions and professional identity change. Essential for understanding job/career loss as an identity transition, not just an economic event.

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How to Survive the Loss of a Love

Peter McWilliams, Harold Bloomfield, & Melba Colgrove

1991 • Prelude Press

A practical guide covering all types of loss—relationship endings, job loss, health changes, moving, and more. Accessible wisdom for any significant life transition.

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The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It

Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.

2015 • Avery

Stanford psychologist McGonigal's research on transforming our relationship with stress. Essential for reframing the stress of loss as potential growth.

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Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow

Judith Viorst

1986 • Free Press

A comprehensive exploration of how loss is woven into the fabric of human development. Every stage of life involves necessary losses that enable growth.

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Key Academic Papers

Peer-reviewed research underlying Navigate Loss's evidence-based approach:

Loss and Trauma: General and Close Relationship Perspectives

Harvey, J. H. (2001). Journal of Personal and Interpersonal Loss, 6(1), 1-16.

Foundational research on how people experience and process various types of loss, including non-death losses in relationships, careers, and identity.

Resilience to Loss and Chronic Grief: A Prospective Study from Preloss to 18-Months Postloss

Bonanno, G. A., et al. (2002). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(5), 1150-1164.

Landmark longitudinal study demonstrating that resilience, not prolonged grief, is the most common response to significant loss.

Posttraumatic Growth: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Evidence

Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (2004). Psychological Inquiry, 15(1), 1-18.

Seminal paper on post-traumatic growth—the positive psychological change that can emerge from struggle with highly challenging life circumstances.

Making Sense of Loss and Benefiting from the Experience: Two Construals of Meaning

Davis, C. G., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Larson, J. (1998). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(2), 561-574.

Research on meaning-making in loss, showing that finding meaning and finding benefit are distinct processes, both important for recovery.

Disenfranchised Grief

Doka, K. J. (1989). In Disenfranchised Grief: Recognizing Hidden Sorrow (pp. 3-11). Lexington Books.

The original paper introducing the concept of "disenfranchised grief"—losses that are not openly acknowledged, socially supported, or publicly mourned.

🎓 Want to Go Deeper? Use Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a free academic search engine that indexes peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, and conference proceedings from universities and research institutions worldwide.

Use Google Scholar when you want to:

  • Read the original research studies on loss and transition
  • Find the latest academic papers on non-death grief
  • Explore citations to discover related research
  • Access free PDF versions of many papers
🔍 Search Google Scholar for Loss & Transition Research
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Additional Recommended Reading

Further resources for deepening your understanding of loss and resilience:

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Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges

Steven M. Southwick & Dennis S. Charney

2018 • Cambridge University Press

Research-based examination of resilience factors, drawn from interviews with POWs, disaster survivors, and others who've overcome extreme adversity.

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Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Brené Brown, Ph.D.

2015 • Random House

Brown's research on how people rise from falls—failures, disappointments, and setbacks. The "reckoning, rumble, revolution" process for getting back up.

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When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

Pema Chödrön

1997 • Shambhala

Buddhist teacher Chödrön offers wisdom on staying present with pain and using difficult times as opportunities for awakening and growth.

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14

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.

2014 • Penguin Books

Groundbreaking research on how trauma affects the body and mind, with implications for understanding how significant losses affect us physically and emotionally.

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Related Resources

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