Books That Help Us Understand Life’s Hardest Moments
Books from Journey Publications
Understanding Grief
Understanding a Troubled Childhood
Click on covers to see details.
Surviving Suicide Loss
Audiobook Editions
Audio editions of Journey Publications titles are now under development
Now in Development
Grief Support Resources
Facilitator manuals and participant workbooks are planned for
You’re Not Broken—You’re Grieving.
Future Publications
New materials and projects are on the way
Grief can affect the body, thoughts, relationships, identity, and the rhythms of everyday life. Drawing on years of grief-support experience, James R. Petersen offers clear explanations, practical guidance, and reassurance for the difficult days ahead.
This is not a timetable or a quick path around pain. It is a compassionate companion for understanding what grief can do—and learning to carry loss without believing you are broken.
A compassionate guide for understanding grief and learning to carry loss—one step at a time.
You’re Not Broken—You’re Grieving
What this Book Offers
Practical Support
Find compassionate guidance for difficult days, changing relationships, painful memories, and the decisions grief places in your path.
Carrying Loss Forward
Discover ways to live with love and loss, rebuild connection and purpose, and move forward without pretending the loss has disappeared.
Understanding Your Grief
Grief affects more than emotions. Learn how loss can influence the body, thoughts, relationships, identity, and everyday life.
You’re Not Broken—You’re Surviving a Loss to Suicide
A Compassionate Guide to Understanding Suicide Loss, Grief, and the Unanswered Questions
A death by suicide can shatter everything survivors thought they understood about the person they loved, the life they shared, and even themselves. Along with grief, they may carry shock, trauma, guilt, anger, stigma, and questions that may never have complete answers.
This compassionate guide explores the many roads that can lead into what the author calls the Suicidal Universe—and the complicated aftermath faced by those left behind. It addresses survivor shock, traumatic memories, family and relationship changes, children and adolescents, legal and financial consequences, difficult anniversaries, and the struggle to make sense of what happened.
This is not a suicide-prevention manual. Written by a fellow suicide-loss survivor with years of experience supporting grieving families, it offers honest understanding, practical guidance, and reassurance that a loved one’s life was larger than the manner of their death.
Click the back cover to enlarge.
When You Come From a Troubled Family
Understanding and Overcoming the 20 Most
Common Challenges from a Tough Childhood
James D. MacArthur and James R. Petersen
Growing up in a troubled family can shape how you see yourself, relate to others, handle conflict, and respond to life’s challenges—often in ways you may not fully recognize.
This practical, compassionate guide examines twenty common patterns that can follow a difficult childhood into adult life. Each chapter helps readers recognize one of those patterns, understand where it came from, and consider healthier ways to respond.
Personal rating tools, illustrations, key takeaways, and reflections make this a book readers can work through at their own pace. It offers understanding without blame—and practical help for moving beyond patterns that no longer serve them.
Click the back cover to enlarge.
Meet the Authors
James R. Petersen is an author, retired educator, grief-support facilitator, and longtime volunteer. His writing draws upon professional service, personal loss, and years spent helping people understand some of life’s most difficult experiences. He created Journey Publications to offer compassionate, practical books that reduce confusion and help readers feel less alone.
James D. MacArthur is a psychologist, educator, and author with decades of experience helping individuals and families understand the lasting effects of troubled childhoods. During his career, he served as a college professor, counseled students, maintained a private counseling practice, and presented seminars on family systems, childhood trauma, relationships, and personal growth. His original lectures and professional insights became the foundation for When You Come From a Troubled Family, developed in collaboration with James R. Petersen.