Farewell, My Forever Child: Handling the Complicated Grief Associated with the Loss of a Developmentally Disabled Child

No one is ever prepared to lose a child. It is the most painful loss any parent can ever experience. But when that child is developmentally disabled, the trauma is compounded. It becomes complicated grief. Kalila Smith is a Certified Gestalt & NLP Therapist and author who experienced first hand such a loss when her daughter, Stephanie, died unexpectedly at only twenty-nine years old. Finding no resources for parents who had lost special needs children,she set out to help herself and others find peace and healing after such a traumatic loss.