You were not supposed to learn how to live without them.

One moment, life feels familiar.

The next, everything is split into before and after.

People tell you to be strong.

To give it time.

To move on.

But grief doesn’t work that way.

When someone you love dies, the world doesn’t just change, it disappears and reassembles into something unrecognizable. The simplest tasks feel impossible. The silence feels louder than anything you’ve ever known. And somewhere in the middle of it all, you’re left wondering:

How am I supposed to keep going like this?

This book is not about “getting over” grief.

It’s about learning how to live with it.

In Broken Hearts Keep Beating, Denise Ackerman offers something most grief books don’t:

A steady, compassionate voice that walks beside you, without rushing you, fixing you, or asking you to feel anything other than what you feel right now.

After losing her father suddenly, Denise found herself in the same place you may be in today: disoriented, overwhelmed, and searching for something that truly understood the reality of grief. When she couldn’t find it, she wrote the book she needed.

What she offers you is not theory.

It’s lived experience, shaped into guidance you can actually use.

This book is a compassionate, practical guide for navigating life after loss, including for readers of It’s OK That You’re Not OK and The Grief Recovery Handbook.

Inside this book, you will learn how to:

Understand what grief is really doing to your mind, body, and emotions

Navigate the shock, fog, and early days when everything feels unreal

Get through the weeks and months when even basic life feels heavy

Handle responsibilities while carrying deep emotional pain

Make sense of thoughts and feelings that seem confusing or overwhelming

Build small, steady routines that help you move forward—one step at a time

Stay connected to the person you love while continuing to live your life

Rebuild a version of life that can hold both sorrow and meaning

A Different Kind of Grief Book

If you’ve ever typed “how do I survive grief?” at 2 AM, this book is the lifeline you’ve been looking for.

This is not a book that tells you to “be strong.”

It will not rush you through stages.

It will not give you timelines.

It will not expect you to be okay.

Instead, it meets you exactly where you are.

As Denise writes in the opening pages, grief is not something you “get over.” It is something you learn to carry.

And while the pain may never fully disappear, something else becomes possible:

You begin to carry it differently.

You begin to breathe again.

You begin, slowly, to live again.

For the Days That Feel Unbearable

This book is for:

The mornings when getting out of bed feels like too much

The moments when memories hit without warning

The quiet spaces where the absence feels overwhelming

The questions that don’t have answers

The feeling that no one truly understands

Whether your loss is recent or something you’ve been carrying for months or years, this book offers a place to return to again and again.

Not to fix the pain.

But to help you move through it.

You Are Not Alone

Grief can feel isolating.

Invisible.

Misunderstood.

But what you are feeling is not wrong.

You are not broken.

You are grieving.

And even now (especially now) your heart still knows how to keep beating.

If you are looking for a book that will sit beside you in the hardest moments…

this is that book.

Scroll up and click Buy Now to begin, gently and at your own pace.

Free on Kindle.

Children do not process the world the way adults do. They do not sit with a difficulty, name it, reflect on it, and arrive at a conclusion. They play it out. They draw it, build it, enact it, give it a character, send it on a journey, and let it resolve in the way that stories resolve — through movement, through metaphor, through the particular safety of something that is real and not real at the same time. The Play Therapy Toolbox brings together 123 actionable activities spanning role-play, enactment, fantasy storytelling, somatic exercises, and gamified experiences, alongside 75+ full-colour printable worksheets designed for every developmental stage from age 3 to 12. Drawing on cognitive behavioural therapy, narrative therapy, attachment-based approaches, polyvagal theory, and trauma-informed practice, the book addresses the presentations that matter most — anxiety, grief, trauma, ADHD, bullying, family transitions, identity, self-esteem, and more. Every activity includes a therapeutic rationale grounded in peer-reviewed research, step-by-step guidance, and a parent guidance note written in plain, practical language for the adults at home. Whether you are a parent searching for tools to support your child through the everyday challenges of growing up, or a professional looking for a clinically grounded resource that will serve the children you work with across every stage — this is a book you will return to. $1.99 on Kindle.