Harold Ivan Smith
Harold Ivan Smith, 1947-
Harold Ivan Smith, MA, ED.S., FT, DMin, is a national speaker, noted author, experienced counselor and grief educator. He has presented bereavement workshops across the country, training more than 20,000 professionals and lay caregivers during a thirty-year career. Seminar and conference attendees rave about interactions with Harold Ivan, and his insightful gifts of helping, healing, and facilitating grief.
A prolific writer, he has authored dozens of books and resources, included best seller, A Decembered Grief: Living with Loss When Others are Celebrating. Also among his titles are Griefkeeping: Learning How Long Grief Lasts; ABCs of Healthy Bereavement; Grievers Ask, When You Don’t Know What to Say; When Your Friend Dies; Finding Your Way to Say Goodbye: Comfort for the Dying and Those Who Care for Them; and Grieving the Death of a Father. His newest book, Using Biographical and Historical Grief Narratives With The Bereaving (Routledge).
He is also an authority of the griefs of American Presidents and First Ladies. He facilitates Grief Gatherings, an innovative storytelling program at Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, where he is a member of the teaching faculty. Harold Ivan is active in the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and is designated a Fellow in Thanatology (FT).
“Some of the most challenging work a suicide survivor can do is to pray. To pray fully, survivors must bring all of themselves to the prayer: their anger, disappointment, fears, insecurities, and why's. I bring all of me into an encounter with God, aware that nothing in the human experience, or the human response to the ambushes of life, is alien to God.”