Transitional loss counselor Rick Bergh has just published his second book in his five book series about grief and loss.
The first book ‘Finding Anchors’ was published earlier this fall, with his second book ‘Taking Notice’ released just last week, both chronicling his journey through his wife’s cancer diagnosis.
“I wanted to write this book so when people are diagnosed they have these tools and I wanted to share my journey,” Bergh explained.
Bergh’s first wife, Pam, was diagnosed with cancer when she was just 42. The husband and wife went through five years of hospitals and treatments with four children at home, when Pam unfortunately lost her battle to cancer. After losing his wife, Bergh knew he wanted his story to help other people who might be going through the same struggle.
“What is fascinating is the journey for me. Pam became my teacher and I learnt so much from her… the way we see life, the way we engage and this is really my story and what I learnt from my wife during that process,” Bergh said.
The first book focused on how to bring stability to a life after a cancer diagnosis, giving 17 different ‘anchors’ to help people find their balance. The second book is about the five years Rick spent with his wife after the cancer diagnosis and how a cancer journey can magnify what’s important in life.
“The overall goal of the books is to provide some practical tools for people to transition in a healthy way – the ideas might be helpful and I’m not saying it will work for everyone but in my experience, most of them do,” Bergh explained.
Living in Cochrane for the past 11 year, Bergh has also spent the last 30 years of his life as a Lutheran minister and counselor specializing in the area of death, dying and bereavement – listening to people share their own stories of grief and loss.
“From my experience and being involved with many peoples lives, lead me to writing, and what I discovered in my counseling and ministry is people were just looking for really practical ideas and way to transition from whatever loss was in their life,” Bergh explained.
“I love it when I can connect people with their stories and we help each other in life and we encourage each other in life,” Bergh said.
The third book, ‘Looking Ahead’ is set to be released early next year on Amazon and the author is hopeful the next book will do just as well as the first two. Bergh mentioned that so far the reviews he read have been positive.
Both ‘Finding Anchors’ and ‘Taking Notice’ have been placed on the Best Seller list on Amazon in their respective categories, according to Bergh.
“I guess people are needing this information,” he reflected.
Bergh said when he originally started writing the book; he had only planned to write one book before his publisher told him he had to break it up into separate books.
“As a first time author, you have so much information to tell. It is all this I have in me that I want to get out. So my publisher said to narrow the focus,” Bergh explained.
“So that’s been my work for the past little while is writing these books and getting them out. These are tough subjects – this is not a book about death, this is a book about life and how to manage life during a difficult time.”
Bergh is planning to write and published the final two books in the 2016. But in the meantime, in-between writing about grief and loss, Bergh said he likes to write children’s books and play music. And in his downtime, Bergh hangs out with his four kids, three grand kids and his wife.
“I get a lot of joy of not counseling people in the office but just hearing people’s stories, in coffee shops, in bars. If you ask someone their story, it is always something interesting and unique,” Bergh said.
‘Taking Notice’ has been on Amazon for a couple weeks now, soon to be available on the Canadian site, with the third book in the editing stages.
“I’m a story-teller, that’s who I am - I also enjoy sports, hockey and I really love my wife. She is awesome,” Bergh said.
For more information on Bergh’s books go to rickbergh.com
