Finding Comfort During Hard Times
A Guide to Healing after Disease, Violence, and other Community Trauma
By Earl Johnson
3 Things This Book Will Teach You
In "Finding Comfort During Hard Times," Earl Johnson offers a guide that is both practical and empathetic. Whether dealing with personal loss or supporting others through trauma, this book is a crucial resource for healing. Learn how to...
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Comfort others during the first day, first week and first year following a disaster.
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Adapt your approach to different types of disasters and situations.
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Support families & communities as they rebuild their lives over time …and much more.
Get In Touch
Earl Johnson is eager to connect with readers like you! Fill out the contact form below with your questions or to inquire about speaking engagements.
What People Are Saying
Earl Johnson's book has received critical acclaim for its insightful perspective on disaster response and spiritual care. These reviews summarize the impact Johnson's work has in bridging the gap between trauma and recovery.
“There have been both natural and man-made disasters throughout history, but fires, floods, and mass shootings seem to be daily events in the twenty-first century. On the scenes of catastrophes are men and women willing to hand out coffee and blankets, provide medical attention, put out fires, and listen to the survivors. Johnson, an openly gay hospital chaplain and one of the founders of the Spiritual Care function in the American Red Cross, has himself comforted survivors at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, counseled AIDS patients, and provided spiritual help to 9/11’s first responders. In this thoughtful book, he uses his experiences to lay out guidelines for offering solace and support to victims and caregivers alike the first day, first week, even the first year following a disaster. . . . Opportunities to help are all around, and Johnson suggests ways to reach out to others who are suffering loss, illness, and loneliness. Disasters will continue, and Johnson’s informative and moving book will help readers offer succor.”
Booklist
Starred Review
“Earl’s contribution brings sufferers and their comforters together at the corner of Painful Realities and Caring Practicalities. The reader makes a pedagogical journey with Earl through his decades of ministry, both as a provider and administrative leader, into the most devastating, violent, and horrific national events into which spiritual care professionals have been called to care. You will come away feeling the tears, wounded by the shards of broken lives, and appreciating the long-term systematic changes imposed by these crises. And you will come away better prepared to help. It’s a textbook with heart.”
Ronald C. Oliver, PhD / MBA / BCC
System Vice President, Mission & Outreach, Norton Healthcare, KY, President, Association of Professional Chaplains.
“We live in very troubling times, unfortunately. So many people are in serious need of help and real healing. Earl Johnson has written a book for them and for our times. “Finding Comfort During Hard Times,” written with great empathy and clarity, will be an invaluable resource for victims of trauma and disasters.”
James Reginato
Writer-at-Large, Vanity Fair
“Earl Johnson has written a thoughtful and helpful book for anyone who serves as a chaplain.”
Harry Baker Adams
Dean, The Divinity School, Yale University
“When disaster strikes, there are immediate needs for safety, shelter and nutrition. But along with these are the emotional and spiritual wounds that can damage and destroy hope and happiness in individuals and their communities. Chaplain Johnson has woven his considerable experience treating such devastating injuries into a dynamic and practical guide to the care and nurture of everyday people walking through catastrophic days. This is a vital book for anyone who seeks to help those who are hurting move towards hope and redemption in the wake of a horrific experience.”
Sidney Symington
Former Hospital and State Prison Chaplain; Rector, St. Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church, Morro Bay, California
“It was a pleasure to interview Earl Johnson about his book and share our beliefs about life and healing.”
Bernie Siegel, MD
Writer & Retired Pediatric Surgeon
“This is a must-read for every spiritual care disaster responder and disaster mental health responder. Filled with gems in every chapter from a wise and caring soul who laid the foundation for this sacred work. Read and reread Earl’s definition of compassion. It is woven throughout each chapter. It is applicable to all faith traditions and those who are SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious). Thanks, Earl!”
Rabbi Steven Kaye
National Disaster Responder
“Based on his deep and varied experience at the front line of many of our Nation’s high-profile emergencies and disasters, Earl Johnson gives us an easy-to-use field guide for our roles as caregivers to be catalysts of healing. “Finding Comfort During Hard Times” should be required reading for medical, social, psychological, and spiritual caregivers who are engaged in preparation, response and recovery from emergencies or disasters as well as for all of us who interact with individuals who have experienced those events.”
Lawrence R. Deyton, MPSH / MD
Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy, Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Public Health, The George Washington University.
“Earl Johnson’s “Finding Comfort During Hard Times” is an encyclopedic handbook on how to give care and offer comfort. It is an incredibly wise, gentle and thoughtful road map on how to survive the trauma, both anticipated and unexpected, of the deep emotional challenges of loss we face as individuals, a family or community so that we, in turn, can provide assistance, solace and hope either as a professional or volunteer. “We comfort because we care. We comfort because we love,” writes Johnson. This book offers a clear “how to” in ways that are appropriate, practical and richly informed so that both the care-giver and the comforted are well-protected and embraced. Johnson’s book is a revelatory examination of how to do what he calls “sacred work.” Oscar Wilde wrote, “The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” With “Finding Comfort in Hard Times,” Earl Johnson successfully and gracefully provides us with both.”
Tom Viola
Executive Director, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
“Clearly and masterfully written. “Finding Comfort During Hard Times” provides an enormously practical and comforting spiritual road map to help us all manage disasters—natural and otherwise—at a time when we need it most.”
Michael Giordano, MD
Former Clinician & Research HIV Physician
“Hospital chaplain Johnson shares his experiences comforting survivors of natural and man-made disasters and provides guidelines for offering solace and support in emergencies and for those suffering loss and illness.”
American Library Association
Booklist
“Earl Johnson learned the hard way how to minister comfort in the worst of circumstances. He did it. In “Finding Comfort During Hard Times,” Johnson uses his experiences in the aftermath of catastrophe and unbearable loss to share the art of comfort for those who need it and those who want to offer it. A timely read in a world where comfort is in short supply.”
Candy Crowley
Journalist
“Few people have had the honor to serve through so many of our nation’s greatest tragedies in the last two decades as Earl Johnson. In his book, Johnson is finally able to put into words and meaning that which often has no words. Together in this excellent resource is a practical guide for those who not only respond to disasters but for all who experience loss, trauma and grief. Earl Johnson draws from his years of experience to share this compendium of practical advice and guidance for professional chaplains, disaster spiritual care responders and all disaster volunteers. Johnson has thoughtfully outlined the first half of the book with a timeline of practical ways to comfort individuals in the initial hours, days, weeks, months and years following a disaster. He then explores the deeper differences between the types of disasters and traumas we experience, from natural disasters to everyday traumas. This resource is not simply a reflection of years of invaluable experience serving as a disaster responder through many of our nation’s greatest tragedies, rather, it poignantly provides insights, lessons and hope in responding to the emotional and deep spiritual needs of those who face hard times. I highly recommend adding a copy of this book to your “go-bag” and your disaster response library. This is one of the most relevant and practical resources today. It is a treasure of wisdom unpacked through the trials of overwhelming and unimaginable loss. Brilliantly written and honestly offered as a timeless resource for comfort! It is a must-read.”
Tim Serban
Red Cross Disaster Spiritual Care - National Lead Washington, D.C
About The Author
Earl Johnson
Disaster Spiritual Care Manager and Chaplain
For ten years, the national spiritual care manager for the American Red Cross, Earl Johnson, recruited, screened, trained, and deployed highly credentialed healthcare chaplains to mass fatality events. From plane crashes to school shootings, Johnson was part of a team that assessed and planned emotional and spiritual support for the victims and loved ones of these horrific unanticipated events. Johnson is semi-retired. He has appeared on MSNBC and CNN State of the Union with Candy Crowley to advocate for the families of those lost in the Malaysian air incident. He lectured at Michigan State, Michigan and Radford/Virginia Tech disaster preparedness conferences. In the past decade, he coordinated professional spiritual care support to fatal domestic aviation incidents, massive Gulf hurricanes including Katrina, Rita, and Gus, the Virginia Tech shootings and Orlando. Johnson is an ordained Disciples minister, Yale Divinity graduate, and Board Certified Chaplain through the Association of Professional Chaplains. He served Disciples and UCC parishes in Missouri and New York before his chaplaincy training at Memorial Sloan Kettering/New York Presbyterian (Cornell), and New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn. Johnson was the Protestant Staff Chaplain at Cabrini Medical Center (now closed) from 1996-2001, when he moved from lower Manhattan to Arlington, VA., on Sept. 9, 2001, to work as a chaplain educator at Washington (D.C.) Hospital Center. Johnson was an adjunct instructor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY) from 1992-2001. He taught public speaking to over 2000 students including recent immigrants and minority populations. Earl Johnson is a passionate advocate for Disaster Spiritual Care to support families and loved ones impacted so profoundly by natural and human-caused disaster. At the American Red Cross national headquarters, his responsibilities included preparedness and response to every domestic mass fatality incident since the weeks after 9/11, including transportation incidents, natural disasters and criminal acts, as well as being a liaison to faith community disaster response organizations. Johnson helped develop the Psychological First Aid curriculum and its adaption for military families and the National Guard; Coping With Deployment for the organization. He is a frequent presenter in the emerging field of disaster spiritual care, and is the author of Finding Comfort During Hard Times. Johnson's reflections are his own and do not represent the views or policies of the American Red Cross, a humanitarian organization with a fundamental principle of neutrality.
