Learn how rituals can help us with grief and what the Five Stages model gets wrong about grief.
My guest this week is Dr. Terri Daniel, inter-spiritual hospice chaplain, end-of-life educator, and grief counselor. She shares some of the powerful rituals she uses for grief at funerals and workshops and we dive into the Five Stages model and why it continues to be popular in our society. Terri is also the author of four books on death, grief and the afterlife and the founder of The Conference on Death, Grief and Belief, which focuses on how religious beliefs and cultural ideologies influence one’s relationship with death and grief. Learn more at Terri’s websites:
This episode includes:
- Terri’s journey from caring for her son Danny at the end of his life to the work she is doing now
- Why she started The Conference on Death, Grief and Belief and how to attend
- Unique and powerful grief rituals Terri has created for people at the end of their lives and also for funerals and workshops
- How rituals help us with grief and mourning
- How the Five Stages model initially became applied to grief
- What the Five Stages model gets wrong about acceptance
- How the Five Stages model persists in our society
- What ChatGPT says about why the Five Stages model is popular
- Other models for personality and “love languages” that have attained widespread popularity in spite of having no evidence of accuracy (and why this happens)
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Register for IANDS Spring Symposium
- Get the book Conversations on Death with ChatGPT
- Learn about The Conference on Death, Grief and Belief
- Leave me a message by email: kwyattmd@comcast.net, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
- Support your local bookstore by buying my books on Bookshop and Indiebound: 7 Lessons for Living from the Dying and The Journey from Ego to Soul
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- Check out the Series I’ve recorded in the past here
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In this episode I share an interview with filmmaker and grief counselor Michelle Peticolas who talks about the 3-part film series she created, which is available for use in your community. She also shares her tips on healing from grief and thriving after loss.
If you missed last week’s webinar with Suzanne O’Brien on “End-of-Life Doula Training for Caregivers and Volunteers” you can still listen to the replay. Go to 
In this episode I share a conversation with Rev. Terri Daniel about the “other grief” that occurs throughout life with or without the death of a loved one. We’ll talk about this hidden grief and why it is important to acknowledge it as an important part of life.