Dr. Terri Daniel
Bereavement and Trauma Support
End-of-Life Educator
Adjunct Professor
There's a famous quote (sometimes attributed to Abraham Lincoln) that says, "After age 40, you're responsible for your face." I'm a long way past 40 now, and I not only want to be responsible for the story told by my face, but to be utterly transparent and fearlessly revealed in the world.
And I have lived in many worlds.
My early career as a marketing consultant in Los Angeles enabled me to acquire the usual trophies, including clients with private jets, a glittering group of famous friends, a massive mortgage and a couple of divorces. I was the quintessential upwardly-mobile young executive.
Fast-forward through a dizzying succession of identities, attachments, losses and gifts of growth, and things turned out to be anything but typical. I found myself being gently but firmly led away from the world of matter toward the world of spirit, and one gift stood out above the rest... my amazing son Danny, who spent half his life severely disabled from a rare metabolic disorder, and died at age 16. His guidance -- in this world and the next -- changed everything.
I could never have imagined the world I live in today. My life's work is focused on teaching people how to perceive death, grief and loss in a new way. Instead of schmoozing with the stars in L.A., I teach meditations based on breathing in starlight from the cosmos. Since 2008, I've published four books, earned three academic degrees, produced dozens of conferences, symposiums and podcasts, and helped hundreds of people learn to live, die and grieve more peacefully,
At the age when most people are retiring, I'm just getting started.
Visit my new consulting practice
The Ask Doctor Death podcast
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
The Stubborn Persistence of Grief Stage Theory
Omega Journal of the Hospice Foundation of America
Toxic Theology as a Contributing Factor in Complicated Mourning
Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling
Grief as a Mystical Journey: Fowler’s Stages of Faith Development as Post-Traumatic Growth
Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling
Adding a New Dimension to Grief Counseling:
Personal Ritual as a Therapeutic Tool for Loss, Trauma and Transition
Omega Journal of the Hospice Foundation of America
ABOUT TERRI
Dr. Terri Daniel is an inter-spiritual hospice chaplain, end-of-life educator, and grief counselor certified in death, dying and bereavement by the Association of Death Education and Counseling and in family-focused grief therapy by The Portland Institute for Loss and Transition. She conducts workshops throughout the U.S. and is an adjunct instructor in thanatology and chaplaincy at Marian University, United Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union. She is also the founder of The Conference on Death, Grief and Belief, and the Ask Doctor Death podcast.
Terri's academic credentials include a B.A. in Religious Studies from Marylhurst University, an M.A. in Pastoral Care from Fordham University, a DMin from the San Francisco Theological Seminary and a certificate in trauma-informed clinical practice from the NYU School of Social Work.
Over the years Terri has helped hundreds of people learn to live, die and grieve more consciously. Her work is acclaimed by hospice professionals, spiritual seekers, counselors, theologians, and academics worldwide.
She is the author of four books on death, grief and beyond.
A Swan in Heaven: Conversations Between Two Worlds (2007)
Embracing Death: A New Look at Grief, Gratitude and God (2010)
Turning the Corner on Grief Street: Loss and Trauma as a Journey to Awakening (2014)
Grief and God: When Religion Does More Harm Than Healing (2019)
