Rev. Dr. Terri Daniel
End-of-Life Education | Bereavement Support
Certified in Death, Dying and Bereavement, ADEC
Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist. IATP
There's a famous quote (sometimes attributed to Abraham Lincoln) that says, "After age 40, you're responsible for your face." I'm well 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 25-year career as a marketing consultant in corporate America 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 a couple of decades through a dizzying succession of identities, attachments, losses and gifts, 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 there was one gift that 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 2007, I've published four books, produced dozens of conferences, symposiums and podcasts, earned three academic degrees, helped hundreds of people learn to live, die and grieve more consciously, and found a way to reconcile atheism with mysticism.
At the age when most people are retiring, I'm just getting started.
End-of-Life Education and Bereavement Support
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
Selected Articles and Video Clips
LECTURES AND INTERVIEWS
Rituals at End-of-Life (Tibet House)
NDEs: Now That we Know (excerpt)
The Stubborn Persistence of Grief Stage Theory
Toxic Theology (Conference on Religious Trauma)
Extraordinary Experiences of the Dying
Spiritual But Not Religious
Mystical Experiences of the Dying (excerpt)
Grief Theory and Grief Counseling
ADDITIONAL ESSAYS AND ARTICLES
When Religion Hurts Instead of Heals
NDEs - Mystical Blessing or Psychotic Episode?
Cain in the Land of Nod
Metaphysical Interpretation of the Exodus Itinerary
Ritual as a Tool for Transformation
For more articles, visit Terri's Academia.Edu page.
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 trauma support by the International Association of Trauma Professionals. She conducts workshops throughout the U.S. and is an adjunct instructor in thanatology and chaplaincy at Marian University, the University of Maryland and the Graduate Theological Union. She is also the founder of The Conference on Death, Grief and Belief, and the Ask Doctor Death podcast.
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 and the afterlife:
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)
Terri's academic credentials include a B.A. in Religious Studies from Marylhurst University, an M.A. in Pastoral Care from Fordham University, and a DMin from the San Francisco Theological Seminary.
