Dr. Donna Schuurman is back - this time talking about the dangers of pathologizing grief. While the term "complicated grief" has been used in various grief settings for years, it wasn't until March of 2022 that Prolonged Grief Disorder made it into the DSM-5-TR - the Diagnostical & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - as an official diagnosis. This conversation explores the concerns Donna and others in the field share about the move to pathologize grief.
We discuss:
What Donna’s learned about grief working in the field for over 30 years
How that work experience shapes her personal grief
Why she is so passionate about this topic
How diagnoses are social constructs - and who often gets left out of the studies behind these constructs
The dangers of pathologizing grief as a mental disorder
The (short list) of positives of Prolonged Grief Disorder being available as a diagnosis
What Donna is optimistic about in the field of bereavement
Register for Donna’s upcoming webinar: Flawed Foundations, Deconstructing Three Contemporary Grief Constructs Thursday, February 8, 2024.
Donna L. Schuurman, EdD, FT, is the Senior Director of Advocacy & Education at Dougy Center. Dr. Schuurman was the Executive Director of Dougy Center from 1991–2015. Dr. Schuurman is an internationally recognized authority on grief and bereaved children, teens, and families, and the author of Never the Same: Coming to Terms with the Death of a Parent (St. Martin’s Press, 2003), among other publications.
Ep. 109: Motherless Daughters, 25 Years Later - Hope Edelman & Brennan Wood
Ep: 108: What Does Forgiveness Feel Like? Judith Finneren
Ep. 107: Remembrance Wardrobe - Nicole Leslie
Ep. 106: Grief & Anxiety - Claire Bidwell Smith. LCPC
Ep. 105: Appetizers, Grief, Dessert - The Dinner Party
Ep. 104: Grief & Work - Alica Forneret
Ep. 103: Staying Connected In Grief - Allison Gilbert
Ep. 102: The Power Of Storytelling
Ep. 101: Grief, Seven Decades Later
Ep. 100: It's A Grief Party!
Ep. 99: It's So Much More Than What We Can See - Doreen Wiggins, MD
Ep. 98: Under Pressure - Holidays & Grief
Ep. 97: An Unexpected Devastation
Ep. 96: Dear Me, A Mini-Episode
Ep. 95: Witnessing A Stranger's Death
Ep. 94: Conflicted Grief - Jan Canty, PhD
Ep. 93: Grief & Transformation - Phelica Glass, LSCSW
Ep. 92: Grief At School
Ep. 91: What's Changed For Grieving Children? The 1950's
Ep. 90: What I Needed - Tips From A Grieving Teen
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