We're sending the newsletter early this month to make sure you get your invitation to the FREE online workshop we just put together for this Saturday, June 21st (see story below).

It's all part of our effort to let you know about our upcoming conference on Sacred Activism for Soul Care Providers, which takes place online July 12.

Also in this issue, you'll find the recording of a recent podcast on the same topic. As I've said in several recent newsletters, sacred activism is becoming increasingly important in view of the unprecedented and surreal political climate in the U.S. today.

No matter what side of the political aisle you occupy, all of us are called to speak out in defense of sane, logical values that include ethics, freedom of thought and speech, and the basic human rights that we all take for granted.

Without abandoning our spiritual roots, we are highlighting these values in our 2025 conference, and we hope you will join us.

Dr. Terri Daniel, CT, FFGT

Clinical Chaplaincy, End-of-Life Educator

Bereavement and Trauma Support

office@deathgriefandbelief.com

END-OF-LIFE, AFTERLIFE AND BEREAVEMENT

Caring for the Grieving Body

Mary-Frances O’Connor is one of the foremost experts on the impact of grief on the brain and the body. Here she discusses her latest book The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing. She combines science, intimate storytelling, and her generous heart to help us better understand the physiological impact of the stressors of grief.

Clergy and Psychedelics:

An Old Study Finally Published

"The Johns Hopkins/New York University study has taken on an almost mythic quality among some psychedelic enthusiasts as they awaited the results and imagined their impact. The study, some hoped, could reduce stigmas toward entheogens in certain religious spaces, while proving the value of spirituality in psychedelic ones. Others worried it would generate moral panic or be wielded as license to use psychedelics indiscriminately." READ MORE...

SACRED ACTIVISM

FREE PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP!

Saturday June 21 - ONLINE

10 am Pacific 1 pm Eastern

(time zone calculator)

Featuring three of today's leading voices in death and bereavement care

Brian D. Smith

Grief Guide, Life Coach

Dr. Terri Daniel

Educator, Hospice Chaplain

Karen Wyatt, MD

Hospice Physician

End-of-life workers, counselors and spiritual teachers are directly affected by disruptions in social programs and human rights. While much of our work takes place in the spiritual and emotional dimensions, do we have an ethical and moral responsibility to be engaged in current events and take action when a community’s spiritual, emotional and psychosocial well-being is at risk?

Here's a Sneak Peek at Our Conference Content

Many thanks to our friend Stephen Berkley for hosting Brian Smith and Terri Daniel on his podcast Life with Ghosts to talk about why it's important for people on a spiritual path to be involved in the humanitarian causes, which is the theme of our upcoming conference on sacred activism

Please consider subscribing to Stephen's YouTube channel for great discussions on after-death communication and mystical experiences.

Reconstructing After

Deconstructing

The 2025 Pew study shows that after rising for decades, the number of religiously unaffiliated has at least temporarily stabilized. A 2021 Gallup poll found that since 1973, the percentage of Americans who say they have no religion had increased from 5% to 22%. The percentage of Americans who say they’re members of a church, mosque, or synagogue fell from 70% in 1999 to just 45% in 2023. This steep decline, according to Gallup, includes people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities. READ MORE...

We Tried Christian Nationalism in America. It Went Badly

"Nostalgia for a ‘Christian America’ overlooks the realities of religion in the founding era — which included taxes, jail time, exile and even public hangings for anyone who defied state-run churches. Today, as America has grown both more secular and more religiously pluralistic, there has also been a rise in Christian nationalism — an insistence that America was founded by Christians and should be run by Christians. But the founding era was not a religious utopia where colonists were free to choose their faith. READ MORE...

WORKSHOPS, CLASSES

AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

Grief Therapy Training Retreat in Washington State

If there's a chance you can get to the Pacific Northwest this summer, you won't want to miss this opportunity to study with the great Dr. Robert Neimeyer and a stellar list of renowned teachers in a multi-day retreat on beautiful Bainbridge Island near Seattle. The content addresses a wide range of in-depth topics in grief research and therapy approaches (a detailed outline of the program and be found here).

Editor's note: I took this training myself two years ago, and my certification in Family-Focused Grief Therapy has been incredibly valuable for me. I highly recommend this program!

DETAILS AND REGISTRATION HERE

Our Summer 2025 Conference!

Sacred Activism

for Spiritual Care Providers

ONLINE Saturday July 12, 2025

9 am - 3 pm Pacific

Four CE credit hours available

for nurses, social workers, counselors and more.

See our Continuing Education page for details.

It is sometimes said in spiritual communities that our work exists in a realm beyond material concerns, and that politics and social activism is something we should not address in our public or professional roles. Is it "unspiritual" to take a public stand on political issues, or is it more important than ever in today's America?

Inspired by Bishop Marianne Budde when she spoke truth to Donald Trump from the pulpit during the inauguration, we pose thIs question... as public facing care providers and spiritual leaders, do we have a moral and ethical obligation to stand for social justice? Or are we expected to keep spiritual practice, professional outreach and political activism in separate silos?

Symposium Presenters

Vanessa Brooks, EdD

When Religious Systems Suppress Activism for Marginalized Communities

Rev. Mary Myoku Remington

Peacemaking Through the Power of

Right Speech: A Buddhist Perspective

Adrián Villaseñor Galarza, PhD

Rituals for Homecoming & Deep Resilience

Elizabeth Kucinich

Power without Polarization

Brian D. Smith

The Call to Be In the World, Not of It

Dr. Terri Daniel

Conference Facilitator

CLICK HERE FOR CONFERENCE DETAILS

AND REGISTRATION

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office@deathgriefandbelief.com

971-236-1541