ABSTRACT
This chapter focusses on the work of Dr Donna Schuurman and the Dougy Center in Portland, Oregon, USA. This chapter contains a candid yet informative conversation between Dr Schuurman and Dr Lauren J. Breen. Together, they explore Dr Schuurman's career and multiple contributions to supporting children, teens, and parents who are grieving. The conversation covers such topics as attending to the support needs of grieving children according to their developmental needs, the importance of talking about death and grief, the consequences of unaddressed grief, and the dangers of conflating grief with mental ill-health. Dr Schuurman outlines the principles of grief-informed practice, a concept she recently developed and that provides a call to action for clinicians and contexts to understand and support grief in its normal and natural state.
