ABSTRACT
Often, it is not understood that significant events have a life cycle that might continue on long after the initial incident has concluded. Be it a death of a loved one, a surgical procedure, a divorce, a layoff, floods, 9/11, or warfare, the participants (victims) go through stages and phases of recovery. In the 1970s, Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote her initial book, On Death and Dying,1 in which she proposed that when people receive a diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, they go through psychological stages: shock, denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and acceptance. This author can remember having meetings with other professionals, discussing whether a person was in the bargaining stage or the denial stage. Were they depressed or angry? Having attended numerous workshops with Dr.
