Applying Neurographics to Five Stages of Grief

 Five stages of grief were first introduced by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross when her book On Death and Dying was released in 1969. Kübler-Ross described the stages a person goes through in the process of dying, starting with denial of the fact that death is close and imminent and ending with the acceptance of its inevitability.

Over the past several decades, Kübler-Ross’ concept has evolved and gained popularity when applied to almost anything that a person perceives as tragic, whether it is something that has already happened or something that will happen, and there is no other way to deal with it but accept it.

I have seen hundreds – without exaggeration – algorithms in neurographics that have their purpose, whether it is working through stress and anxiety or expressing joy, happiness, or gratitude. The idea of applying neurographic principles to the five stages of grief came to me in the summer of 2022 when I took a course on creating a neurographic case.

At first, I explored what I had available, thinking that, surely, someone already worked with the five stages of grief using neurographics. To my surprise, no one took on the topic. Moreover, I discovered that the concept is not as familiar in Eastern Europe as it is here in the US. The stages are mentioned in conversations and literature but never as the steps of the whole process.

Depending on what the source of your grief is, you may need additional support in form of therapy and/or medications. I would like for you to treat these algorithms as a supplemental form of help and not the main treatment: I am not a doctor or a therapist, nor can I replace one with a handful of neurographic pictures.

Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” If you have read any of my previously published books, you may have realized that this is the principle I use as my book-writing mantra: no one else wrote it, which means I should. This book is no different.