Tip #3 What NEVER to say to a griever. “You need to move on. It's been...”
In 1969, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross published her book On Death and Dying. Out of that book came the famous "five stages of grief."
Kübler-Ross never intended to portray grief as a straight line from denial (the first stage) to acceptance (the fifth stage). However, she has been interpreted in this way.
The result? People think you must move through the stages sequentially, linearly, never doubling back, and always moving forward until you are... done.
Recent experts on grief have taken serious issue with the notion of linear movement through a "grief process."
Grief is more adequately understood like a toddler's scribble instead of a straight line from stage one to stage five. The line switches back on itself, covers territory many times, takes sharp turns with no warning, and never ends.
Therefore, please never suggest that a grieving person should move on after a certain amount of time.
For more tips on how to:
Eliminate hurtful practices
Improve retention
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