Welcome

Welcome...

Since 1991, GriefConnect has been helping caregiving professionals connect with people in grief. Through continuing education seminars, program design consultation, as well as both printed and electronic resource materials, you can count on us as your resource for bereavement.

So, why the compass? When a loved one dies, life can become pretty chaotic. Even if we've experienced grief before, since every relationship is unique, every bereavement is also unique. In the midst of the confusion and the "lost-ness" that ensues, what we most need is someone to help us "find the way." And that's an especially good task for a compass.

Need something right now? Email or phone us at (254) 292-9900 today.

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Access Dr. Hoy's growing list of academic papers and presentations at his Baylor University BearSpace page.

Watch Dr. Hoy explain the difference between grief recovery and renewal.

Learn about the ADEC 2013 conference Dr. Hoy is co-chairing (Hollywood, California, April 25-27, 2013).

Bill Hoy's Newest Book Now Available
(Save 16% buy buying HERE before April 15, 2013)

Dr. Hoy's newest book, Do Funerals Matter? The Purpose and Practice of Death Rituals in Global Perspective is a cross-cultural study of funeral rituals, explaining his theory of five common anchors in the ways humans ritualize death. Tracing funeral ceremonies for more than 10,000 years and exploring more than 125 cultural groups around the world today, this book promises to be a welcome addition to practitioners and students alike, in fields as diverse as social work, nursing, funeral service, education and practical theology. 

 
Do Funerals Matter? is a creative interweaving of historical, sociocultural, and research-based perspectives on death rituals, drawing from myriad sources to create a picture of what death rituals have been, and where, especially in the Western world, they are going. Readers will appreciate the book’s theory- and research-based approach to the ways cultural groups memorialize their dead. Here are clear clinical and practical applications in the author’s exploration of the five "anchors" of death-related ritual practice, as well as help for professionals counseling the bereaved surrounding the funeral ritual. Based on nearly three decades of research and teaching on funeral rites, this volume promises to fill an important gap in the cross-cultural literature on bereavement while answering an important question for our generation: do funerals matter?

Following a Foreword by J. William Worden, the book's ten chapters include...

1. Funerals – Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going
2. More Treasured Than Words: The Anchor of Significant Symbols
3. Getting Everybody Together: The Anchor of Gathered Community
4. Walk Out What You Can’t Talk Out: The Anchor of Ritual Action
5. Looking Back to Look Forward: The Anchor of Cultural Heritage
6. Taking the Dead to the Party: The Anchor of the Body’s Presence
7. The North American Quest to Customize/Personalize Funeral Rituals
8. The Business of Funerals
9. Clinical Perspectives on Funeral Value
10. Farther Down the Road: Using Ritual in Grief Counseling

In addition to the index typical of such books, Do Funerals Matter? contains more than 250 references to other published works related to specific funerals, cultural traditions, and research on the meaning and function of funeral rituals in the grief experience.

To learn more about the volume and to preorder, click here.

Read the book's Foreword by J. William Worden, PhD

Read the advance review of Kevin D. O'Neill, PhD.

Save 16% by purchasing here before April 15, 2013!