Kiwanis grant comes full circle in Sisters

Terri Daniel arrived in town 12 years ago after hearing about Sisters from a friend who suggested it would be a great place to heal from the recent death of her 16-year-old son. Living in a remote cabin, Terri grieved - but also began to cobble together a new life, which would ultimately lead her in unimagined new directions.

She quickly recognized that her healing process had ignited a passion for building a positive relationship with death and grief. With minimal resources, she immersed herself in preparing to support others on the grief journey. She began as a hospice volunteer, and went on to spend the next nine years in academia, pursuing degrees in comparative religion and counseling while studying multi-cultural approaches to death and grief through South American and African ritual traditions.

"It didn't take me long to notice that people bring a lot of religious issues to the experience of dying and grieving. I wanted to be qualified to address those issues, so I enrolled at Marylhurst University for a bachelor's degree in religious studies," said Daniel from her new home in Northern California. "I couldn't have imagined that this journey would take me all the way to a doctorate - with a lot of interesting side trips along the way."

When she began her studies at Marylhurst, she was able to remain in Sisters, taking classes online and on weekends, but classes that required her to be on campus - along with hospice and hospital internships - forced her to move to the Portland area in 2012. When she entered a clinical chaplaincy training program at Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis, she applied for - and received - the Kiwanis Community Scholarship Service Grant to pay for the program.

"That grant really helped get me started as a chaplain, which, I should point out, is not a religious designation," Daniel explained. "I don't identify with any particular religion or belief system, but to provide spiritual support in clinical settings, chaplaincy training is crucial. It helped me to develop an interfaith language so I could help people with their spiritual issues, regardless of their personal theology."

As she continued to gain experience working with the dying and the bereaved, she observed that some theological systems were causing undue stress and pain during the grieving process, which is the subject of her doctoral dissertation.

"I frequently encounter people who are struggling with the suicide of a loved one, and they believe suicide is a sin punishable by an eternity in hell. Or if they lost a child, they believe the death is punishment for a 'sin' the parent(s) may have committed in the past," Terri added. "The grief process is difficult enough without adding unhelpful concepts that do nothing but promote guilt and shame."

Daniel is returning to Sisters this summer to fulfill the final phase of her Kiwanis Club grant, which asks recipients to bring their skills back to the community.

"I offer my deepest gratitude to the Kiwanis," Daniel said. "Because of that training, I'm better able to give bereaved individuals not just the benefit of my personal experience, but access to a body of knowledge about spirituality, psychology and grieving practices from around the world."

To share that knowledge, Daniel teaches classes and facilitates workshops that offer unique bereavement tools that are not ordinarily found in traditional counseling or support group settings. In addition to interactive group work and art therapy processes, she incorporates powerful rituals from cultures that have deep respect for death and the power of community to support the bereaved.

"Many grievers find that our culture's basic rituals around loss - funeral customs, grief support groups, prayer, counseling, etc. - lack personal meaning, and don't go deep enough," Daniel said. "In order to advance our wisdom and develop more skills in this area, we need to borrow from other cultures. The workshops incorporate ceremonies from Peruvian shamanism, sacred singing from Celtic pagan traditions, African community grief rituals, and teachings from Gnostics, Buddhism and Judeo-Christian mysticism."

Daniel is offering several workshops in Central Oregon between July 8 and 15. In Sisters, HarmonyHouse will host "Conscious Grieving: Turning Loss into Light," a mini-workshop on July 10. The evening includes experiential practices for working through loss and grief that are of interest to grieving individuals as well as bereavement professionals seeking insights into supporting clients. For information and tickets, visit www.spiritualityandgrief.com or call 503-957-7419.