What Professionals Are Saying

     "I had the privilege of working ten years with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross....(she) would have liked Transformational Bereavement...I like it too."  

                                                                Lawrence J. Lincoln, M.D.

                                                                         Tucson Medical Center Hospice

                                                                  Author of Reclaiming Banished Voices

"Sue Ritchie's book should be read by all who have experienced the loss of a loved one. We are planning to provide this book to people, in our medical practice, who are going through the grieving process.

                                                          J. David Burgess, M.D. / Kris Burgess

      "I wish you the very best. For anytime that one human being can help another human being, that truly is what Life is all about. Thank you for everything."

                                                                             Robert Bulla 

                                                                    President and C.E.O. (Ret)

                                                                   Blue Cross Bue Shield of Arizona 

  "Your fine book...is beautifully written. So many glimpses of persons at diverse stages of their mourning, different perceptions of the impact of the grieving process, and of their interactions with others. So many parts of the book --from a few words to paragraphs -- are so quotable.

     "The material at the end is excellent, so that those who wish can be guided in conserving precious memories of the past."

                                                         John (Jack) H. Bryant, M.D.

                                                                        Senior Faculty Associate

                                                             Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

                                                                           Emeritus Professor

                                                         Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan

     "A serious but comforting book that points a way to confront grief and use it to renew life. We seldom know the way to heal our wounds and turn a loss into visions of new wholeness but this book encourages us to find the way."

                                                                  Vine Deloria, Jr., Ph.D

                                              Professor of History and Religious Studies

                                                                       University of Colorado

     "I'm a survivor of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. That event delivered...severe trauma on those who were at or near Ground Zero. Your book contains great insights into the adjustment process faced by all trauma suffers, physical pain and intense sorrow. Mental paralysis. Mourning for who we were. Fear... In your book, I found application to what I was going through. Thanks."

                                                                  Marshall J. Vest, Director

                                           Eller College of Business & Public Administration

                                                                  University of Arizona

                                                                       Tucson, Arizona

     "...your book is a breath of fresh air to the issue of bereavement. This is a wholesome approach to the grieving process.

     "...your work makes a collective statement as important to becoming whole again through bereavement as Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' work sensitized and awakened us to the processes of grieving..."

                                                     Donald W. Ludman, Ph.D.

                                                                      Executive Director

                                                                     The Family Center

                                                                   Dowagiac, Michigan

     "...The bereavement process is preciously personal, but I think you have offered something special in the way you have put your experiences and thoughts and conclusions - and doubts - into words that someone else can easily relate to. Good for you!"

     "...(Ritchie) takes you along on the pathway of her bereavement and she stops along the way and talks about the thoughts and feelings that have led her to question old assumptions. Assumptions not previously  questioned...what experts have to say, what religion has to offer....exercises are available in the back of the book that help the reader to gain some control over one of life's most uncontrollable events - the death of a loved one."

                                                            Robert L. Wrenn, Ph.D.

                             Nationally Certified Death Educator and Counselor, and

                                                        Professor Emeritus, University of Arizona

     "...Ms. Ritchie states: 'If grief and mourning have invaded your space, if sorrow has blindsided your spirit, then truly you have only you.' ...I recommend this book to men as well as women, as I felt it is a book that can nourish the wounded spirit. It can assist in moving that spirit through grief to the beginning of a new life - a transformation."

                                                         Janna Excell, M.Ed.

                                                   Excell Counseling Services

                                                                        Tucson, Arizona

     "...thoroughly enjoyed its many messages and story-telling quality. ...this [book] has done a great job of pulling from existing thoughts, and ideas and then developing some interesting and noteworthy additions of its own. It certainly would be an appropriate read for those in the midst of bereavement... Its content is also relevant to grief that is due to any other type of significant loss."

                                                             Ronda Hain, M.S. 

                                    Staff Member Spokane Falls Community College

                                                        Spokane, Washington Ogram Director
                                                Mental Health Consultant, and Psychometrist

                                                                   Spokane, Washington

    "As a male I found this book very helpful. As a grief counselor and a hospice counselor, I work with many groups. I have found that several quotes from Transformational Bereavement are comforting, thought provoking and healing. That is why I share them with the people I counsel and the group I facilitate. I highly recommend this book for anyone who has lost a loved one to death."

                                                               Mark Teats

                                                                Counselor

"The fabric of this book was woven from many strands (topics). It touches you emotionally and spiritually of how to express one's grief in everyday living."
                                                               Martha Adair
                                                         Adair Funeral Homes

     "At this most difficult time, the reader is quickly embraced by the kinship of genuine understanding and wisdom. This readable book provides both comfort and hope, sentiments in scarce supply at times of loss and grief. A treasure for anyone suffering the pain of loss."

                                                          Dr. Kathleen E. Assar

                                                     Retired College President and Provost

     "...(This book) can also be a useful guide to other forms of loss...My father is suffering from dementia, so my mother and I are venturing through a similar time of transformational bereavement. Ritchie's encouraging words can also help in the coping of a slower, painstaking loss of a loved one." 

                                                           Melissa Gentry

                                                          Ball State University Libraries

                                                             Map Collection Supervisor

                                                                           Indiana

     "Sue has a powerful way of explaining that it's ok to grieve in your own way  and not letting others tell you how. It is particularly important that you allow yourself to feel the grief and not "medicate" your way through the process...a very useful tool for anyone dealing with grief and bereavement to learn it's necessary to "you do you" and not let anyone say otherwise." 

                                                    Monica Knott, PharmD, MT(ASCP)

                                                                Walgreen's Pharmacy

                                                                           Indiana

     "...We all have scars, physical or emotional, visible or not. As a breast cancer survivor that really resonated with me. These will always be a part of us and we can learn to live with, accept and even appreciate the scars we have and keep going to live a full life. This is not a self-help book, it s a self-care book."

                                                                 Valorie Rice

                                                      Business Information Specialist

                                                        Eller College of Management 

                                                                         Arizona

     "The concept of "original pain" is extremely helpful-potentially in a variety of life circumstances...I think this book could be a lifesaver for someone in that soul-deep pit of despair several months after a great loss who not only does not have hope but thinks there isn't any."

                                             (the Rev.) Len Silvester, Interim Minister

                                                           Casas Adobes UCC (Church)

                                                                         Arizona

     "My beloved husband contracted pancreatic cancer at age forty-nine...When we returned home, I told him that if I could, I'd take all of it. He said the only reason he would agree to that was because, as the one left behind, I had the harder role..."

                                                          Lucia St. Clair Robson

                                                Author of best seller Ride the Wind

                                                                     Maryland