Sun City resident and Banner Del Webb hospital chaplain Rev. Shea Darian has won the Independent Publisher Book Award bronze medal for her new book, “Doing Grief in Real Life: A Soulful Guide to Navigate Loss, Death & Change.”

The IPPY Awards honor the year’s best independently published English language titles from around the world.

Darian has been a grief educator for more than a decade. She is the creator of the theoretical Model of Adaptive Grieving Dynamics published in the academic journal, Illness, Crisis & Loss, Vol. 22(3), 2014. Her article, “A New Mourning: Synthesizing an Interactive Model of Adaptive Grieving Dynamics,” integrates research and theoretical contributions of other grief experts that support Darian’s new approach to easing, tolerating and healing grief.

Darian’s model of adaptive grieving contains four types of grieving responses that she asserts are “universal to all grievers but experienced and expressed uniquely by each of us.”

“After the article was published, I got busy finishing the book that took me ten years to research and write,” Darian related. “My goal was to tackle a tough subject in engaging ways that readers find user-friendly and hopeful.”

Glendale Community College professor Dr. David Boninger, who uses Darian’s new book in his Understanding Death & Dying course at GCC, said, “Shea has written a book that speaks to the heart and soul of who we are as humans. The compass she offers us for navigating change and loss is nothing short of life-changing.”

Darian is an award-winning author of books on family spirituality and healing including “Seven Times the Sun: Guiding Your Child Through the Rhythms of the Day,” “Living Passages for the Whole Family” (Nautilus Award) and “Sanctuaries of Childhood” (Foreword Book of the Year Award). She works as a grief educator and multi-faith spiritual care provider.

“Doing Grief in Real Life: A Soulful Guide to Navigate Loss, Death & Change” was published by Gilead Press on Feb. 28 in paperback, $19.95.

Visit DoingGrief.com.