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The Million Stages of Grief: Finding Your Way Through Devastating Loss
Grief does not move in neat stages—and if healing hasn’t followed a timeline, you are not failing.
The Million Stages of Grief is written for those living with loss, trauma, and the quiet exhaustion of surviving what changed everything. It is for readers who feel unseen by traditional models of grief—and who are searching for language that finally fits their experience.
Michael Reed wrote this book after losing his wife and both of his daughters in the 2016 Gatlinburg wildfire. In the aftermath of profound loss, he discovered that the widely accepted stages of grief did not reflect the reality he—and so many others—were living.
What he found instead was a truth rarely spoken: grief unfolds in countless moments, memories, setbacks, and small survivals—not in orderly stages. This book gives language to that experience and reminds readers they are not broken for grieving the way they do.
This is not another five-stage grief book.
There are no timelines to meet, no emotional benchmarks to pass, and no pressure to “move on.”
Instead, The Million Stages of Grief offers compassionate insight into:
• Why grief resurfaces unexpectedly
• How trauma reshapes the grieving process
• Why anger, numbness, and heartache are normal responses
• How to release the belief that you are grieving “wrong”
• What it means to live alongside grief rather than trying to erase it
Michael Reed is a trauma-informed author and certified grief coach whose work has helped thousands of people navigate grief with honesty and compassion.
Written with emotional safety and deep respect for the grieving process, this book meets readers where they are—whether the loss is recent or years behind them, whether the pain is loud or quietly carried. Readers describe this book as validating, grounding, and deeply comforting during seasons of loss.
This book is for you if:
• You have experienced profound loss or trauma
• Traditional grief models have left you feeling unseen
• You want understanding, not platitudes
• You need reassurance that your grief makes sense
The Million Stages of Grief is written for those living with loss, trauma, and the quiet exhaustion of surviving what changed everything. It is for readers who feel unseen by traditional models of grief—and who are searching for language that finally fits their experience.
Michael Reed wrote this book after losing his wife and both of his daughters in the 2016 Gatlinburg wildfire. In the aftermath of profound loss, he discovered that the widely accepted stages of grief did not reflect the reality he—and so many others—were living.
What he found instead was a truth rarely spoken: grief unfolds in countless moments, memories, setbacks, and small survivals—not in orderly stages. This book gives language to that experience and reminds readers they are not broken for grieving the way they do.
This is not another five-stage grief book.
There are no timelines to meet, no emotional benchmarks to pass, and no pressure to “move on.”
Instead, The Million Stages of Grief offers compassionate insight into:
• Why grief resurfaces unexpectedly
• How trauma reshapes the grieving process
• Why anger, numbness, and heartache are normal responses
• How to release the belief that you are grieving “wrong”
• What it means to live alongside grief rather than trying to erase it
Michael Reed is a trauma-informed author and certified grief coach whose work has helped thousands of people navigate grief with honesty and compassion.
Written with emotional safety and deep respect for the grieving process, this book meets readers where they are—whether the loss is recent or years behind them, whether the pain is loud or quietly carried. Readers describe this book as validating, grounding, and deeply comforting during seasons of loss.
This book is for you if:
• You have experienced profound loss or trauma
• Traditional grief models have left you feeling unseen
• You want understanding, not platitudes
• You need reassurance that your grief makes sense
- GenresNonfiction
192 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 28, 2025
40 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Michael Reed
2 books2 followersMichael Reed is an author, speaker, and certified grief coach whose work focuses on grief, psychological adaptation, and long-term healing following traumatic loss.
In 2016, Michael lost his wife and two daughters in the Gatlinburg wildfires. This experience profoundly altered the trajectory of his life and informs his writing at both a personal and analytical level. Rather than presenting grief as a problem to be solved or a condition to be overcome, his work examines loss as a complex psychological and emotional process that reshapes identity, relationships, and meaning over time.
Michael’s first book, The Million Stages of Grief, offers a structured yet non-prescriptive examination of the aftermath of loss, addressing the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral disruptions that often follow trauma. The book challenges simplified stage-based models and emphasizes the variability and individuality of grief responses. His forthcoming book, The Million Stages of Healing, continues this exploration by shifting the focus toward integration—how individuals learn to function, adapt, and engage with life while continuing to carry loss, rather than seeking resolution or closure.
In addition to his work for adults, Michael is the author of the children’s book The Owl and the Ladybug. Written with developmental sensitivity, the book introduces children to themes of sadness, loss, and emotional connection through gentle narrative and metaphor, providing a supportive entry point for conversations about difficult emotions.
Beyond writing, Michael works as a speaker and certified grief coach and is pursuing a degree in Behavioral Science. His professional interests include trauma-informed support, emotional regulation, meaning-making after loss, and the long-term psychological impacts of bereavement. His approach integrates lived experience with ongoing academic study, emphasizing clarity, honesty, and respect for individual differences in grief.
Michael’s work is grounded in the belief that grief is not something to move past, but something to understand and integrate over time. He writes for those navigating loss, as well as for caregivers, educators, and professionals seeking a more nuanced understanding of grief and healing.
In 2016, Michael lost his wife and two daughters in the Gatlinburg wildfires. This experience profoundly altered the trajectory of his life and informs his writing at both a personal and analytical level. Rather than presenting grief as a problem to be solved or a condition to be overcome, his work examines loss as a complex psychological and emotional process that reshapes identity, relationships, and meaning over time.
Michael’s first book, The Million Stages of Grief, offers a structured yet non-prescriptive examination of the aftermath of loss, addressing the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral disruptions that often follow trauma. The book challenges simplified stage-based models and emphasizes the variability and individuality of grief responses. His forthcoming book, The Million Stages of Healing, continues this exploration by shifting the focus toward integration—how individuals learn to function, adapt, and engage with life while continuing to carry loss, rather than seeking resolution or closure.
In addition to his work for adults, Michael is the author of the children’s book The Owl and the Ladybug. Written with developmental sensitivity, the book introduces children to themes of sadness, loss, and emotional connection through gentle narrative and metaphor, providing a supportive entry point for conversations about difficult emotions.
Beyond writing, Michael works as a speaker and certified grief coach and is pursuing a degree in Behavioral Science. His professional interests include trauma-informed support, emotional regulation, meaning-making after loss, and the long-term psychological impacts of bereavement. His approach integrates lived experience with ongoing academic study, emphasizing clarity, honesty, and respect for individual differences in grief.
Michael’s work is grounded in the belief that grief is not something to move past, but something to understand and integrate over time. He writes for those navigating loss, as well as for caregivers, educators, and professionals seeking a more nuanced understanding of grief and healing.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 15, 2025
A Lifeline for Anyone Navigating Grief
I especially loved the section about using and focusing on the five senses to cope with grief—it’s practical, gentle, and so grounding. For me, music is the sense I lean on most; the right song helps me breathe when the darkness feels heavy. Compassionate and real, this book offers small, steady steps toward healing after loss or trauma
I especially loved the section about using and focusing on the five senses to cope with grief—it’s practical, gentle, and so grounding. For me, music is the sense I lean on most; the right song helps me breathe when the darkness feels heavy. Compassionate and real, this book offers small, steady steps toward healing after loss or trauma
January 13, 2026
I spent an entire morning with this book, I read the words, I sat with them and reflected. I listened to the song repeatedly and reflected some more. I cried, I nodded my head in agreement countless times and somehow I find that my heart is at peace as I read the last sentence. I've been walking down the path of grief for over a decade now and I can say without a doubt that grief is definitely not linear, there are good days, bad days and days I wish I could just disappear until I can come up for air again and then there are days that feel like a breath of fresh air. I will never be able to fully comprehend the pain Michael Reed experienced, but I can say that reading his book felt like finally being understood. It felt like I was sitting across from him as he talked about his girls and his experience with grief and it felt like I was on the receiving end of a warm non-judgmental hug.
This book is one of those books that find you when you need it when you don't even know you need it. It came up on Kindle Unlimited as a recommendation by Amazon - how the algorithm knew that I needed to spend time with this book I'll never know, but it did and I will always be grateful.
This book is one of those books that find you when you need it when you don't even know you need it. It came up on Kindle Unlimited as a recommendation by Amazon - how the algorithm knew that I needed to spend time with this book I'll never know, but it did and I will always be grateful.
January 18, 2026
Raw and honest. My heart breaks for him. Loss and death change people forever. I want to appreciate, accept, and embrace others while they are here. Learn to embrace quirks, habits, idiosyncrasies, talents, points of view, attitudes, similarities, and differences while people are present, not embrace them, and find them enduring when they are gone. I want to change and be better because I learned from loss and change and continue to grow and learn everyday.
February 28, 2026
December 2025 President’s Choice Award Winner 🏆and Finalist for Author of the Year 2026
Honoring Michael Reed — A Voice for Those Learning to Hold Joy Again
There are stories that change us, not because they offer easy answers, but because they tell the truth with courage. Michael Reed’s story is one of those stories.
In November 2017, Michael lost his wife and two daughters on the same day—an unimaginable loss that no words can fully hold. Yet from the deepest places of sorrow, Michael chose not silence, but honesty. Through his book, The Million Stages of Grief, he gives voice to something many grieving hearts feel but rarely say aloud: the guilt of feeling joy.
As someone who has lost my entire immediate family—my parents, siblings, and loved ones—I understand this struggle intimately. The world expects grief to look one way, and healing another. But Michael reminds us that grief does not move in straight lines, and healing does not mean forgetting. Joy does not cancel love. It coexists with it.
In his reflections, Michael speaks openly about sitting in therapy, overwhelmed by tears without fully knowing why—until he realizes the truth: “I feel guilty that 2025 has been a good year. I’m not allowed to have good years anymore.” That sentence alone has resonated with countless readers around the world. It captures the silent conflict so many grieving souls carry—the belief that happiness somehow betrays those we have lost.
But Michael gently dismantles that lie.
Through lived experience and deep emotional insight, he shows us that grief and happiness are not enemies. You can ache for what is gone and still smile at what remains. You can carry sorrow and still feel gratitude. You can miss them fiercely and still allow moments of peace to enter your life. That tug-of-war does not mean you are failing at grief—it means you are human.
What makes Michael’s work so powerful is not that it avoids pain, but that it sits with it honestly. He reminds us that happiness during grief is often quieter, softer, and bittersweet. It’s the smile that comes with tears close behind. It’s feeling alive again and immediately noticing who is missing. And yet—those moments matter. They are signs of resilience. Of love continuing in a new form.
Michael’s book has helped people across the world feel seen, understood, and less alone. It has helped others—and himself—return to the written word as a place of refuge when the weight becomes too heavy. His story does not rush healing or place timelines on pain. Instead, it offers permission: permission to feel, permission to remember, and permission to live.
That is why Michael Reed is our December 2025 President’s Choice Award Winner.
This honor is reserved for voices that embody the heart of the Prestigious International Hope Book Awards—stories that transform pain into purpose and give hope without denying grief. Michael’s work does exactly that. He teaches us that joy is not something we must earn after loss, nor something we should fear. It is something we are allowed to welcome, even while we grieve.
If this holiday season finds you holding sadness in one hand and joy in the other, know this: both belong. Both are valid. Both can live in the same heart.
Michael’s Christmas wish—one we now share—is simple yet profound: that those who are hurting may find peace, even if only for a second. And that when joy appears, we do not push it away, but cherish it, embrace it, and allow ourselves to feel alive again.
https://prestigious-international-hop...
Congratulations, Michael Reed. Your courage, honesty, and compassion continue to light the way for so many.
CEO and Founder
Johanna Vendel
Honoring Michael Reed — A Voice for Those Learning to Hold Joy Again
There are stories that change us, not because they offer easy answers, but because they tell the truth with courage. Michael Reed’s story is one of those stories.
In November 2017, Michael lost his wife and two daughters on the same day—an unimaginable loss that no words can fully hold. Yet from the deepest places of sorrow, Michael chose not silence, but honesty. Through his book, The Million Stages of Grief, he gives voice to something many grieving hearts feel but rarely say aloud: the guilt of feeling joy.
As someone who has lost my entire immediate family—my parents, siblings, and loved ones—I understand this struggle intimately. The world expects grief to look one way, and healing another. But Michael reminds us that grief does not move in straight lines, and healing does not mean forgetting. Joy does not cancel love. It coexists with it.
In his reflections, Michael speaks openly about sitting in therapy, overwhelmed by tears without fully knowing why—until he realizes the truth: “I feel guilty that 2025 has been a good year. I’m not allowed to have good years anymore.” That sentence alone has resonated with countless readers around the world. It captures the silent conflict so many grieving souls carry—the belief that happiness somehow betrays those we have lost.
But Michael gently dismantles that lie.
Through lived experience and deep emotional insight, he shows us that grief and happiness are not enemies. You can ache for what is gone and still smile at what remains. You can carry sorrow and still feel gratitude. You can miss them fiercely and still allow moments of peace to enter your life. That tug-of-war does not mean you are failing at grief—it means you are human.
What makes Michael’s work so powerful is not that it avoids pain, but that it sits with it honestly. He reminds us that happiness during grief is often quieter, softer, and bittersweet. It’s the smile that comes with tears close behind. It’s feeling alive again and immediately noticing who is missing. And yet—those moments matter. They are signs of resilience. Of love continuing in a new form.
Michael’s book has helped people across the world feel seen, understood, and less alone. It has helped others—and himself—return to the written word as a place of refuge when the weight becomes too heavy. His story does not rush healing or place timelines on pain. Instead, it offers permission: permission to feel, permission to remember, and permission to live.
That is why Michael Reed is our December 2025 President’s Choice Award Winner.
This honor is reserved for voices that embody the heart of the Prestigious International Hope Book Awards—stories that transform pain into purpose and give hope without denying grief. Michael’s work does exactly that. He teaches us that joy is not something we must earn after loss, nor something we should fear. It is something we are allowed to welcome, even while we grieve.
If this holiday season finds you holding sadness in one hand and joy in the other, know this: both belong. Both are valid. Both can live in the same heart.
Michael’s Christmas wish—one we now share—is simple yet profound: that those who are hurting may find peace, even if only for a second. And that when joy appears, we do not push it away, but cherish it, embrace it, and allow ourselves to feel alive again.
https://prestigious-international-hop...
Congratulations, Michael Reed. Your courage, honesty, and compassion continue to light the way for so many.
CEO and Founder
Johanna Vendel
September 30, 2025
This title was selected for IngramSpark's Indie Title Discovery Spotlight 2025!
A vulnerable, insightful, and comforting exploration of grief. An absolute must-read for anyone navigating the long healing journey through trauma and loss.
A vulnerable, insightful, and comforting exploration of grief. An absolute must-read for anyone navigating the long healing journey through trauma and loss.
November 25, 2025
This book was so helpful. I recommend it to everyone, not just those going through grief. Having gone through a lot of different griefs in my life, I understand many parts of this. I remember when this happened and hearing it on the news. I live only 3 hours away from Gatlinburg so it hit home in a way. Michael really did a good job with this and expressing his raw emotions. I can't imagine how I would have felt or handled this. Grief is such a hard thing to talk about. No one knows exactly what you're going through. Thank you for expressing your raw emotions in your story, Michael.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews