Town Hall Seattle Science Series 244. Mary-Frances O’Connor with Dr. Anthony Back: Grief and the Body
Despite grief being one of the most universal of human experiences, there is still much that we do not know about it. Can we die of a broken heart? What happens in our bodies as we grieve; how do our coping behaviors affect our physical health, immunity, and even cognition? While we may be more familiar with psychological and emotional ramifications of loss and sorrow, we often overlook its impact on our physical bodies.
In The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing, the follow-up to its successful predecessor The Grieving Brain (2022), grief expert, neuroscientist, and psychologist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor focuses on how the painful ordeal of grief impacts the body.
O’Connor shares scientific research, charts, and graphs coupled with personal stories, revealing new insights on grief’s physiological impact and helping illuminate the toll that loss takes on our cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems and the larger implications for our long-term well-being. The Grieving Body is for anyone who has experienced loss and who may want to learn more about what they are going through and how to support them.
Mary-Frances O’Connor, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, where she directs the Grief, Loss and Social Stress (GLASS) Lab, investigating the effects of grief on the brain and the body. Her book The Grieving Brain was included on Oprah’s list of Best Books to Comfort a Grieving Friend. O’Connor holds a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in psychoneuroimmunology at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.
Dr. Anthony Back, Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington, is a pioneer in patient-oncologist communication and co-founder of the nonprofit VitalTalk. Educated at Stanford and Harvard, with training at UW and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, his research spans physician-assisted dying, communication pedagogy, and psilocybin therapy for healthcare providers and patients with cancer-related anxiety. He is also an ordained Zen priest in Roshi Joan Halifax’s lineage.
Buy the Book The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing