Grief is a process with a beginning, middle, and end, and understanding one's stage in this process can help predict its duration and conceptualize the lost individual.

“The important thing to point out is that grief is a process. Like any biological or psychological event, it has a beginning, a middle and an end. And I do believe that being able to orient in terms of where you are in that process can be immensely beneficial, not just for predicting how long it's going to last, but in order to conceptualize the person or animal that you lost, in a way that allows you to best preserve their memory while maintaining your own functional capacity in life.”