Embracing the Inevitable: Elreacy Dock’s Pioneering Work in Thanatology and Death Education

Thanatology is an unusual-sounding word that refers to the study of death and dying, in an environment where the topic itself is widely considered taboo. This subject area, which forms the basis of this dissertation, has become increasingly important recently due to the growing need for awareness and dialogue about mortality. Leading this crucial work is Elreacy Dock, who is recognized as an influential leader in the field of death education as well as behavioral health.

Here, Elreacy’s dedication to mobilizing education about death and grief as a consumer-sympathetic resource has placed her as a youth-oriented expert in an emergent field. Her contributions cover the areas of mental health, behavioral science, and thanatology, an expertise she brings to bear in providing all-around support to individuals navigating one of life’s most complex passages.

Today, we are lucky to embark on the journey of uncovering Elreacy’s thanatology and her concept of the future of death education. Let us support discussing it – mortality – and embrace exploring grief as a way to experience change.

1. You are in the process of building a company that operates in the death-tech niche. Perhaps, you could explain a bit of what this involves and how the technology advances the notion and practices concerning death and grief.

Generally speaking, the death care industry is highly fragmented. Services like pre-planning, end-of-life care, aftercare, pet death care, funeral homes and cemeteries are all incredibly important, but the experience of locating potential options and making an informed decision isn’t particularly user-friendly to the average consumer, and it is even more difficult to navigate while actively grieving. Some services have websites that are very dated. How can the average consumer, grieving or otherwise, know that they are selecting a reputable provider that will consistently deliver quality services and care? At any given moment, there are also many factors that can further complicate the selection process. For example, some individuals will have very limited budgets and need to find services with prices that align with what they are able to afford; others may have specific cultural and religious traditions or rituals that need to be precisely followed to appropriately honor their loved ones.

Consider the challenges that people may face when their loved one dies abroad in their country of origin, but they are unable to travel to take care of the final arrangements for their loved one. Everyone dies and everyone needs arrangements made in preparation for death, but at the same time, the services that we have access to can’t take a one-size-fits-all approach if the goal is to provide authentic culturally informed and sensitive care for those who have experienced loss. Introducing technology such as artificial intelligence into this space is important because it increases efficiency in service identification and selection, augments the typical coordination experience of the consumer, and streamlines the core components that need to be prioritized when planning after a loss has occurred.  

2. Elreacy, this summer you are releasing new grief education and death education material. What unmet needs of learner preferences do you hope to meet with these courses that are not currently being addressed?

The courses I am developing are going to be tailored to the diverse experiences of grief and loss that are often overlooked or minimally addressed in our society. Instead of approaching challenging topics at the surface level, there will be content that is specific to different social, cultural, historical, and emotional contexts. There are many aspects of grief and loss that are underrepresented due to stigma, which means that people who are experiencing this grief in real life have minimal resources that are specific to their journey. The material that I am launching soon seeks to bridge this gap and expand support to those who have been underserved. 

3. What strategies do you take to discuss death and grief issues in a given society that doesn’t seem to embrace or discuss such matters?

It is crucial to allow people to have genuine and open expression of their thoughts and emotions surrounding death and grief. Just as everyone has a unique journey, they also have attitudes and perspectives that have been shaped by unique experiences. In this regard, I like to approach these perspectives and attitudes with a sense of curiosity. What happened in their experience that led them to this perception, or what is the thought process behind the conclusion that they are sharing with me? This approach can be powerful since it encourages further discussion in a society where we have avoided these death dialogues as much as possible. People also want practical suggestions of how to navigate these conversations and end-of-life issues on their own, so approaching this from an exploratory manner instead of taking a position of giving advice is often helpful.  

4. The misconception that everyone grieves the same way and the belief that grief lasts for a limited amount of time are two of the most common misconceptions about grief that you have come across, is there anything you do to offer clarification?

Sometimes people will make statements such as, “I can’t believe I’m having such a tough time getting over this,” or “I can’t believe that person is still struggling with their grief after all of this time,” and these attitudes can imply that grief is only meant to be experienced very briefly. There are also some bereaved individuals that are aware of the DSM-5-TR criteria for prolonged grief disorder (PGD) and they become more critical of the length of their grief journey because now they’re associating the social stigma of a mental disorder with their grief experience.

What most people don’t realize is that even in the second year after a loss, this is still early grief and it is completely normal to feel sad. Grief is universal and everyone’s grief is different; just because someone else’s grief doesn’t look like ours, it doesn’t mean that it holds any less meaning or importance. We don’t stop loving someone when they die and the grief associated with their loss doesn’t simply disappear; we learn to grow around our grief and reintegrate our loved ones into our lives in a different way.

5. What direction do you anticipate within the field of thanatology over the course of the next few years and what impact do you plan to make within this specialty?

While thanatology and death education are very people-centric fields, we cannot deny the importance of technology and the digital age. I believe there are still many elements of my field and industry which remain quite dated, so I want to incorporate more innovative approaches to educating others through existing and evolving tech. Technology is ultimately what will enable me to expand my work on a global scale so that all people can have access to death education and grief education. Additionally, given the potential future trajectory of artificial intelligence and human enhancement technologies, a larger focus on the role of technology in relation to the traditional boundaries of life and death will need to be examined.

Several years ago, many professionals in this field questioned the feasibility of the integration of artificial intelligence and robotics into the death space, as well as the relationship between transhumanist values and perspectives on immortality. My perception is that this is no longer just a matter of a possibility in the future, but rather a reality that is in active development right now, meriting serious consideration and greater awareness. This has many implications for bioethics and neurorights, which I would love to expand upon in future educational content.

6. To those who might be aspiring to practice thanatology or teaching death education, what recommendations can you give?

I would encourage aspiring thanatologists and death educators to embrace their curiosity of the unknown. We must be willing to learn anything and everything we possibly can regard death and dying, but we must also acknowledge that there will always be innumerable aspects that we know absolutely nothing about due to the unknown nature of death. Even so, this shouldn’t discourage further research and exploration. Lack of literature and resources about specific topics, aspects, or perspectives surrounding death and dying are often great indicators that further examination is needed. Ultimately, these future thanatologists and death educators can fill these gaps and expand on the discourse regarding what is known.