Q&A with Doug Manning

Q. What inspired your work as an author and lecturer?

A. My work began when a couple from the church where I was the pastor lost a young daughter from a simple case of the croup. The mother was distraught and crying in the hospital room. The doctor and her husband were trying to calm her when she looked up and said, "Don't take my grief away from me. I deserve it and I am going to have it."   I found that to be one of the most profound statements about what people in grief need. So this became the title of one of my first books and started me on the road to my second career.

Q. You’ve been a pioneer in understanding grief. With so little information out there at the time, how did you get accomplish that?

A. My years of counseling put me in many situations where people were grieving. So I started the first bereavement groups and spent a great deal of time analyzing and understanding what processes are involved in a healthy grief journey. I did a lot of listening and learning.

Q. You were also a pioneer in the area of caring for families of aging parents. That is a very stressful time in a family’s life. What led you down that path?

A. Again, I saw that there was a big void and people on both sides, both the elderly parents and the children were in crisis. No one knows what to say or what to do and you end up potentially making a bad decision that’s not right for your personal situation. So I filled in that communication gap with When Love Gets Tough, the first book on the market to address this vital and painful issue.

Q. Your popularity remains high as both an author and a guest speaker over more than 20 years. You’ve sold more than a million copies of When Love Gets Tough and nearly a million for Don’t Take My Grief Away From Me. Where has your career taken you around the globe?

A. I've been very fortunate to meet wonderful people all over the world, and to touch many, many lives. I continue to learn from people I meet and it gives me great joy. I've traveled all over the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.