Also known as the five stages of grief, the Kübler-Ross model suggests that people often manage grief in five different stages. Sometimes these stages overlap or are experienced in a different order, but the researchers suggest that everyone experiences these stages at some point in their grieving process.

Stage 1: Denial – believing something isn’t true and holding on to a false reality.

Stage 2: Anger – accepting the truth and becoming frustrated by the situation and what has happened.

Stage 3: Bargaining – trying to avoid the grief by trying to seek a compromise (usually with a ‘higher power’).

Stage 4: Depression – going into a despair and thinking that one’s own life is not important.

Stage 5: Acceptance – coming to realise nothing can change the situation and that life must move forward.

The model suggests that these grief stages are applicable in any situation where there is a loss, not just when losing a loved one. Further research has also been done to suggest there may even be a sixth stage of grief – meaning.