Why would anyone write a book about suffering?
Because it’s the one human experience we all try to avoid—yet it’s also the one most capable of transforming us.
In Suffer., I draw from nearly 25 years of hospice and palliative care practice to reframe suffering as a path of human development. The book takes you through fear and shame, ignorance and judgment, isolation and longing—and asks: What if these aren’t flaws to fix, but signals pointing us forward?
Using a modernized view of Maslow’s hierarchy and my own lived framework, I walk you through how suffering catalyzes movement across the developmental arc: from dependence to independence, to interdependence, and—eventually—transcendence.
Published in December 2024, Suffer. has already reached thousands across the globe. Described as “literary academia”, Suffer. was awarded the 2025 Nautilus Gold for Inner Prosperity & Right Livelihood and reflects the Nautilus core mission to celebrate and honor books that support conscious living.
Nautilus Book Awards’ core mission is to celebrate and honor books that support conscious living and green values, wellness, social change, social justice, and spiritual growth. The awards recognize, honor, celebrate and promote books that inspire and connect our lives as individuals, families, communities, and global citizens.
The Nautilus Awards represent Better Books for a Better World.
Suffering adds dimensionality and movement to Abraham Maslow’s developmental hierarchy as it initiates an upward spiraling cycle of need satisfaction that travels through the processes of suffering, choosing, creating, and dying.
Suffering reveals an unmet need—a direction to follow, a road to travel. If we don’t bypass discomfort, stay with it, listen deeply, and follow its wisdom, it will guide us back to what matters most.
Free will is sacred. Choosing consciously returns us to our power and we reclaim attention and begin to shape who we are through intention, not reaction.
Creation is the alchemical process of revealing what is hidden, giving form to what is true, and inviting the world to witness it. It is not just the act of producing, but the sacred transformation that brings the unseen into being. Through the act of creation, we undergo actualization, returning to wholeness and shaping not only the world around us but the very essence of who we are.
We carry the presence of death—not as fear, but as fuel. Mortality salience sharpens our purpose, guiding us to live with stabilized awareness and universal presence, fully attuned to what truly matters.
Below you’ll find a growing collection of essays, thought pieces, and academic contributions that examine the lived experience of suffering and healing through the lenses of medicine, human development, and systems thinking.
Need the full story?
Speaker bio, headshots, and key topics in one place.