Grief Expert Discusses Self-Care with Minnesota Physicians

October 23, 2025

For the second time in eight weeks, national grief expert David J. Schonfeld, MD, FAAP, visited Minneapolis. The first trip was days after the Annunciation Catholic Church and School shooting when he met with school leaders to help with the healing process. He returned October 21 to revisit the school and to meet with local healthcare providers at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) to offer tips on dealing with the aftermath of crisis.  

For more than 35 years, Schonfeld has been circling the globe sharing his expertise in pediatric bereavement and school and community crisis response. 

Grief expert David J. Schonfeld, MD, FAAP, talks to physicians at HCMC on October 21.

From the fall of the World Trade Center in 2001, to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, to the Annunciation shooting in Minneapolis in August, he has helped others become “an empathetic presence.”  

“Anyone that interacts with children can be a potential source of assistance and support,” he told the physicians gathered at HCMC. “If unprepared, they can be a source of further crisis.” He is working to make sure that doesn’t happen through his work promoting psychological first aid. 

In his 90-minute presentation, Schonfeld spoke of the importance of professional self-care, and how helping others, especially children, can be gratifying.  

He also warned of moral injury, and how to prevent it, providing the following points: 

• Challenge perfectionism. In crisis situations or other situations/adversity, you have limited choices. 

• Identify ways to advocate within schools, district, or community for more services or support to those in need. 

• Rethink responsibility. Responsibility is not all or nothing. We can feel some responsibility for unfortunate events and feel badly we didn’t do more, but that doesn’t mean we had the primary responsibility for causing them.  

• Be an advocate for both the school/district and your students. Ensure that taking on the role as an advocate for students and families does not conflict with school or district policies and practices.  

In 2005, Schonfeld established the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement (NCSCB) at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He is also professor of clinical pediatrics at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.  

Schonfeld's presentation was sponsored by the MMA; Hennepin Healthcare; the Minnesota Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics; the Minnesota Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians; the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Minnesota; the Minnesota Chapter of the American College of Physicians; the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians; the Minnesota Psychiatric Society; and the Minnesota Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.