While the Five Stages of Grief (Kübler-Ross, 1969; Kübler-Ross & Kessler, 2005) continue to be ‘prescribed’ by helping professionals as a model for coping with loss, despite lack of empirical evidence of their validity (Stroebe et al, 2017), recent studies provide a different picture of grief and bereavement. It is now known, for example, that resilience is the most common response to bereavement and that delayed grief reactions are rare (Bonanno et al., 2002; 2004), that positive emotions are common and adaptive for loss (Bonanno, 2009; Calhoun et al., 2010; Moskowitz, Folkman & Acree, 2003), that positive lessons can be gleaned from loss (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2001; Calhoun et al., 2010) and that meaning making plays a central role in the grieving process (Neimeyer, 2019). This podium presentation will caution helping professionals’ prevailing assumptions and share the latest research on how positive psychology theory, research and practice can support healthy adaptation to loss, referencing the work of Tayyab Rashid, George Bonanno, James Tedeschi, Robert Calhoun, Barb Fredrickson, Judy Moskowitz, Martin Seligman, Chris Peterson, Shane Lopez, Chris Feudtner, Bob Neimeyer, Margaret Stroebe, Henk Schut, and Pete Southwick. In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, equipping helping professionals with the latest scientific bereavement evidence to support best-practice and prevent harm is critical.