After losing both my husband and my mother-in-law to suicide, I felt both guilt and shame. I wondered how could I have missed this? If only I’d said this or done that…the list goes on and on. I also felt shame. I thought others blamed me. “She must have been a horrible wife or he would never have done that.” Then there was the shame…
I heard the familiar vibrating sound notifying me that I had a new message. I clicked on the message and what I read made my heart cry out. A dear friend (who I will call Peter) was telling me goodbye. He was prepared to end his life. After twenty minutes of talking the phone went silent. I waited. And waited. And waited. No more messages….
With all of the recent violence in the streets of America, people are talking about mental health more than ever. While I am extremely grateful that people are talking and that (hopefully) agencies will focus more funding toward mental health, I feel compelled to share that the vast majority of people with a diagnosable mental illness are NOT violent. “Most people with mental illness are…
“I love writing!” There. I said it. I absolutely, positively love writing. Do you know what else I love? I love dancing, hiking, camping, and reading by waterfalls. So why don’t I do these things more often? Recently, I was asked to co-write a counseling book with a colleague. Once we started talking about the book and creating outlines, I could feel my blood pumping…
It’s that time of year again — GRADUATION! It is such an honor to teach aspiring minds. Today, one of our psychology students was asking me about the stole stole I wear as part of my regalia. I was delighted to share with her that in graduate school, we were challenged to wear the stole in honor of someone who helped us in our educational…
I recently had the privilege of presenting at the American Association of Suicidology Annual Conference. It was quite humbling to be surrounded by thousands of people burdened by devastation of suicide and working to do their part to create change. In one of the sessions there was a debate on whether or not suicide prevention is possible. One of the arguments given was that when…