Tamara Webb is a professional counselor who specializes in grief. Her approach to therapy is what caught my attention because she doesn't just focus on talking therapy. She presents herself as a holistic counselor, which means that  when clients come into her office, they will be assessed on what she calls the "five bodies common to the human experience: the physical, energetic, mental/emotional and narrative bodies and the body of the connected heart." 

In this interview, Tamara addresses how you can move toward healing by paying attention to what you eat and the importance of exercise: "The most powerful thing that we do in terms of any kind of medical treatment starts with what we eat. Health begins in the gut," she said.

We also talk about suicide grief, particularly when guilt, self-blame, and regrets are present. How blaming affects families was also explored.

Find Tamara Webb here.

Donate to the podcast:

https://bit.ly/3maL9RO

Listen to this interview on my YouTube Channel "Understand Suicide."

Visit my page www.understandsuicide.com

My book "Understanding suicide: living with loss, paths to prevention:"

https://amzn.to/2ANczuR

Contact me and exchange experiences on my Facebook page:

https://bit.ly/3h8sIet

Lori Massicot has an empowering podcast called To 50 and Beyond, where she invites guests to discuss various topics. I encourage you to check it out. 

In this episode, we talked about the myths about suicide, my personal story and how I delt with my father's death, warning signs, tips on what to do (and to avoid) when talking to someone who is contemplating suicide, misconceptions regarding this theme, the stigma that surrounds it, and my mission to help break the silence around this subject.

Donate to the podcast:

https://bit.ly/3maL9RO

Visit my page www.understandsuicide.com

Find my book "Understanding suicide: living with loss, paths to prevention"

https://amzn.to/2ANczuR

Contact me and exchange experiences on my Facebook page:

https://bit.ly/3h8sIet

American clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr. Steven Reisner is a human rights activist; this gives him a very unique perspective on how the mental health profession interacts with culture and society. I start this conversation by asking him whether or not he believes that COVID-19 will constitute a traumatic experience for most of us. Through a social justice lens, he argues that this will depend on our capacity to learn from it and society's ability to mobilize and demand change.

Another topic covered in this episode is loneliness. The pandemic has pushed the theme of loneliness to the forefront, but this trend has been present for a long time in our communities. We also discuss the current tendency of the mental health field to pathologize natural human responses to distress, which can be detrimental to the transformation of not only the individual but society as a whole.

Dr. Reisner ends by talking about his podcast called Madness, where he weaves psychoanalysis concepts with politics, democracy, and the most relevant topics currently being discussed in America and the world.

Listen to this interview on my YouTube Channel "Understand Suicide."

Donate to the podcast:

https://bit.ly/3maL9RO

Visit my page www.understandsuicide.com

My book "Understanding suicide: living with loss, paths to prevention:"

https://amzn.to/2ANczuR

Contact me and exchange experiences on my Facebook page:

https://bit.ly/3h8sIet

American clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr. Steven Reisner has fought tirelessly to improve the ethics of his profession. During more than a decade, he denounced the participation of psychologists in designing programs of torture for the US government, which resulted in a shift in the policies of the American Psychological Association, APA. He is also critical of his colleagues for the way they often treat suicidal patients, which is the main topic of Part 1 of our conversation.

In this interview, Dr. Reisner talks about the increased fear of mental health professionals to manage suicidal clients, possible ways to approach these patients, and how the current pandemic has been mishandled in the US. 

Dr. Reisner has a private practice in New York but he is currently in France, where he decided to move due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in his hometown. 

Listen to this interview on my YouTube Channel "Understand Suicide."

Donate to the podcast:

https://bit.ly/3maL9RO

Visit www.understandsuicide.com

My book "Understanding suicide: living with loss, paths to prevention:"

https://amzn.to/2ANczuR

Contact me and exchange experiences on my Facebook page:

https://bit.ly/3h8sIet

Knowing how to help a suicidal person is difficult for most of us. We are afraid to “do the wrong thing” and stimulate their resolve. In order to help with this issue, the clinical social worker Stacey Freedenthal wrote the book “Helping the suicidal person,” with eighty-nine tips on how to approach someone who is contemplating suicide.

Stacey has personal experience with suicide ideation because she experienced it herself in her 20s; she also lost friends to voluntary death. Today, she works in Dever, Colorado, treating suicidal patients and grief related to this kind of loss.

In this interview, I ask her to explain some of the suggestions explored in the book, not only regarding what to say but also what we should all avoid doing when listening to individuals at risk for suicide.

If you want to support my work, buy me a coffee. This will help me keep bringing hope to those touched by suicide:  https://bit.ly/3whorPH

Listen to this interview on my YouTube Channel "Understand Suicide."

https://bit.ly/31OE8za

Donate to the podcast:

https://bit.ly/3maL9RO

Visit www.understandsuicide.com

My book "Understanding suicide: living with loss, paths to prevention:"

https://amzn.to/2ANczuR

Find Stacey Freedenthal’s book:

https://amzn.to/2VQVpnr

Jill Johnson-Young knows grief profoundly and from many perspectives. She was widowed twice before the age of fifty; as a medical social worker, she has worked with dying patients; she has run grief support groups; she has created the Your Path Through Grief program, and she is married to a funeral director.

In part 2 of our conversation, Jill focuses on the peculiarities of suicide grief. One of the topics we covered was how to respond to those we love but make us uncomfortable with our own pain. 

The impact of COVID-19 on bereavement is also explored. According to Jill, the pandemic has been creating layers of trauma in many of us, particularly for those who lost loved ones: "All of the traditional ways of saying good-bye have been removed by this virus...It has made losses so much bigger.. it's causing families to not know what happened."

More information about Jill: https://yourpaththroughgrief.com/

Donate to the podcast:

https://bit.ly/3maL9RO

Visit my page:  www.understandsuicide.com

This watch this interview on my YouTube Channel called "Understand Suicide"

My book "Understanding suicide: living with loss, paths to prevention"

https://amzn.to/2ANczuR

Jill Johnson-Young knows grief profoundly and from many perspectives. She was widowed twice before the age of fifty; as a medical social worker, she has worked with dying patients; she has run grief support groups; she has created the Your Path Through Grief program, and she is married to a funeral director.  In this first part of our conversation, she gave us an insightful view on Dr. Kübler-Ross's popularized 'phases of grief'. Jill also walked us through the need to address emotions after the loss of a loved one, the differences between depression and grief, and her experience with the dying and their families. How can we deal with people around us who are trying to push us to "get over it," "go on with life," and similar messages? What about regrets regarding the person who died? These are some of the topics we talked about in this interview. 

More information about Jill: https://yourpaththroughgrief.com/   

This watch this interview on my YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/3fzct8X 

Donate to the podcast:

https://bit.ly/3maL9RO

Visit my page www.understandsuicide.com

Find my book "Understanding suicide: living with loss, paths to prevention"

https://amzn.to/2ANczuR

Contact me and exchange experiences on my Facebook page:

https://bit.ly/3h8sIet

Catherine is a victim of child sex abuse, and as it often happens with children, she grew up believing it was her fault. There were times when she tried to warn her parents about her contact with pornography but they often dismissed her claims. Later, as an adolescent, her internalized shame and distorted self-image - one that shouted ‘you are ugly, dirty, and chronically bad,’ - pushed her towards self-harming behavior. 

Being a pastor’s daughter, she felt that her family had to serve as an example of what it means to be Christian, which often meant keeping a façade of perfection and righteousness even in the face of pain. Her mother struggled with depression although this was never discussed at home. 

In this episode, Catherine shares her story publicly for the first time - including her suicide attempts. She talks about how she went from wanting to end it all, including a recent attempt after being sexually assaulted in 2018, to becoming a counselor who helps others process their traumas and find healing. What helped her? This is one of the questions I asked during the interview. 

Watch this interview on my YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/kOpnzau7tt0 

Donate to the podcast:

https://bit.ly/3maL9RO

Visit my page www.understandsuicide.com

Find my book "Understanding suicide: living with loss, paths to prevention"

https://amzn.to/2ANczuR

Contact me and exchange experiences on my Facebook page:

https://bit.ly/3h8sIet

Jonathan Singer is a clinical social worker, the president of the American Association of Suicidology, and co-author of the book “Suicide in Schools: A Practitioner’s Guide to Multi-level Prevention, Assessment, Intervention, and Postvention.” In this interview, he explains how schools can be ready to address suicide in a holistic and effective way. 

All the resources (programs) mentioned by Dr. Jonathan Singer can be found https://www.understandsuicide.com/for-schools

Watch this interview on my YouTube Channel:

https://bit.ly/2UcrJ3n

Visit the American Association of Suicidology: https://suicidology.org/

Donate to the podcast:

https://bit.ly/3maL9RO

My book "Understanding suicide: living with loss, paths to prevention"

https://amzn.to/2ANczuR

Contact me and exchange experiences on my Facebook page:

https://bit.ly/3h8sIet

Jonathan Singer is a clinical social worker and the president of the American Association of Suicidology. In this interview, we discuss how the pandemic has impacted individuals, families, work relations, and communities. He talks about the challenges we all face to maintain a healthy routine, how mental health workers are dealing with the demand, the effect of losing social connection with others, and how to deal with anxiety and loneliness during the quarantine.

Dr. Singer is the co-author of the 2015 Routledge text “Suicide in Schools: A Practitioner’s Guide to Multi-level Prevention, Assessment, Intervention, and Postvention.” He is the founder and host of the award-winning podcast series, the Social Work Podcast.

Visit the American Association of Suicidology: https://suicidology.org/

Donate to the podcast:

https://bit.ly/3maL9RO

For more information on suicide, visit:  https://www.understandsuicide.com/

Watch this interview on my YouTube Channel "Understand Suicide"

https://bit.ly/2M9BYRO

My book "Understanding suicide: living with loss, paths to prevention"

https://amzn.to/2ANczuR