Judy Lipson

Author

Judy Lipson is the author of Celebration of Celebration of Sisters: It Is Never Too Late To Grieve, winner of Literary Titan’s 2021 Silver Award. The sole survivor of three sisters, Judy founded Celebration of Sisters, an annual ice-skating fundraiser to commemorate the lives and memories of her beloved sisters Margie and Jane to benefit Massachusetts General Hospital. Judy was the keynote speaker at The Bereaved Parents USA Conference in 2023, presented at The Compassionate Friends National Conference, appeared on The Open to Hope cable television, and is a ForGrief speaker. Her passion for figure skating secured the recipient of U.S. Figure Skating Association 2020 Get Up Award.

Maya Roffler

Host of The Surviving Siblings Podcast

Maya is the host and founder of The Surviving Siblings Podcast as well as the co-founder of The Surviving Siblings Summit. Maya launched her podcast in March of 2022 telling the story of her then five year grief journey after losing her brother to a homicide in November of 2016. Now, Maya has five seasons of the podcast on air and shares the stories of her fellow bereaved siblings. She shares their stories to give hope to all the bereaved siblings out there and to let them know that they are not alone. Maya believes that grief is like a snowflake and no two experiences or feelings are exactly the same. However, we can all connect, learn, and grow through sharing our stories. Maya has also published a grief journal, The Grief Guide for Surviving Siblings, created merchandise for siblings, and continues to advocate on behalf of surviving siblings on a daily basis.

Susan Tompkins

Coach, Public Speaker, and Mentor

Susan Tompkins of 3C Clarity is an intuitive life coach, public speaker, and mentor. Susan inspires sparkling second acts through her heart-centered 1:1 coaching journeys, women’s circles, and Energy Art workshops. She helps people tap into their inner desires and create a plan to manifest the life they want to live, on purpose, with purpose. Her older brother’s passing in 2021 sparked an inner journey that walked her through dark stages of grief. It was during this healing process she created Energy Art, a cathartic way to express and transform emotions. Susan shares Energy Art at community and mindfulness centers as well as with her clients. When Susan is not conducting life coaching sessions or holding a women’s circle on the beach, she can be found cheering at her daughter’s track meets, striking downward dog amidst a pasture of baby goats, or singing her favorite ‘70s songs offkey while playing the guitar.

Susan E Casey

Grief and Loss Intuitive Therapist, Author, Podcaster, Coach

Susan E. Casey, MSW, MFA, is an author, a psychic intuitive mental health clinician, a certified bereavement group facilitator, a certified life coach, and a podcaster. Throughout the past 30 years, Susan has worked in hospice, in-patient, and home-based settings with teens and adults, and taught numerous courses to executive leaders and clinicians. Most recently, Susan worked for a measurement-based care organization, providing clinical coaching to therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists countrywide to improve mental health outcomes for youth and adults. Currently, Susan teaches grief and loss courses both online and in person for those who are ready to take the next tangible steps to transform their pain into light. Additionally, she co-facilitates a 6-week grief and loss group for parents who have lost a child at SerenityMe in Portland, Maine. For those looking for individual work, Susan offers 1:1 grief and loss coaching to a limited number of clients. As a therapist and writer, Susan’s deepest passion is to bring expansive and transformational stories to the world through her weekly podcast episodes. For the past two and half years, Susan interviewed people from all over the world who have sustained a deep loss and experienced renewed hope and a shift in their perspective on life as a result. The podcast, Rock Your Shine After you’ve been cracked wide open, transitioned in February 2024, into a live show, Illumination88, that she co-hosts with her colleague. They help people, in real time, with a challenge in their life. Susan’s blog (no longer active but can still be accessed under Podcast/Blog menu option) chronicled her grieving process following the death of her younger 43-year-old brother, Rocky, who died unexpectedly on February 14, 2014. Her blog led to writing her first nonfiction book, Rock On: Mining for Joy in the Deep River of Sibling Grief published on February 14, 2020, by Library Tales Publishing. Rock On won 1st place in general nonfiction in the Royal Dragonfly book contest and was a finalist in the Best 2020 Books American Fest national book contest, the Book Excellence national book contest, and the International Chanticleer Book Reviews. Both Susan’s professional and creative work have been guided by her deep belief that every individual has a purpose and inherent strengths and deserves the opportunity to reach their own unique potential to shine their inner light. Susan lives in Maine with her husband Steve and mini aussiedoodle Rocky.

Dawn DiRaimondo

Psychologist, Author, Keynote

Dr. Dawn DiRaimondo is a clinical psychologist in Sacramento, California. where she lives with her husband and two children. Dr. Dawn lost her 22 year old brother, Michael in 2004 while he was serving as an Army flight medic in Iraq. This significantly impacted her both personally and professionally. She went on to specialize in grief and loss in her private practice. After learning from a client in 2019 that few resources were available for sibling loss, she began writing. Surviving Sibling Loss: The Invisible Thread That Connects Us Through Life and Death was published in 2020. Along with sharing her own story, fourteen others that lost sibling(s) were interviewed and their insights were included as well. Surviving Sibling Loss can be found on Amazon, Audible, Kindle and more. Dr. Dawn wants to be a part of changing the conversation around grief; shifting away from a societal narrative that encourages people to "move on" but rather to one that validates the significance of grief and helps people learn to live with significant loss in a healthy and meaningful way.

Anne Pinkerton

Author

Anne Pinkerton is the author of Were You Close? A sister's quest to know the brother she lost (Vine Leaves Press, 2023). Her essays and poems have appeared in Hippocampus Magazine, Ars Medica, Modern Loss, “Beautiful Things” at River Teeth Journal, Sunlight Press, and The Bark, among other journals, as well as the anthologies, The Pandemic Midlife Crisis: Gen X Women on the Brink and Nothing Divine Dies: A Poetry Anthology About Nature. Anne holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Bay Path University.

Terry Murphy

Founder of The Healing Chickadee

Terry Murphy, a Connecticut grandmother remembers what it means to be a child in grief. At age ten, the sudden death of her sixteen-year-old brother introduced her to an early experience of tragedy and loss. In her acknowledgment of the lingering effects of her and her family's pain, she created "The Healing Chickadee." While it has been decades since that tragedy—in fact, 2021 marks the fiftieth anniversary—her realization that grief has no timetable was the impetus for her to find a way to help children seek comfort when they have suffered a loss. Taking time with her own inner child, she began to think of things that would have been helpful to her and her family as they struggled to find solace and to heal the wound of loss. Drawing on this experience, she created The Healing Chickadee and her Tweet-Hearts. The birds convey messages of comfort for a child in mourning. The content is not a substitute for therapy. Rather, the bird characters, the activities, and the songs and stories are designed to enhance a child’s social-emotional skills and provide families with a catalyst for conversations about a topic that all too often seems off-limits.

Karen St.Clair

EFT Instructor

Karen St.Clair has been practicing Energy Psychology modalities for fourteen years as an Accredited Certified EFT International Practitioner, EFT Master Trainer, Usui Reiki Master of Masters, Matrix Reimprinting Practitioner, Psych-K Facilitator and is the Founder of Reiki Tap Renewal℠. Karen is also an International Best-Selling Author, Speaker, and a highly skilled professional with a true gift for facilitating her clients’ life-changing outcomes. Contact Karen for private sessions, EFT Practitioner Training Courses, Workshops, or as a Guest Presenter.

Jordon Ferber

Comedian and Podcaster

Jordon Ferber is a stand up comedian, podcaster and a bereaved sibling. Jordon’s brother, Russell, was killed in a car accident on July 6th, 2002, at the age of 21. Since then, Jordon has worked to become a much needed voice in the bereavement community. Currently, he is his chapter’s Co-Leader, he has facilitated the The Compassionate Friends Manhattan Siblings group for the past decade, and has presented his keynote address at bereavement conferences across the country. Jordon is a unique public speaker, and producer of “Where’s the Grief?,” a podcast with (mostly) comedians who have experienced tragic loss. He and his family run The Russell Ferber Foundation, which provides scholarships to the Culinary Institute of America. He produces a yearly comedy benefit show for the foundation, continuing to bring people together and carry on the spirit of his brother Russell through love and laughter. In his spare time, Jordon enjoys writing short blurbs about himself in the third person.

Linda Falasco

Psychotherapist/Author/Speaker

Linda Falasco, LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker with over 30 years of experience working as a social worker and therapist with both children and adults. She graduated with highest honors from Temple University with a Masters in Social Work. Linda attended West Chester University where she earned her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice. She has received extensive post-masters training in child development and play therapy. Linda has a private practice counseling adolescents and adults in Newtown Square, PA. She also provides clinical supervision for therapists and counselors. In addition to her individual, group, and family therapy, Mrs. Falasco has consulted with schools, churches, and public and private agencies. In the past she has worked with children who have been abused, neglected, and traumatized; adjudicated youth in and out of placement settings; ran intensive outpatient groups for both adults and teens; and worked in a private therapy practice before opening up her own counseling practice. Linda has developed many workshops and trainings in a variety of areas both for schools and agencies. After working with parents who were court-ordered to receive co-parenting counseling, she developed a Child Focused Co-parenting Course. This came after realizing that many of the court-ordered parents had a difficult time in counseling sessions with just a therapist and co-parent. This course is a structured psycho-educational course with a deep understanding of child development. The course utilizes multimedia, such as clips from movies to demonstrate points in the course. This is an interactive class where parents leave feeling understood, empowered, and knowledgeable, with an inner drive to keep their children out of the middle! Linda has spoken on suicide loss and prevention at various conferences and trainings across the country. Linda has had extensive training and personal experience in the prevention and postvention field of suicide. After the loss of her 22-year-old brother Jeff when she was 25, she poured her grief into this field after her own therapy and healing. Linda co-coordinated the first Survivors of Suicide Conference in Philadelphia, which is held yearly now. She was an original board member of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention and was a driving force behind bringing a chapter to Philadelphia. Linda was a member of SPAN USA, Suicide Prevention Action Network, which has since merged with AFSP and is a community LifeKeeper Quilt organizer for them. She also was the co-founder of the Delaware County Suicide Awareness and Prevention Task Force, as well as the founder and coordinator for the Annual Candlelight Vigil for those Left Behind to Suicide. This vigil has drawn between 75 to 250 people each year for the past 23 years. Most recently Linda published her first book titled Mending Piece By Piece After A Suicide Loss: Guided Grief Workbook & Journal to Heal the Survivor’s Heart. Her second book Mending Piece by Piece: A Workbook & Journal for Navigating Grief with Hope will be released by February 2024. Linda has developed numerous trainings for professionals on suicide and suicide loss. She brings a unique perspective to her seminars based on her personal and professional experiences. It is a delicate mix of personal and factual information. She is able to give other providers an inside look at what survivors are thinking and feeling in order to help them better understand the hidden secrets many survivors will not verbalize. She has had trainings on Suicide Awareness and Prevention; A Promise for Tomorrow: A Teen Suicide Prevention Program; Suicide & Suicide Loss: What Providers Need to Know; Suicide and Suicide Loss; How Social Workers Can Help; Suicide Loss of a Client and/or Student: What about Me??; How to Facilitate a Survivors of Suicide Group; Suicide Loss: What the Clergy and Pastoral Counselors Need to Know; and Suicide & Suicide Loss: What the Faith Community Need to Know; The Complete Toolkit to Suicide: Prevention, Treatment and Postvention. Linda has also developed trainings in various areas of Child Development, Play Therapy, and Sand Play. Some more trainings include: Anxiety and Depression in Youth: Let’s Talk About it; How to Identify, Assist and Refer Students to Counseling; Working With The Spirited Child; Loss and Grief with Children and Teens; The Three B’s: The Bully, The Bullied and The Bystander; and Relational Aggression; Working on the Mental Game of Your Sport.

Chelsey McHale

Advocate and Facilitator

Chelsey McHale is an Arizona native. She and her older brother Clint grew up in a single-family home with their mom which posed many challenges and struggles in their upbringing. Chelsey was set to graduate from Northern Arizona University (NAU) in May of 2011 with a degree in English Education. However, life took a drastic turn when Clint died a week before her college graduation at just 25 years old from a mountain climbing accident on Camelback Mountain; one of Arizona’s most popular mountains to hike but extremely treacherous. Instead of walking down the aisle to receive her diploma, she was walking down the aisle of a church to her brother’s casket. At 23 years old, Chelsey needed to find her purpose after such a traumatic loss. She found it in the nonprofit world and has worked in various organizations for the last decade including Make-A-Wish Foundation and the American Heart Association. Since her brother’s death, she has made it her mission to advocate for safe hiking awareness. Just three years after his passing, she was able to get the City of Phoenix to install a safety sign on the very mountain that took Clint’s life that included his picture and story. She is Arizona’s spokesperson through her advocacy in sharing the message of ways to be safe while hiking so you can come home safely to your family. Chelsey also created Arizona’s first sibling loss group to support other bereaved siblings, including herself. She’s a creator and often looks to identify gaps to fill areas of change and is relentless when it comes to her advocacy. In her personal life, she enjoys reading memoirs, going up north to escape the heat in the summer, spending time with her cat Gatsby, watching thriller movies, going to concerts and comedy shows, writing song lyrics and poems, hiking, and making lifelong memories with her friends that are family. TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chelseymchale

Elaine Suarez

Bereaved Parent

Elaine Suarez lives in Bakersfield CA. She’s been married to her husband Isadore for 38 years. After dedicating 25 years of her career at State Farm Insurance as a learning & Development Specialist, she retired on August 31, 2018. Elaine is a proud mother of three children, Joseph, Allie, & Juliana. Allie (30) is an RN, she is happily married to Jordan Lerma and together they have 4 children; Jj (13), Jionni (10), Ella (6) , and Jet (2). Elaine’s youngest daughter Juliana (26) is a make-up artist for Estee Lauder and she has a son Aris Joseph Reddick (3) who she co-parents with his father Amir Reddick. Tragically, Elaine lost her only son Joe on May 28 2018 due to Fentenyl and an undetected heart disease called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM). Although Elaine experienced a devastating loss, Elaine is able to find comfort in honoring her son’s life on the social media platform, participating in her grieving mothers’ group, writing her blog, acrylic painting, reading, and learning about grief, the afterlife, and methods for healing.

Jen Schwartz

Co-President of COPE Foundation

Jen Schwartz graduated from LIU Post in 2007 with a Master's Degree in School and Mental Health Counseling and holds a Bachelor's Degree in English and Psychology from Lehigh University. During her graduate school internship, Jen co-facilitated a bereavement support group for middle school students who had expressed a need for a space to talk about their losses and the impact it had on them. Jen is the Assistant Director for the Long Island Advocacy Center, a non profit that protects the educational rights of individuals and students with disabilities, where she has worked since 2008. She works with teens who are involved in the Juvenile Justice system, and their families, to ensure they receive the appropriate educational services to be successful in school. She also facilitates groups for teens with behavioral and/or emotional difficulties and co-facilitates groups for LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent teens. When Jen's older brother passed suddenly in July 2016, she attended her first sibling loss support group through COPE (Connecting Our Paths Eternally) Foundation. She remembers feeling more connected to a group of strangers than to anyone else in her life at that time. She continues to attend the Long Island sibling group monthly, not because of her individual 'need' to attend, but because she knows there will always be someone new starting the group and if people stopped attending once they felt they didn't 'need' it, who would be there for the next person to show up? Jen is a member of COPE's Family Advisory and Program Committees and has been the Co-President of COPE’s Board of Directors since January 2022.

Laing Rikkers

Author of Morning Leaves: Reflections on Loss, Grief, and Connection an Amazon #1 New Release

Laing Rikkers is the author of Morning Leaves: Reflections on Loss, Grief, and Connection an Amazon #1 New Release. She is also the Chairwoman and Co-founder of ProSomnus, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSA) a medical device company for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). After the sudden loss of her younger sister to OSA, Laing sought solace from nature and creativity, and wrote Morning Leaves, a book of poetry to help others navigate grief. Her goal now is to share h

Kristie Polk

Psychology Professor, Author and Consultant

Dr. Kristie is a college psychology instructor, public speaker, and leadership consultant who uses her education and experience to coach other parents through grief. She brings her passion for effective communication and strong leadership to all aspects of her life, including the classroom, her family, and now her own grief journey. Using her psychological perspective, Kristie wrote a new kind of book to help young children navigate grief after the unexpected death of her daughter on March 30, 2021. She continues to focus her research on the impact of grief on our brain, body, and behavior. She is particularly interested in resilience in grief. Kristie co-leads grief support groups and retreats for other bereaved parents and is working on changing college policy to support grieving students better. Her new podcast, Before and After is scheduled to launch on March 30, 2024.

Tony Lynch

Podcaster, Non-Profit Founder, and Author

Tony Lynch is the founder of the nonprofit Memories of Us Ltd...grief support for men/ the Global Grief network, #1 international Amazon best-selling author, and host of the podcast Grief Let's Talk About It.

Maya Roffler

Podcaster

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Cara Martinisi

Founder of Love from Heaven

Cara Martinisi is a wife and mother to three boys. Her oldest son lives in heaven. She is a certified grief coach and JourneyDance™️ facilitator. Cara is the founder of the nonprofit organization, Love From Heaven. Her passion lies in helping others overcome life’s adversities through the exploration of healing modalities. Cara spoke on this topic at The Compassionate Friends National Conference in both 2021 and 2022. Her writing about grief and parenting has been published on various websites and she is currently working on a book. Cara is the recent recipient of the Extraordinary Women Award of the 99th District in New York. She enjoys spending time with her family, dancing, reading and hiking.

Christine MacDonald

Hypnosis Practitioner, QHHT Practitioner, Reiki Master, Integrative Health Coach

I’m Christine MacDonald, a Certified Hypnosis Practitioner, QHHT Practitioner, Reiki Master, and Integrative Health Coach. I believe healing isn't just about physical issues; it involves your entire being, your mind, body, and soul. At Remember Healing Hypnosis, I merge techniques like Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique (QHHT), guided meditations, energy healing, and Integrated Health Coaching. With sincerity and empathy, I guide individuals to realize their inner potential and rediscover balance through personalized sessions.

Maya Roffler

The Surviving Siblings Podcasts

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Sarah Sullivan

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Terolyn Thompson

Theatre teacher in Las Vegas!

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