Healing Together: Insights from Suicide Loss Survivors
What Helped, What Hurt, and the Path Forward in Our Grief
Join Samaritans on World Mental Health Day for a powerful and compassionate webinar featuring a panel of suicide loss survivors who will share their personal journeys of grief and healing. Discover what forms of support were most helpful immediately following their loss, what actions or words were unintentionally hurtful, and the types of support they wished they had received. Whether you are a survivor yourself, a friend, a family member, or a professional seeking to better support those in grief, this webinar will provide invaluable insights and guidance.
This panel will be recorded and sent to all who register.
All panelists are suicide loss survivors and volunteers with grief support programs offered by Samaritans. In that role, they facilitate SafePlace group meetings for suicide loss survivors as well as one-on-one Survivor to Survivor visits:
Lynn Bennet lost her partner Edmond in July 2017. She has been volunteering with Samaritans as a facilitator for Suicide Grief Support programs since January 2019. Outside of her work with Samaritans, Lynn is a technical designer for a big and tall men’s clothing company.
Shannon Woolley has been volunteering with Samaritans since 2020. She previously worked as a psychiatric occupational therapist and received a doctorate from Harvard University in counseling and consulting psychology. She later shifted her career to focus on theater. She has worked as an actress and wrote a screenplay based on a true story about a suicide death that occurred while she was in graduate school, working on her dissertation.
Moderators:
Sissi O’Shaughnessy is Senior Director of Suicide Grief Support at Samaritans where she oversees SafePlace grief support group meetings, Survivor to Survivor visit, and the launch of a LOSS Team – an effort to connect loss survivors with peer support immediately following a suicide. She is also a suicide loss survivor and the founder of the Mo Foundation, honoring her late husband. Sissi previously worked as a Community Education and Outreach trainer with Samaritans, where she provided workshops to schools and other communities on suicide prevention, including teaching about warning signs, risk factors, and how to best support someone who is struggling with suicidal ideation.
Steven J. Karaiskos, Ph.D., is the Founder of Elpis Consulting, Coaching, & Community Building. Steven is an educator and emotion scientist, a leader in the development of whole child emotional well-being, an advocate for educator well-being, an activist for suicide prevention/awareness & grief, and a dynamic and creative community builder. He is a suicide loss survivor himself and facilitates peer grief support groups for those who have had a loss to suicide. He was previously Senior Director of Community Education & Outreach with Samaritans, Inc.
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