Dr. John Wilson
Dr. John Wilson PhD. John has specialised in bereavement and loss for 20 years, as a counsellor, supervisor and trainer. He is author of Supporting People through Loss and Grief: An Introduction for Counsellors and Other Caring Practitioners.
He completed his PhD in 2000 after six years of case study research with bereaved clients. John is a visiting research fellow at York St John University and Director of Bereavement Services at York St John University Counselling and Mental Health Clinic.
Since early March, John has taken a close interest in adapting the outcomes of his doctoral thesis to supporting clients bereaved of a loved one from Covid-19 and those bereaved from other causes during the lockdown.
With other counsellors he runs a closed support group on social media, for those bereaved during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Professor Lynne Gabriel
Director, York St John University Counselling and Mental Health Centre
Professor Lynne joined the academic and teaching team at York St John in 2003. She is Professor of Counselling and Mental Health, a British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) Accredited and Registered Counsellor and Psychotherapist, and a trained supervisor of practitioners working within the counselling and helping professions.
As an experienced mental health researcher and practitioner, Lynne has taught core modules on developing helper skills. She also leads on a postgraduate research year for counselling professionals seeking to develop their practitioner-researcher skills and knowledge. Lynne supervises coaching, counselling, counselling psychology and allied health research students and Chairs the University’s Research Degree Committee.
In 2016, Lynne founded York St John’s Counselling and Mental Health Centre and two years later, its associated Research & Training Clinic Consortium (RTCC). The RTCC membership is drawn from several counselling and mental health centres set in UK Universities. Lynne Chairs the Ethics and Good Practice Guidance Committee for the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy and delivers CPD on relational ethics for the counselling professions. Lynne is also a member of BACP’s Research Committee, supporting strategic development of research.
Liz Rothschild
Liz Rothschild, author of Full Circle Productions, Westmill Woodland Burial Ground, Humanist Celebrant
Liz Rothschild is a writer, actor, playwright and founding director of Westmill woodland burial ground in Wiltshire. She has been a funeral celebrant for more than 25 years and has run numerous death cafes and a course on preparing for end of life. In 2012 she launched, and continues to curate, the Kicking the Bucket festival in Oxford. She also wrote and performs a one-woman show, Outside the Box – a life show about death, which premiered in 2016 and has toured the UK and US. These stories come from her audiences, people she has worked with and her own life.
Linda Magistris
CEO of the Good Grief Trust
Linda founded The Good Grief Trust following the death of her partner Graham in 2014, from a rare form of cancer. Linda’s personal grief led her to realise that more could be done to help the bereaved. By bringing together UK bereavement services and information in one place, the Trust’s vision is to ensure that anyone grieving under any circumstance can receive a choice of immediate support, tailored to their own personal experience, in order to help them to move forward with their lives.
Andy Langford
Andy Langford is the Clinical Director for Cruse Bereavement Care. Cruse is the largest bereavement support organization in the UK - providing support to those grieving, across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Andy has worked in the voluntary sector for 23 years, in homelessness, mental health, substance misuse, and with older people. Andy has been a BACP accredited member for over 15 years, with over 17 years’ experience working directly with bereaved people. He holds qualifications in integrative counselling, cognitive behavioral therapy, clinical supervision, life coaching, and an MSc from Cass Business School. Andy’s experience includes private practice and training, as well as managing and directing services of many shapes and sizes! Andy has a passion for working with people experiencing suicidality, as well as young people in foster care (for whom he provides respite foster care, with his family).
Dr. Jane M. Mullins
Dr. Jane M. Mullins is a Dementia Nurse Consultant, Author and Founder of Finding the Light in Dementia Training and Wellbeing Hub. She has devoted over 30 years to the study and practice of dementia care, through listening to and supporting people and their families during their diagnosis in memory clinics, caring for them in hospital and in care homes, she has helped throughout all of the stages of their condition.
Jane has uncovered certain common features that may help health and social care staff, family carers and the people they care for find better ways of coping. Her practice experience is backed up by expert knowledge gained from keeping up to date as a Researcher at the Awen Institute, Swansea University and where her PhD explored multisensory ways of communication and how to stay connected with people living with dementia.
Jean Lee
What would you do if both parents were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s on the same day?
Jean Lee worked full time teaching elementary school while she was thrust into a caregiving role for her mom and dad when they were dually diagnosed.
Her memoir, Alzheimer’s Daughter, follows two sisters–– Jean living a mile from her parents, and her sister living 1,000 miles away––through a near-decade journey as they work together to move their parents out of their life-long home, and eventually to a locked memory care facility. At the end of this hand in hand decline, the sisters are honored to be together as their parents breathe their last breath. Sadness and loss contrast with tenderness and devotion as Jean uses the elderly couple’s WWII love letters, found during the final cleanout, as chapter beginnings.
After the publication of Alzheimer’s Daughter, Jean connected with other authors of Alzheimer’s books, to co-found AlzAuthors.com with the goal of eliminating the stigma and silence often accompanying a diagnosis. AlzAuthors enables caregivers and those living with memory impairment to find written resources – memoirs, novels, nonfiction, or blogs – which educate and enlighten. The site is now managed by five administrators, and has posted weekly essays from over 300 authors with direct links to their books.
Professor
Robert A. Neimeyer
Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, maintains an active consulting and coaching practice, and also directs the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, a “university without walls” for international online training in grief therapy. Neimeyer has published 30 books, including Routledge’s series on Techniques of Grief Therapy, and serves as Editor of Death Studies. The author of over 500 articles and chapters and a popular workshop presenter, he is currently working to advance a more adequate theory of grieving as a meaning-making process. In recognition of his contributions, he has been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by both the Association for Death Education and Counseling and the International Network on Personal Meaning.
Testimonials: Live Attendees
