Meet Your Group Facilitators

After losing my brother to suicide and surviving my own struggles with major clinical depression, I committed to doing everything in my power to help others navigate the often difficult and confusing world of mental health treatment, support, and suicide loss. During my tenure teaching psychology, I came to understand the power and necessity of having open, honest dialogue with students and adults about mental illness, self-harm, and suicide.

Since 2009, I have attended the local suicide loss support group, first as a survivor and now as a survivor and peer facilitator. Holding space for people to share their experiences, thoughts and challenges builds community and saves lives.

I have been trained by Lifelines, a suicide prevention program for middle and high schools, as a survivor support group facilitator and a Healing Conversations volunteer by AFSP, and as a speaker by NAMI’s Survivor Voices program.

I lost my wonderful, talented, mentally ill brother, David C.K. McClelland to suicide in 1976, when he was 29 and I was 19.

His loss has informed every aspect of my life. Although he died long ago, I think about him and miss him all the time.

I have had a much longer and stabler life than my brother had. I’ve married, had children, had a successful professional career, and tried to improve myself with professional help and spiritual disciplines. There have also been times when I no longer wanted to be alive.

I have found the solution to my personal difficulties in trying to be of service to others. I look back and see how much love and care I have received and would like to do that in return. I welcome the chance to serve others.

In 1997, my only child Bryan lost his life at 16 to suicide and I could barely live without him. That traumatic blow sent me on a trajectory to regain meaning in my life and a decade of suicide prevention leadership with BCSP  (berkshirecoalition.org)

Back in the 1990's, I desperately needed to talk about my son at any bereavement support group I could find, sometimes driving for hours to attend. Two years later,I was trained by AFSP.org to help facilitate those suicide loss groups.

When the timing was better I made a commitment to offer the first ongoing drop-in suicide loss support group in Berkshire County. The group is still running today, at least two decades later under the thoughtful guidance of Lori & Tim. While I no longer live full-time in the Berkshires, I do still run the Zoom meeting on the 3rdTuesdays ever since COVID interrupted our in-person group.

I hope you can find some peace in knowing you are not alone in this loss. We will do whatever we can to stand beside you in your grief.