About Lisa

Presented an assembly at West Essex Middle School

Lisa Athan, MA Grief Recovery Specialist

Lisa Athan is the Executive Director and founder of Grief Speaks. Lisa has over 25 years of experience in communicating educational and inspirational information to adults, teens and children. Her speciality is facilitating workshops and training programs on grief and loss. Lisa is able to communicate with passion, compassion and humor. She explains that grief is not only about death but divorce, job loss, pet loss, moving, bullying, living with someone who is ill or addicted, having someone in the family incarcerated, loss of home and more.

Lisa has a Master's degree in Education and Counseling and is a Grief Recovery Specialist. Lisa serves on the Traumatic Loss Coalition for Youth as a Lead Responder in Union, Essex and Middlesex Counties. Lisa also is on staff at Camp Clover, a NJ bereavement day camp for children and teens. There she is the bereavement specialist and facilitates sharing circles as well as runs the staff trainings and conducts screenings for the camp. Lisa worked at Fair Oaks Hospital in the outpatient recovery unit working with people dealing with drug and alcohol addiction. Lisa also worked at The Center for the Treatment of Eating Disorders and ran groups for people dealing with eating disorders and their parents. Lisa worked at Overlook Hospital on the in-patient psychiatric unit as a counselor and facilitated daily group therapy, and met hundreds of teens and adults suffering with unacknowledged and unresolved grief which often presented itself through addictions, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, psychosis, self injurious behavior, and suicide attempts.

Lisa speaks to various audiences including children, teens and adults in many different venues such as schools, service organizations, hospitals, assisted living communities, companies, police and fire departments, first aid squads, agencies, religious affiliations, support groups, parent groups, and more. Lisa speaks to students, K -12th and college students, in their classrooms as well as in assemblies. Students write Lisa letters thanking her for "changing their lives" "helping them to speak up to an adult about their depression or anxiety" "giving them the knowledge about normal grief reactions signs that more help may be necessary". Lisa's programs leave participants with a wealth of knowledge, skills and tools and a deeper respect and understanding for the grieving and healing process. People will "get" the value of listening to a griever and the value of finding the words for our experiences, losses and feelings. The importance of finding healthy ways to express those feelings and thoughts is key to Lisa's message along with the understanding that grief is unique to each person. No two people grieve in the same exact way. Lisa helps people find helpful ways to deal with anniversaries, special days and other very personal times of remembrance of a loved one who has died. Audiences come away with an understanding of what they can do when a loved one is dying or ill, how they can create memory books, suggestions of how many others have learned to include the memories of a deceased loved one, in their present celebrations if they choose.

Lisa is a knowledgeable, engaging and compassionate grief educator who specializes in speaking with adults and young people about grief and loss. Her passion is to normalize grief and loss in our grief avoiding and "get over it" society. Lisa helps people voice their thoughts and feelings about their losses. Lisa creates a safe space and teaches others to do the same which enables people to acknowledge, identify and express their grief. She teaches healthy ways to identify, handle and express the normal and natural feelings and thoughts that follow a loss of any type. Lisa teaches that everyone grieves in their own time and in their own way. Children and teenagers grieve differently than adults do. This information is vital for adults who wish to guide and support a grieving child or student.

Lisa realized that a significant amount of the patients admitted to the hospital's psychiatric unit had experienced multiple losses either in childhood or recently, whether it was a death of a significant person, loss of relationship through divorce, loss of purpose or identity through retirement, loss of job, estrangement in relationships, domestic violence, moving, emotional, sexual or physical abuse as a child, a past traumatic experience, bullying, abandonment or other secondary losses as a result of their addictions or depression or other symptomatology. There were also many patients with a mental health disorder who had needed immediate stabilization and aftercare follow up. Lisa also served as the Coordinator of Education and Outreach for Good Grief. Good Grief is a resource for grieving children, teens and their families. This non-profit organization provides free, year round peer support programs for children, teens and adults coping with loss due to death. Lisa led 4 thirty hour facilitator training sessions for Good Grief.

Lisa has been trained by the Glasser Institute in Choice Theory, Lead Management and Peaceful Parenting.
Lisa has trained and became certified as a Grief Recovery Specialist with the Grief Recovery Institute in California.
Lisa has been trained in Post Traumatic Stress Management through the Traumatic Loss Coalition for Youth, by Robert Macy, PhD. Lisa completed two full days on Protocol of Handling a Suicide or Homicide for the School Setting. She serves on the Union County, Essex and Middlesex County Traumatic Loss Coalitions for Youth : School and Community Based Responders. Lisa also serves as a volunteer for Comfort Zone Camp, a camp for grieving children ages 7-17. Lisa also serves on the advisory board of Good Grief, as well as being a speaking consultant.

Lisa Athan is a member of:

ADEC (Association for Death Education and Counseling)
AAB (American Academy for Bereavement)
ACA (American Counseling Association)
IATP (International Association of Trauma Professionals)
NAGC (National Alliance for Grieving Children)

Lisa has had additional specialized training and continuing education in:

Trauma and Grief in Youth
Applied Suicide Invervention Skills Training
Stategies to Reduce Youth Violence
Disaster Management and Psychological First Aid
Columbine Ten Years After: The State of Threat Assessment in Our Schools
Suicide Prevention
The CASE Approach: The Chronological Assessment of Suicide Events
EMDR: Grief and Trauma
LGBT Youth Family-Focused Approach to Reduce Risk for Suicide and Other Health Problems
Different Ways of Grieving, Different Ways of Healing
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental Health Disorders and Suicide in Youth
Two day course at Johns Hopkins University on Loss and Grief Work with Children taught by Linda Goldman (author of many books on loss)
Responding to Adolecent Suicide Protocols for Schools taught by Donna Schuurman (executive director of the Dougy Center in Portland, Oregon)
Gangs, Drugs and Violence: A Threat to all Communities, Union County Gang Prevention Symposium
Parents with Cancer and other Diseases
Grief and/or Learning Disabilities in Children
Understanding and Responding to the Needs of Children After Large Scale Disasters
9/11, Terrorism and the Classroom
Children, Families, Schools and Trauma
Managing Traumatic Loss and Grief in Children and Adults
Understanding the Needs of the Dying
Living with Grief: Before and After the Death
Tools to Assist the Dying, The Grieving and Those Who Love Them
Children of Substance Abusers
Creating Meaningful Memorials by William Hoy, ADEC
Approaches to Relief of Suffering
Understanding and Supporting Under-Recognized Grief
Kids on the Continuum from Difficult to Dangerous
Understanding Youth Culture: Substance of Abuse
Is it Anger or is it Abuse? Assessment and Interventions: Domestic Violence and Anger Management
Child Traumatic Stress: Understanding and Serving through a Cultural Lens
Supporting Children and Families in Transition
Diversity and End of Life Care
Beyond Survival: Empowering Female Trauma Victims
Why Some Bounce Back and Some Never Do: Resillence in Children Who Have Experienced Childhood Abuse
The Prevalence of HIV/AIDS Among Today's Youth and Adults Over 50
Introduction to Art Therapy
Children of Substance Abusers
Grief, Trauma and PTSD
Grief and EMDR
The School's Response to Suicide

Lisa presented at a crisis hotline training

Presented on helping grieving callers