Melissa has more than 17 years of experience in program conceptualization, training, and curriculum design focused on grief, loss, and trauma for healthcare, academia, youth-based NGOs, and other grief and loss-related industries. She holds a Fellow in Thanatology from the Association for Death Education and Counseling, MBA, and holds a Master's in Psychology with a clinically trained background. She is adept in childhood bereavement, bereaved students, young adult grief, suicide prevention/postvention, traumatic loss, and theory. Melissa is a nationally recognized speaker and contributor in the childhood bereavement field. She is a published academic writer and peer reviewer. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. while supporting the Help Texts mission as the Head of Clinical.
Unfortunately, suicide is one topic that carries a lot of stigma and misinformation. Because of that, it is always best to have conversations about heavy topics like suicide come from the family because children know that family is usually a trusted and well-intentioned source.