Ask The Authors

Executive Director Marilyn Koenig asks suicide loss survivor’s questions with book authors Dr. Michael Myers and Carla Fine.  

Dr. Myers is the Vice-Chair of Education, Director of Training and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY.  

Carla Fine is the author of the widely acclaimed book, “No Time to Say Goodbye: Surviving the Suicide of a Loved One,” published by Broadway Books/Doubleday in 1999.  

Together, they co-authored a book, "Touched by Suicide: Hope and Healing after Loss." In this definitive guidebook, the authors combine their perspectives as a physician and a survivor to offer compassionate and practical advice to anyone affected by suicide.  

[April 2023]

Please join us in conversation with LaRita Archibald (Left) and Marilyn Koenig (right)

  Join Marilyn Koenig and LaRita Archibald in conversation. In 1980, Archibald founded HEARTBEAT, one of the first support groups for suicide bereaved. She has also been instrumental in giving suicide loss survivors a voice after founding the Survivor of Loss Division of the American Association of Suicidology, an international multi-disciplinary membership organization with a mission to better understand and prevent suicide. From decades of work with suicide bereaved, Archibald brings wisdom to help survivors of suicide loss build an understanding of the complexities of suicide grief.   

LaRita is the author of "Finding Peace Without All the Pieces After A Loved One's Suicide." 

[February 2023]

Please join us in conversation with Jerry Reed and Marilyn Koenig.

 Dr. Reed served as Senior Vice President for Practice Leadership at Education Development Center until his retirement in October 2021. In this capacity, he directed the Suicide, Violence and Injury Prevention Portfolio. He oversaw the work on multiple projects such as the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, the Zero Suicide Institute, the Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, the Children’s Safety Network, and several violence prevention initiatives and also served as Co-Director of the Injury Control Research Center for Suicide Prevention with partners at the University of Rochester Medical Center. 

His interests include geriatrics, mental health, suicide prevention, global violence prevention and public policy. Dr. Reed co-led the committee that updated the U.S. National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and he served as an Executive Committee member of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. Dr. Reed is currently an Advisor/Consultant to the Department of Defense Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee and a Scientific Advisor for Stop Soldier Suicide. Dr. Reed received a Ph.D. in Health Related Sciences with an emphasis in Gerontology from the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond in 2007 and his MSW degree from University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1982 with an emphasis in Aging Administration. He served in the United States Navy during the period 1974-1978. 

[September 2022]

Please join us for a conversation with Carla Fine.  Carla Fine is the author of the widely acclaimed book, No Time to Say Goodbye: Surviving the Suicide of a Loved One published by Broadway Books/Doubleday in 1999. The book, now in its 24th printing, is also available in EBooks in Kindle and Nook, and in several different languages.  

Carla has appeared on numerous national and local television and radio programs, including Oprah Winfrey, Court TV, Joan Rivers, Fox TV News, Oxygen TV, New York One, NewsCenter 4, and Tony Brown's Journal. She received her Masters of Science degree with honors from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.  Carla lives in New York City with her husband, Allen Oster, and their two Labrador retrievers, Benny and Jansey. Carla is currently working on a book on women and resilience. 

[June 2022]

Please join us in a conversation with Marilyn Koenig and Sondra Sexton-Jones. Sondra is an American author and speaker on coping with grief following the death of a loved one by suicide or other means. She is a member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, The American Counseling Association, and the American Association of Suicidology, having served as the past editor of Surviving Suicide, a newsletter for survivors of suicide, published by the American Association of Suicidology.   She wrote her book, When Someone You Love Completes Suicide, after the death of her husband by suicide.

[March 2022]

   Please join us in a conversation with Iris Bolton. 

Iris is an international lecturer and consultant who offers hope to people bereaved by death, loss and suicide. She is Director Emeritus of The Link Counseling Center, Atlanta, Georgia, where she served as full-time Director for 36 years.  Her first book, "MY SON ... MY SON ... A Guide to Healing After Death, Loss or Suicide," was written after her 20-year-old son, Mitch, took his own life in 1977. Her co-author was her father, Curtis Mitchell. It is now in its 23rd edition.  

[January 2022]

Please join us as we chat with Margo Fowkes, founder of Salt Water - Find Your Safe Harbor (www.findyourharbor.com).  

Salt Water is for those who have lost someone they can't live without - a child, a sibling, a spouse, a parent, a close friend - and the people who love them. Salt Water provides a safe harbor where you can find comfort, support and tools to survive your loss and rebuild your life.   

[March 2021]

Please join us as we chat with (left) J. David Pincus and (right) Rick Knapp, authors of Sons of Suicide: A Memoir of Friendship.  Rick and David met in high school and soon realize they share a heartbreaking secret: Each of their mothers took her life just a few years earlier. Feeling lost and abandoned, they bonded instantly. Decades later, they learn that two other close friends had also lost parents to suicide. Over time, each of the four sons opens up about how his parent’s decision changed him and the course of his life. They soon discover that they are more than friends. They are brothers.  

[May 2021]

  Please join us in a conversation with Kim Burditt,  Senior Manager, Programs & Trainings, Suicide Postvention and Carla Stumpf Patton, Ed.D., L.M.H.C.,F.T., Senior Director, Postvention Programs of T.A.P.S. (Tragedy Assistance Program For Survivors) 

Kathleen is the California Representative of Livingworks Education, USA as well as a  consultant and trainer with an emphasis on suicide prevention, intervention and postvention needs.  

[October 2020]
 

 Dr. Wick is Director of Suicide Prevention at WellSpace Health, a nationally accredited Suicide Prevention program. Dr. Wick started as a crisis line volunteer two years after the loss of her oldest brother to suicide, and advanced in her career and studies over her tenure at the crisis center, currently serving as Director.    

[September 2020]
 

Franklin has been a peer grief helper since 1999. He also co-led the Survivors of Suicide Loss Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, which in 2015 published national guidelines for suicide grief support. Franklin supports the practice of peer grief help in memory of his father, Joseph, who died by suicide in 1978.

[July 2020]
 

Barbara is a professional speaker and trainer for corporations, conferences, universities, and government agencies. Three weeks prior to Barbara giving birth to triplets, her father died by suicide. Barbara's story was featured in the Emmy award winning documentary, "Fatal Mistakes, Families Shattered by Suicide."

[June 2020]

Brady is the author of "The Gift of Second."  She is a licensed marriage and family therapist, as well as a two-time survivor of suicide loss. 

She is the founder of www.thegiftofsecond.com, a website created for suicide loss survivors. 

[April 2020]

Board President of Friends for Survival.  Kelly shares her life now as an "only" parent to her two children. 

[April 2020]

Friends for Survival Board Member Susan Reynolds will be interviewing Exec Director Marilyn Koenig. 

[February 2020]

Friends for Survival Executive Director Marilyn Koenig (on the right) interviews Ronnie Walker, founder and Executive Director of Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors. 

[January 2020]