How can you support someone who has suffered a loss by suicide? Join in this illuminating Reimagine: Life, Loss, & Love Virtual Festival conversation with Anne Moss Rogers and Gail Rubin. The online event takes place on Friday, August 28, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. CT/12:00 p.m. MT/11:00 a.m. PT. REGISTER ONLINE HERE.

TEDx and emotionally naked^® speaker, Anne Moss Rogers, lost her 20-year-old son, Charles Aubrey Rogers, to suicide on June 5, 2015. He struggled with anxiety, depression, and ultimately a heroin addiction.

A loss by suicide is like no other and survivors are especially vulnerable in grief because they often feel they are to blame for not having seen the often-subtle signs. Friends and family members feel helpless and don’t know how to respond or what to do. This will be a frank conversation on how you can support the unique needs of those who’ve lost someone to suicide.

In conversation with pioneering death educator Gail Rubin, CT, we will discuss:

• What is suicide and why do people kill themselves?
• What to say or do that will support a friend/family member.
• What is the “wrong” thing to say to a friend/family member who has lost someone to suicide.
• How to sit with someone in their pain.
• How to spot a suicide loss survivor who may be at risk of suicide themselves.

About Anne Moss Rogers

Anne Moss Rogers is a TEDx speaker, storyteller, writer, and certified suicide prevention trainer who helps people foster connection to prevent suicide, reduce substance misuse and find life after loss.

She has been interviewed by the New York Times and was the first suicide loss survivor ever invited to speak at the National Institute of Mental Health. Her blog, Emotionally Naked, reached over a half million in its first three years on subjects that have often been shoved to the back of the closet— suicide and that which triggers this cause of death, addiction and mental illness and grief. Her book, Diary of a Broken Mind, is an International Book Award Finalist and a nominee for the 2020 Library of Virginia Literary Award.

Originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina and a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, she’s been married to her husband, Randy, since 1986. They raised two sons, the late Charles Aubrey, 20, a comedian, writer, actor and rap artist, and Richard, 26, a graduate of UNC School of the Arts, currently living his dream in Los Angeles as a filmmaker.

About Gail Rubin

Gail Rubin, Certified Thanatologist, hosts the Albuquerque Death Cafe. She is a pioneering death educator. Rubin is a public speaker, a published author of three books, host of a TV interview series and podcast, a blogger, a funeral industry trade journalist, a Certified Funeral Celebrant, and an innovator in the funeral business. She created a conversation-starting game called The Newly-Dead Game®, introduced the Death Café movement in the United States, and held the first Before I Die Festival west of the Mississippi in 2017. She “knocked ’em dead” with her TEDx talk, “A Good Goodbye.”

Albuquerque Business First named her one of their 2019 Women of Influence. CRäKN, the funeral industry blog, recently identified Gail as a leader to watch. READ THE ARTICLE.

About Reimagine: Life, Loss, & Love

This event is part of the groundbreaking virtual death discussion festival Reimagine: Life, Loss & Love.  A Good Goodbye is collaborating with event hosts around the world to co-create this much-needed exploration of death-related topics. Events focus on embracing life, facing death, and loving fully, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Festival events are scheduled through September 1, 2020. VIEW THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE.