Joanne and Cheyenne
If the most devastating, catastrophic and unthinkable event happened to you – losing your child then find the angel named Joanne. One who hundreds and hundreds of families have found through the decades. Dr. Joanne Cacciatore, founder of the MISS Foundation and professor at Arizona State University, specializes in treating those affected by traumatic death. Her ‘bittersweet’ journey in life is full of 18-hour days counseling, teaching, writing, advocating and being the shoulder to cry upon.
She started the MISS Foundation nonprofit organization in 1996 that now boasts 75 chapters around the world. The central organization located in Phoenix, AZ and its chapters hold events that train health professionals regarding grief treatment to MISS walks raising awareness to the devastating effects child loss has on family members and society. MISS helps parents whose children are in the process of dying or have already died.
As an advocate of “green” mental health care, she is also a member of Associations like the American Psychotherapy Association and more. Her work has been featured in People and Newsweek magazine, the New York Times, Boston Globe, CNN and more.
Her presence as the nurturing counselor beguiles the Scorpio in her ready for combat to any of those who dismiss the loss of a child to stillbirth, battling the current controversey of over-medicating grief and bad public policy in regards to the treatment and diagnosis of family grief. Her accolades are pages long and is a trusted source for the national media and members of Congress. She was the impetus for a $3 million research grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) regarding stillbirths. The first ever.
It’s hard to sum up Joanne’s profound effect upon the people she encounters to the world we live in but we all need to be oh so thankful for her dedication to being the light so many family members desperately need when in their darkest days and places. But, if you have to sum it up, I think Joanne would say it the best - “I’m a mother of five. Four who walk and one who soars.”
Here’s a bit from Joanne herself…
You’ve spent decades helping bereaved parents. Why? What do you get out of it?
It’s an incredibly sad and mournful profession. But I did not choose it. It chose me. It is hard to describe what its like to be able to join someone in the abyss of grief, sit with them in their pain, and then walk with them, when they are ready, into a place of meaning, purpose, and healing. Though parents grieving for the duration of their lives, many do discover joy again, sometimes immense joy, though they’d give anything back to have their children.
You live in a tumultuous profession full of grief and pain that must affect you in some manner. How do you remain positive? What steps do you take each day to remain positive?
I practice mindful meditation and good self care. I practice the Kindness Project and I look for opportunities to help others- both human and animal others. That helps me to see both the beauty and the pain of life.
What are the toughest lessons you have learned from your life?
Joanne as the cover story for Raising Arizona Kids Magazine
Pain and suffering are part of the human experience. To deny this is to fragment the self, to live inauthentically. I’d rather be real and whole and sad than to be fragmented, fraudulent, and disingenuously happy.
See every opportunity you can see (and then act on it) to serve another. Learn humility. Seek to help. This, alone, can change your life.
Thank you Joey-Ann for your inspiration, helping mankind and being greater than yourself.
