Joanne Cacciatore is an expert in community development, traumatic grief, psychology and mental health. Cacciatore is an associate professor at the School of Social Work. Her research is focused in traumatic death and grief including: etiology, epidemiology, culturally-appropriate interventions, social support, coping, meditation and mindfulness-based approaches. Cacciatore started The Selah Carefarm, the first carefarm for the traumatically bereaved in the U.S. and it's just outside of Sedona, Arizona. It’s a 10 acres of farmland where bereaved family members can come to both give and receive connection, compassion, and understanding. All the animals on the carefarm have been rescued from abuse, neglect, and torture. Her work was featured on Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry's Apple TV docuseries The Me You Can't See that explores the current state of the world’s mental health and emotional well-being through storytelling. Cacciatore's best selling book, Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief, is a national award winning best seller that has helped revolutionize the way our culture thinks, and feels, about grief. She works with and counsels families from all around the world who have experienced catastrophic deaths.
"My experience has been that fear gets in the way of love. It's fear of making people sad, fear of talking about loss with people and not knowing what to say. It's fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. And it's also fear of mortality, it's fear of our own people we deeply love dying."
-