Our History

The  Clinician Survivor Coalition exists in a large part due to the AAS Clinician Survivor Task Force, originally formed in 1997, by several members of the American Association of Suicidology. Its aim was to develop and provide postvention for clinicians who had lost a patient to death by suicide. The founders recognized that, although approximately 1 in 5 psychotherapists (and as many as 1 in 2 psychiatrists and psychiatric trainees) lose a patient to suicide during the course of their career, the aftereffects of this loss on clinicians received very little attention. They recognized that for clinician-survivors, confidentiality and other legal issues, stigma around suicide, and the feared (and actual) negative reactions and judgments of colleagues often exacerbates the pain,  grief and trauma of the loss itself. They also found that, in general, those colleagues and supervisors who had not experienced a suicide loss were ill prepared to support those who had.

The initial goal of the AAS Task Force was to begin to shed light on the topic of the clinician’s suicide loss, so that clinicians could start to reduce their isolation, speak about their experiences and begin the healing process. One of the founders, John McIntosh, developed  a national website in order to provide education, resources and contacts, opportunities for clinicians to share and post about their experiences, as well as a bibliography of publications relevant to clinician-survivors.

In 2003, Nina Gutin and Vanessa McGann became co-chairs of the AAS Task Force, and decided to expand its reach to include clinicians who have lost family members/loved ones to suicide. Although there are clear differences between the nature of professional and personal losses, there is also a great deal of commonality in the impact of these losses, particularly in the ways in which they affect clinical work, professional relationships and professional identities. In addition, Clinician Survivors of each type of loss may face potential stigma and isolation from colleagues, both in relation to the suicide itself and to subsequent personal vulnerability.  The task force grew to incorporate an international  listserve and some members have run virtual support groups for clinician survivors.

In 2021, Nina and Vanessa chose to create this independent Coalition of Clinician-Survivors (CCS). John McIntosh helps to maintain and update our website, including our comprehensive bibliography. We will expand and to add postvention protocols developed by many of our coalition members. Nina Gutin and Vanessa McGann have developed a training for individual clinicians and agencies: Clinicians and Suicide Loss: What We Know, What We Can Do! which includes guidelines for best supporting impacted staff in the aftermath of suicide.

What We've Achieved And WHAT WE HOPE FOR

We have a list serve for clinician survivors 

This list serve provides opportunities for clinicians to share thoughts and ideas as well as support with each other.

Our future goals include the:
1) Use of our collective experiences around suicide loss to create and disseminate educational materials for training institutes and clinics.
2) Expansion of the website to include more testimonials and more member contacts.
3) Initiate and dissemination of more research on topics related to clinician suicide loss.

The task force hopes to continue to provide support, education and resources to Clinician Survivors. This website (see above tabs) offers opportunities to post and share individual experiences, to reach out to “veteran” clinician-survivors who have offered to be (geographical) contacts to “new” survivors, and to access an updated bibliography of relevant publications (thanks to Dr. John McIntosh).

If you would like to become a phone and/or email "contact" for new Clinician-Survivors, please send your contact information;
If you would like to submit a narrative for others to read, please send it to us at info@cliniciansurvivor.org

Thank you for visiting the Coalition of Clinician Survivors (CSC) website. We welcome your involvement and suggestions.

Co-Chairs,

Vanessa McGann, PhD and Nina Gutin, PhD

Who We Are:

  • CoChairs: Vanessa McGann, PhD and Nina Gutin, PhD

  • Client/patient Loss: Paula Marchese, LCSW

  • Membership Questions: Marcia Epstein, LMSW

  • Historian & Scholar: John McIntosh, PhD