The Patient-Therapist Relationship in Suicide Loss
by Wayne Hankammer, MA, LPC
Loss is a large factor in suicide. Its impact on the suicidal person is well documented as well as the devastation of loss from the actual suicide. So, loss is a two-way street in suicidology. Suicide, felt as loss, ends life of one and changes forever the lives of others.
This is the story of my experience with death and how this reality changed my life. No stranger to death, I’ve seen it as a cop in accident scenes and elsewhere. While I was the commander for an Air Force Security Police unit one of our sergeants was murdered off-duty. I lost my father and dear friends, too. I also was a suicide hotline worker fielding one very lethal caller once. But nothing compares to the suicide death of a patient of mine who will be referred to here as “Dana.” At the time, I had been working as a therapist for about eight years professionally. The review of Dana’s suicide with staff was painful and necessary, but the impact to me was delayed. Continue reading››