One day, Dave was having a quiet day in his workshop. He was working on his model trains, his favorite hobby. He was looking at the tracks, the way the lines interweave all around the room. And he started to think about what he had seen a few months ago in his work as a police officer. He remembered what it was like to be the first responder to the scene of a suicide. The image of the suicide scene was riveting; it seemed burned into his brain and into his retina.  In his wor

I guess you all know by now that the two celebrities, Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, took their own lives this past week.  Of course, these two celebrities were not in my social circle, but their deaths affected me. As a person and as a therapist, of course I understand that wealth and success don’t inoculate a person from suffering and suicidal thoughts. And, still…. Although I know the literature and the clinical warning signs of suicide, although I’ve had many clients de