Jill is a grief expert, and she talks about options for the holidays. What if we can’t be together? What if we’ve lost loved ones due to COVID? How do we handle politics at the table? What about those struggling because they have lost jobs? How do we include them without them feeling burdened? What should we remember? What are some bright spots? How can we create new traditions? How can we honor those we’ve lost. Aren’t we going to upset folks if we talk about the people who have died?
Jill Johnson-Young, LCSW, is an author, CEO, and therapist specializing in end of life and chronic illness, grief and loss, and dementia, and provides Critical Incident Stress Debriefing when a death occurs in a workplace. As CEO of Central Counseling Services in Riverside and Murrieta, California, she and her business partner created a space for healing that is safe for those who have experienced loss & trauma, and makes it possible for clients to grow and heal. She is a certified by the Grief Recovery Institute, and has created a training and certification for providing grief groups based on her “Finish, Reorganize and Reenter” process, with a full solution focused and secular curriculum for groups and retreats. Jill spent more than a decade with hospice as a medical social worker, and director of social workers, chaplains and grief staff for a large hospice covering more than 3,000 square miles. Jill was part of making her community dementia friendly as a Purple City, and facilitates a dementia support group that is now online and open to all.
As a clinician Jill works with clients and families facing dementia, end of life, chronic illness, grief and loss of all kinds, and geriatric and aging issues. She also coaches those who have had a very recent loss in how to manage the immediate aftermath of a death, and therapists in helping grieving and dementia clients. She loves speaking about those areas on the national level. Her sense of humor fosters better learning. Her goal is to make therapists better at recognizing grief and dementia and knowing how to help clients effectively and with all the areas of life they impact. Jill came to her chosen areas of expertise through her extensive hospice experience and became a subject expert on grief after being widowed twice and marrying the funeral director who took care of both her late wives. Her second wife died as a result of Lewy Body Dementia.
She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), and the American Association for Therapeutic Humor (AATH).
Jill has a website with resources for therapists and anyone interested in learning more about grief and dementia, www.jilljohnson-young.com, and one for grievers, www.yourpaththroughgrief.com. She also co-hosts a weekly grief chat with Debra Joy Hart, “Humor, Grace and Grief” on Facebook Live. Her book “The Rebellious Widow: A practical guide to love and life after loss” will be out in March, 2021 in bookstores, online and in ebook format.
She now spends quiet evenings with Stacie in the mortuary several nights a week. They share their life with three adult daughters, two grandsons, and a small herd of Oodles, who normally go to work and presentations with her. In the current pandemic they help out at home.
