About the author

Shaileen Backman is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 40 years of experience as a psychotherapist. She has worked in public Mental Health, in private practice, and as a Bereavement Counselor, where she presented varied workshops on grief to both professional and community organizations.

Presentations delivered include: Coping with Grief, Caregiver Support, Holidays and Bereavement, Bereavement Counseling 101, Suicide Prevention and Awareness, and Your Grief Skill Set. She has led and co-led numerous support groups which provided grief education and expressive therapies utilizing writing, music, and art. She has worked with all ages, adults, teens, and children, hosted a grief book club, a writing workshop, has led social support groups and parents’ groups, and worked at annual grief camps. She has presented to grass roots organizations, at churches, to staff at retirement homes and assisted living facilities. She has presented to social workers, bereavement counselors, chaplains, music therapists and at the annual conference for the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), Virginia and Metro DC Chapters, at both their in-person and Virtual Summit in 2024.

Course of studies included a double major (BA) in Social Rehab and English, a Master’s in Social Work (MSW), Licensure in Clinical Social Work, and Certification as a Clinical Trauma Professional. Continuing to follow her interest in the use of narrative as a therapeutic tool she focused much of her continuing education on studying the use of written word, symbols, and imagery, in guided imagery, Jungian dreamwork, griefwork, bibliotherapy, and journaling. She is currently retired from practice having spent the latter part of her career as a Bereavement Counselor for Hospice.

Leaving Hospice work afforded the time and space to heed her lifelong call to write. She participates in writing groups and was published in an anthology of DC Metro area women writers titled Furious Gravity, edited by Melissa Scholes Young. She has recently had two more pieces accepted for publication this summer in an anthology titled, Unfolding, edited by Lisa Colburn of Market Street Writers.

When Grief Calls Your Name is the title of both her blog and her upcoming book. It is an offering of personal and professional experiences designed to help those navigating their way through the arduous landscape of grief.

Contact info: shaileenbackman.lcsw@gmail.com