Dr. Joanne Cacciatore

My blogs

Blogs I follow

About me

Gender Female
Industry Non-Profit
Occupation CEO
Location Sedona, Arizona, United States
Introduction I specialize in working with and counseling those affected by traumatic death. I am a professor & researcher at ASU and the founder of the MISS Foundation, an international nonprofit organization with 75 chapters around the world aiding parents whose children have died or are dying at any age and from any cause. I am a Diplomate of the American Academy of Psychotherapy and an advocate of “green” mental health care following traumatic bereavement. In addition, I spearhead the graduate Certificate of Trauma and Bereavement at ASU. My research has been published in peer reviewed journals such as The Lancet, Death Studies, Omega, Birth, Social Work, and Families in Society. I received my Doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Masters from Arizona State University. I was humbled to receive the prestigious Hon Kachina Award and the Sr Teresa Compassionate Care Award. I am a mother to five children, now mostly grown, “four who walk and one who soars”. My life changed profoundly in 1994 when my daughter, Cheyenne, died. Since then, I have committed my life to the service of others suffering traumatic deaths, as it was in the darkness when I truly found my self.
Interests Reading, research, Sicilia, hope, rock climbing, death, politics, life, Carl Sagan, red ripe tomatoes, mythos, true feminism, Viktor Frankl, logotherapy, after life, Bruno Bettelheim, doulas, Joseph Campbell, pedagogy, NDEs, Indie films, stones, Nagchampa, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, love, loss, longing, midwifery, hiking, dandelion tea, dreaming, artichokes, neuroscience, psyche, Freud, scorpions, mangoes, snakes, signs, symbols, astronomy, Gandhi, poetry, pacifism, politics, Kathe Kollwitz, liberty, freedom, minarchy, social justice, yerba mate, driving, culture, mourning, dance, headstones, thanatology, logotherapy, Viktor Frankl, cello, tragic optimism, Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain, herbs, nature, wonder, palliative care, dogma, stewardship, C.S. Lewis, vortexes, social construction theory, evolutionary psychology, herbivorism, Emma Goldman, kale, Carl Jung, hegemony, birth, stillbirth, symfre, traumatology, Thomas Jefferson, epitaphs, maieutics, mourning, butsudans, crosses, balance, breath, kindness, sand, surfing, rappini, Mother Teresa, compassion, cherry wood, Tibet, love, liturgies, ladybugs, pomegranates, professors, Noam Chomsky, teaching, rafting, overhangs, the Dalai Lama, ethics, Aristotle, Socratic methods, Michaela Odoni, home funerals, stones, trauma, the Phoenix, Glacier National Park, sunshine, thanatos, shadows, children's laughter, peace, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malta, mindfulness, maternity
Favorite Movies Chocolat, Namesake, Mother of Mine, Turtles Can Fly, The Corporation, Tombstone, Finding Neverland, Why We Fight, V for Vendetta, Garden State, The Station Agent, K-Pax (7/27), Fifth Element, Like Water for Chocolate, Why we Fight, Baraka, Dirty Filthy Love, Death at a Funeral, The Gods Must Be Crazy, The Red Violin, Sideways, Under the Tuscan Sun, La Nuit De Varennes, City of Angels, Powder, The Dead Poet Society, Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie, Amelie, Somewhere in Time, The Truman Show, What Dreams May Come, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Manufacturing Consent, Lost in Translation, Donnie Darko, Benny & Joon
Favorite Music Eilen Jewell, Tanita Tikaram, Rachel Yamagata, Sigur Ros, Dead Can Dance, Cat Power, Martha Wainwright, Maria Taylor, Mazzy Star, Lucinda Williams, Po' Girl, Led Zeppelin, Feist, PJ Harvey, Stevie Nicks, Sia, Cowboy Junkies, Zero 7, Peter Gabriel, State of Grace, ZZ Top, Tom Petty, Lisa Gerrard
Favorite Books Women and Nature, The Andrew Poems, Thousand Splendid Suns, Body Bears the Burden, Love as a General Theory, Making Friends with Death, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Dear Cheyenne, The Prophet, Lovely Bones, A Broken Heart Still Beats, The Last Dance, Evolution and Post Traumatic Stress, On Children and Death, In the Moment of Death, I Rigoberta Menchu, On Death and Dying, Man's Search for Meaning, Give Sorrow Words, Loss of Sadness, Civilizations and its Discontents, Existential Psychotherapy, What's it All About?, The Molecules of Emotion, Healing the Soul in the Age of the Brain, Beyond Feminine Aesthetics, Cosmos, The Heart of Darkness, Tipping Point

What reason do you have to believe the earth is flat?

I've been to the edge and fallen off.