About the Authors

Unfinished Conversation
Healing from Suicide and Loss-A Guided Journey

Robert E. Lesoine
With Marilynne Chöphel, MFT

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“Unfinished Conversation chronicles a path of transformation from anger and despair to compassion and liberation.”
—Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

“Beautifully written, this book is pure medicine for the grieving heart.”
—Tara Brach, PhD, Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

“This eloquent book is a personal companion for those left behind, a friend nudging us forward with compassion and wisdom.”
—Christopher Germer, PhD, Clinical Instructor, Harvard Medical School, author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion

“Expertly woven into the raw feelings expressed in the journaling of Lesoine’s loss are the tools and techniques that will help to understand, heighten, experience and refine these emotions. The authors claim this journey will help anyone left after a suicide find greater perspective, meaning, and wellbeing in their lives. I agree without reservation… Unfinished Conversation is a book that I will use in my own clinical practice and one that I will recommend to friends and family. The book helps to create some understanding out of an experience that is largely devoid of it. Most importantly, the book helps to believe that there really is hope that it gets better.”
—American Association of Suicidology

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Authors’ Acknowledgments

Robert Emile Lesoine, MA, Ed.

is an educator, musician, writer, singer, and composer. His poetry, stories, and articles have been published in a number of alternative journals. He brings the strength and compassion developed through years of teaching music to inner-city children and teens to his support for survivors of suicide. Meditation and the study of Buddhism have been the ground of his daily life since 1990, and they lend a deep spiritual base to the healing process he offers in Unfinished Conversation.
His own experience of healing his grief through writing is the basis of this book and his support of other survivors. Robert’s website, www.unfinishedconversation.com, offers many resources for those healing from suicide and loss. He is the father of an adult son, Charlie, and lives in Santa Monica, California, with his wife Amy and their new dog Frisbee.

Marilynne Chöphel, MFT

is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has offered depth psychotherapy since 1990 and specializes in the treatment of trauma with mindfulness, somatic awareness, and compassionate presence. She is a Certified Advanced Practitioner of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for treatment of acute and developmental trauma, and has assisted their trainings for several years. She brings to her work a strong foundation in mindfulness meditation and yoga, both of which she has taught for more than twenty-five years, as well as relationship workshops. The healing process of this book is inspired by her study of leading clinical treatments for trauma, as well as early experience working on a suicide crisis line, and as a therapist supporting individuals at the edge of life and death. Marilynne’s website, www.dharmaspirit.com offers resources and practical tools for those seeking healing through the challenges and losses in life. She is the mother of her adult sons, Brian and Kevin, two of her main teachers and companions on life’s journey. She lives and works close to nature in Lafayette, California.

Unfinished Conversation Healing from Suicide and Loss-A Guided Journey