Jennifer Vriend

Dr. Jennifer Vriend is a child and adolescent psychologist from Canada. She is a kind-of-but-not-quite-widow who lost her loved one to alcoholism in 2020 when their son was 11 years old. She struggled in her relationship for several years before separating from her husband and then following 3 very difficult years, he died due to alcoholic hepatitis. Dr. Vriend loves working with families and although her personal experiences have made life very difficult, she is learning to use her personal experiences to help others who have had their lives flipped upside down. Through her research, clinical work, and personal experience, she has become an advocate for the role of self compassion in healing from grief, with a particular interest in complicated grief such as death by suicide and/or addiction.