Kintsugi
Our Values
Kintsugi is the Japanese method of repairing broken ceramics by using a precious metal, often gold. The gold leaves “scars”, thus enhancing the breaks. When completed, the object is often more beautiful and stronger than it originally was.
Loss changes us. As it should. Working through grief is like taking a shattered plate and fitting the pieces back together. The pieces are all there but the plate is different – stronger in some places, more beautiful in others.
Whether your loss is recent or many years ago, the New Orleans Grief Center is here to help you fit the pieces back together through counseling in a safe, supportive space.
“I just want somewhere to put my grief.” I was imagining a vessel for it: a long, shallow wooden bowl, irregularly shaped. I had the sense that if I could chant, or rend my clothes or tear my hair, I could, in effect, create that vessel in the world.'”
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Meghan O’Rourke
The Long Goodbye
individual
You are the expert on your life. Counselors are here to assist you in reaching your goals through empowerment and providing you with the assistance you need to live your best life. We do this through developing a relationship that is based on trust and respect for you, the individual.
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It is through building a therapeutic relationship that healing can happen. Initially, meetings may be more frequent to establish rapport and understand your concerns. Moving forward, you and the counselor will determine the number and frequency of sessions.
group
Therapeutic Grief Support groups are designed to assist in normalizing the emotions and experiences of grief. Sharing your story and connecting with others who are experiencing similar emotions is an important part of the process. Although each person’s loss is different, speaking freely with others who understand what you are going through provides validation and healing.
Our Team
Compassionate Experts
I developed a passion for helping others on their grief journey after a personal loss resulted in feelings of aloneness and confusion for many years. It was not until after I dealt with the emotions that I was able to see how denying them was impacting my life. Picking up the broken pieces and repairing them, one by one, allowed me to put my heart back together and live a full life.
Grief is a life event we all face eventually. Our society has gotten away from mourning openly so people are more and more likely to suppress their emotions when it comes to grief. There is no way to get OVER grief, you have to get THROUGH it. It is a process.
I founded the New Orleans Grief Center to provide that space where you can take the broken pieces of your heart, examine them, nurture them, and put them back together, leaving seams and scars that represent the work you are doing to heal.
In addition to the New Orleans Grief Center, I have a private practice supporting adolescents and adults with depression, anxiety and substance use disorder.
Education – University of New Orleans
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Master of Education, Counseling, December, 2017
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Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, 1988
Certification
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Licensed Professional Counselor – #7288
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Certified Grief Informed Professional – Evergreen Certifications, 2022
Professional Experience
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Bridge House/Grace House – Program Counselor
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Jewish Family Service (JFS) – Counselor Intern
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Addiction Counseling Education Resources (ACER)– Counselor Intern
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Founder of Motherless Daughters of New Orleans, a support group of girls and women who have experienced the loss of their mother prior to the age of twenty-five.
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Allison is also a trained in Crisis Intervention, C.P.R. and is an inactive Certified Public Accountant.
Allison Lindsey, LPC-S
Licensed Professional Counselor
Founder, New Orleans Grief Center
Diverse Perspectives
My work is existential, in that I help clients find their way to make meaning, and a way forward, from the challenging experiences and sorrows with which they struggle. My background in communications, arts, and literature inform my therapy, which is grounded in mindfulness, spirituality, and creative solutions. I offer a strengths-based approach, rooted in compassion and kindness. I work with clients to understand feelings, achieve clarity, find purpose, and integrate their experience of, with the aim of embodying more enriched, hope-filled lives.
I also work with elderly clients in their care homes with reminiscence therapy, and have a private practice where I support individuals and couples with relationship, family,
anxiety, and substance use disorder issues.
Education – University of New Orleans, Tulane University
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Master of Education, Counseling
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Bachelor of General Studies
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Concentration in Media Arts & Journalism
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Certification
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Licensed Professional Counselor, Supervisor – #4189
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Nationally Certified Counselor – #883794
​Professional Experience
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Bridge House/Grace House – Program Counselor, Clinical Director
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Addiction Recovery Resources – St. Charles Parish Application Program Counselor
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Addiction Recovery Resources New Orleans – Counseling Intern
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Phi Kappa Phi – International Honor Society
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Jan is also a trained in Crisis Intervention, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and C.P.R .
Jan Clifford, LPC-S, NCC
Ongoing Training
Grief hits you when you least expect it. It is like a wave that crashes onto you and knocks you off your feet. While going through it myself, I found that I had to remind myself of who I was and lean on others not be knocked over. This is what led me back to school to earn a Master’s in Counseling. No one has to go through grief alone.
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As a counselor intern, I am here to assist in meeting your goals by applying the skills learned thus far and increasing my knowledge through actual counseling experiences. While working as a counselor intern, I am supervised by my program as well as Allison Durant, the founder of the New Orleans Grief Center. My interests lie in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Art Therapy, and Play Therapy. Learning more about these theories will help me help others through some of their hardest times. I hope to work with clients who are struggling with infertility, pregnancy loss, body grief, and those with loved ones in palliative or hospice care.
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Education
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Wake Forest University, Master of Arts in Counseling, expected graduation 2025
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Tulane University, Bachelor of Arts, Media Arts
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University of Southern Mississippi, Master of Science, Public Relations
Mental Health Volunteer Work
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Sarah’s Laughter – Christian Support for Infertility and Pregnancy Loss- Group Leader
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Ronald McDonald House
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Baby Steps Infertility Awareness Walk
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Crohns & Colitis Awareness Walk
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Diabetes Tour de Cure
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Ulster Project
Allison R. Waldron – Counselor Intern
