My heart goes out to the victims and families of those who died during this most recent senseless tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Being a parent and  professional counselor myself, I felt a guttural pain imagining how I would feel if my child had been shot. My grief can only be a miniscule fraction of what the parents whose children were shot are feeling. My hope is that we respond to all of the victims with compassion and caring.

I am encouraged by the outpouring of care focused on the children, and educators who were shot, and their families. The reactions to Adam Lanza’s action’s are all over the place from calling him evil, blaming his Asperbergers diagnosis, blaming his mom for teaching him how to use guns, blaming his mom for having guns in the home. All the blaming and pointing fingers will not bring the children and educators back. Pointing at one person, mental illness, guns or evil only trivializes the problem. There is not one thing that caused this tragedy; the best answer is “all of the above” contributed to the tragedy. Read More