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Mary Kelly Perschy

     Mary Perschy believes that grief can be a transforming process for those who are willing to enter into the mystery of the experience. In her seventeen years as a facilitator of grief groups, especially groups for teens, she is convinced of the value of accompanying teens in a group setting.

She now recognizes that her enthusiasm for encouraging such support springs from her personal story of wrestling with the feelings of grief as a teen herself when her mother died from cancer. Years later, when she completed her counseling degree from Johns Hopkins University, she was drawn into hospice work, where she began working with bereaved teens.

Perschy has more recently been trained in spiritual direction through the Shalem Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. She continues to explore the spiritual dimension in every as­pect of living. This exploration has naturally been a part of her work with those who grieve.

She lives with her husband, Jim, in Maryland.