Dr. Rando is a clinical psychologist in Warwick, Rhode Island. She is the Clinical Director of The Institute for the Study and Treatment of Loss, which provides mental health services through psychotherapy, training, supervision, and consultation, and specializes in: loss and grief; traumatic stress; and the psychosocial care of persons with chronic, life-threatening, or terminal illness, and their loved ones.

Since 1970, she has consulted, conducted research, provided therapy, written, and lectured internationally in areas related to loss, grief, illness, dying, and trauma. She also has provided expert witness testimony in legal proceedings involving illness or bereavement. Current professional foci include treatment of complicated mourning, loss of a child, the interface between posttraumatic stress and grief, anticipatory mourning, specialized intervention techniques in the treatment of traumatic bereavement, and the integration of EMDR into intervention with grief and mourning.

Dr. Rando holds a doctoral degree in Psychology from the University of Rhode Island and has received advanced training in psychotherapy and in medical consultation-liaison psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University Medical School and University Hospitals of Cleveland. A former consultant to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Hospice Education Program for Nurses, she developed its program for training hospice nurses to cope with loss, grief, and terminal illness. Her current research interests focus on the operations and courses of anticipatory and postdeath mourning; development of a short-term treatment protocol for survivors of traumatic loss; construction of a self-help program for coping with the sudden death of a loved one; and integrating EMDR with group intervention for traumatic loss survivors.

Publications

Dr. Rando has published 70 works pertaining to the clinical aspects of thanatology.  She is the author of Treatment of Complicated Mourning (Research Press, 1993), How To Go On Living When Someone You Love Dies (Bantam Books, 1991), and Grief, Dying, and Death: Clinical Interventions for Caregivers (Research Press, 1984); she is the editor of Clinical Dimensions of Anticipatory Mourning:  Theory and Practice in Working with the Dying, Their Loved Ones, and Their Caregivers (Research Press, 2000), Loss and Anticipatory Grief (Lexington Books, 1986), and Parental Loss of a Child (Research Press, 1986).  She has been the Co-Editor of the Trauma and Loss Book Series for Brunner-Routledge Publishers.  Currently, she is completing a book for the general public on coping with sudden traumatic death, co-authoring a treatment manual for structured intervention after traumatic loss, and co-authoring a book on the integration of EMDR into the treatment of grief and mourning.  Dr. Rando also serves on the Editorial Boards of Death Studies and Omega.

National Media Resource Expert

Dr. Rando is a national media resource expert in dying, death, loss, and trauma for the American Psychological Association.  She has appeared on numerous television programs, such as “Dateline,” CBS “This Morning,” “Today Show,” “Good Morning, America,” “CNN & Time,” CNBC “Upfront Tonight,” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and has provided commentary for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report, among many others.

Recognitions/Awards

Among the recognitions for her accomplishments in the field of thanatology, Dr. Rando was the recipient of the Association for Death Education and Counseling's 1987 award for "Outstanding Contribution to the Study of Death, Dying, and Bereavement" and the 1996 recipient of its "Clinical Practice Award." She is also a 1990 grantee of its lifetime certification as "Certified Death Educator." In 1997, she received the Heart of Texas Hospice Foundation Award for "Distinguished Professional Contribution in the Field of Thanatology and Hospice-Related Studies" and in 2004 she was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Network on Personal Meaning "In Recognition of Her Outstanding Contribution to Thanatology and Grief Counseling." In 2006, she was given "The Influential Leader Award in Grief and Loss Education and Practice" by The American Academy of Bereavement. In the area of traumatology, Dr. Rando was among the initial group of international experts elected to membership in the Green Cross Foundation Academy of Traumatology in 1997, and in 1999 became a member of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. In 2000, she became a Diplomate of that association, achieving designations of Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress and Board Certified in Bereavement Trauma.