One year ago on May 15, 2022, Jennefer lost her brother Larry to suicide — a topic she says, doesn’t get talked about enough. Now she is on a mission to get people talking about it while supporting their own mental health, in the hopes of preventing further loss.

She calls her fundraiser, Jennefer’s Reiki Initiative for Positive Mental Health. She hopes to train 500 people in the practice while raising much-needed funds for the Canadian Mental Health Association Nova Scotia Division.

“My life is marked in two simple words; before Larry took his life, and after,” Jennefer says. “Tragically suicide affects a large portion of our society and most times when people are experiencing suicidal thoughts, we don’t know until it’s too late. It’s this unspoken shame we carry, which only serves to perpetuate the issue for both the individuals who struggle and the families who worry for them.”

In the difficult months that followed Larry’s passing, Jennefer, who studied Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) and now helps clients move through trauma, changing patterns and behaviours, managed to work through her grief using all the tools she knows. The idea to use Reiki to promote and support mental health came during her healing process.

“This practice has been a huge part of helping me process grief and loss and I am really driven to help others learn this practice to help process their traumas, including grief and loss,” she says.