Sherry Cassedy

Sherry Cassedy has practiced law and mediation for 29 years and currently has a mediation and private judging practice in Palo Alto, CA (thresholdresources.com). Ms. Cassedy has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Sofia University (formerly the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology), and in the Religious Studies Department at Santa Clara University. Ms. Cassedy, MA, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and Certificate in Spiritual Guidance, offers spiritual guidance, yoga instruction and seasonal retreats on spiritual topics. Sherry is a passionate student of yoga philosophy and other spiritual teachings, which she incorporates into her yin and restorative yoga classes. She is also a licensed minister and works with couples in preparing and officiating marriage ceremonies. Sherry has been married to Matthew Sullivan, PhD for almost 35 years and they have three children, Tyler Sullivan, Cassedy Sullivan and Timothy Sullivan (Deceased 2010). Sherry lives in Santa Cruz, CA where she teaches and writes. http://sacredthreshold.org/

Articles:

When a Couple Grieves Differently: After a Child Dies

Mom and Dad Grieve Differently The death of a child is a devastating loss for anyone; it is even more difficult for a marriage. For the marriage to survive, both partners need to work through their own grief while, at the same time, allowing space for the other to grieve. If the partners blame themselves or the other for the loss, grief becomes not only isolating but conflicted. Other complications surrounding the death—an accident, illness, or suicide—can make it even more difficult for the couple to find compassion for one another. Some limited research and plenty of anecdotal evidence tells […]

Final Vigil for Our Son: Organ Donation

Final Vigil for Our Son Three days after Timmy had left his body, Matt and I were again at his bedside, waiting to say goodbye to our son’s body, to walk him to the operating room. It sounded so civilized, sterile, and healing. But no, this surgery would remove his vital organs, place them in containers to be preserved. They would then be transported to various other ORs, where doctors waited to transplant them into other patients’ bodies. We weren’t thinking of that reality as we stood vigil at his bedside, watching him seemingly sleeping. We walked the gurney down […]

‘Our Marriage Would Hold Us’: Family after Child-Loss

Fog of Disbelief The morning after our son’s accident, my husband Matt and I sat with the neurosurgeon in a small reception room off the hospital trauma unit. He explained brain stem death and Timmy’s inability to recover. I was listening intently through a fog of disbelief. I needed to understand exactly what had happened to my son, grasping for any straw of hope. The doctor was taking great pains to answer all of our questions, wanting to provide some comfort. At some point, he stopped, nodded toward Matt, and quietly asked me, “Is he going to be okay?” I […]

Marriage after Child-Loss: Enduring the Worst Together

The Call It is the call in the middle of the night that every parent dreads. Like other parents, I had carried a constant prayer in my heart for 30 years to keep my children safe. At 3:15 a.m. one Sunday morning, the gentle harp tone of my cell phone startled me out of a deep sleep. I answered before I had fully awakened. “Hello?” “Sherry, hey. This is Brian. Uh, Timmy had an accident. It’s pretty bad.” Blinking fog from my brain, I said, “What happened? Where are you?” Seeing me bolt upright in the bed, Matt rose from […]

Sherry Cassedy and Faith Freed: Spirituality and Healing

The Grief Relief Show’s 33rd episode features Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley interviewing Sherry Cassedy and Faith Freed on surviving a crisis. Cassedy is a lawyer who’s been in mediation and law for 30 years, and has her own private judging practice in Silicon Valley. She also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Sofia University as well as in the Religious Studies Department at Santa Clara University. After losing two nephews as well as her son, Timothy Sullivan, she’s found that spirituality has been the greatest blessing. Her son died unexpectedly in 2010 during a skateboarding accident. Freed has […]

Sherry Cassedy: Spiritual Journey After the Loss of a Son

This Open to Hope Radio show episode showcases the interview of Sherry Cassedy, JD, MA by Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley. Dr. Cassedy has practiced law for nearly 30 years, and owns a mediation/private judging practice in the Palo Alto area. A certified yoga instructor, she excels in combining yoga philosophy with spiritual guidance in her practice. Her son, Tim, died when he was 20 years old in a skateboarding accident. However, Tim didn’t die instantly—Dr. Cassedy’s family was able to stay with him in the hospital overnight before his death. She chose to donate his organs, and says, “It […]

Returning: When the Matriarch Dies

“Where are we going?” she asked again. “We are going to get your hair done,” I tell her for the third or fourth time in the last few minutes. I look over at my mother-in-law, “Min” as her grandchildren had renamed her. She nods and looks out the window. Her hair is a mat of fine white-blond straw, her face is calm but with an agitation brewing beneath as she remains confused despite my answers and assurances. She notices a woman walking on the street, disheveled and unkempt. “Would you look at her!” the judgment revealing Min’s preserved image of […]

Reaching Out, Sharing Grief

When our son, Timmy, died at age 20 from a skateboard accident, many of our friends, searching for words, said “I can’t imagine…” And of course they can’t. It is beyond our expectations, beyond our understanding of reality, that a vibrant, young person could be plucked from the world so suddenly. It was certainly beyond my imagination and shook my worldview to the core, leaving me disoriented and feeling very vulnerable. The loss of a child is a passage through a portal into foreign territory. The landscape changes. The ground shifts beneath our feet; we find ourselves at new junctures, […]

Healing Through the Holidays

The holidays approach. “Holidays” meaning Thanksgiving, then Advent, Hannakah, Solstice, but ultimately Christmas, and then New Year’s. ‘Tis the season…to be jolly. Increasingly it is a commercialized, consumer event of trees and trimmings, treats and gifts—purchasing an experience of gaity, cheer, warmth, togetherness, presence. When absence is a constant companion, when loss is fresh and raw, when grief is weighty, how do we enter and navigate this season… to be jolly? Gratitude is almost always the answer to our most heartfelt urgent questions about grief. Gratitude offers a frame for finding a measure of solace within the season. Memories of […]