How Sudden Tragedies Affect Mental Health Practices

Heartline Podcast – Episode 42 – Dr. Susan J. Zonnebelt-Smeenge & Dr. Robert C. DeVries

Susan J. Zonnebelt-Smeenge is a licensed clinical psychologist who recently retired from the outpatient therapy department at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services. Early in her career she was a practicing registered nurse and taught at St. Mary’s and Butterworth Hospitals. Shortly after her first husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor, she returned to school to obtain a doctorate in counseling psychology from Western Michigan University. While she maintains her credentials as a registered nurse, she maintained a full time career as a psychologist treating a wide variety of issues including anxiety and depression, family and marital issues, as well as issues related to loss with an emphasis on dying, death and bereavement. Her doctoral dissertation was on grief and bereavement. She has also experienced bereavement first hand through the tragic death of her brother in a plane crash and the death of her first husband after 24 years of marriage.

Robert C. DeVries served as Professor of Church Education at Calvin Theological Seminary for twenty-eight years until his retirement. He is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church and has served two congregations B the first in Boca Raton, FL and the second in Big Rapids, MI. H

To contact Drs. Zonnebelt-Smeenge and DeVries directly, you are invited to email them at szsrdv@sbcglobal.net.

Their books can be purchased and/or ordered through any bookstore or online at BakerPublishingGroup.com, search “by author” using either of their names. Books ordered in quanitites of ten or more receive a substantial discount when ordered directly from the publisher by calling (800) 877-2665. The book Living Fully in the Shadow of Death is available only directly from the authors.