About

My name is Mary Chase Mize, and I’m glad you’re here. Professionally, I’m a mental health counselor and clinical professor. As a counselor, I have a small private practice where I specialize in grief counseling, aging and supporting older adults, helping adults across the lifespan navigate major life transitions, faith deconstruction/reconstruction, exploring death anxiety, and supporting those at risk of suicide and/or grieving a suicide loss. A clinical specialists, I teach courses like crisis, trauma, and grief counseling and human lifespan development in a master’s degree program for clinical mental health counseling. I co-wrote Keep Watch: Suicide, Christ, and Community and I publish a newsletter on Substack called Voyager, which I share through this platform as well.

Personally, I am a mother to a miraculous red-headed boy who has changed (and continually changes) my life in every way imaginable. I spend a lot of time thinking about the ways parenthood is the greatest source of my own mortality awareness. I’ve spent many years examining my faith — exploring the wilderness of deconstruction, deepening my spiritual life, gazing at the reflection of God in the lives and faith of others, finding holy community, and exploring the Celtic spirituality of my ancestors.

I love to write. I’ve published a good number of academic things (and I am very proud of this, don’t get me wrong), but creative writing has always been my first true love. I’ve been writing for most of my life, keeping a blog of sorts, etc., but have recently started to write (poetry, essays, creative non-fiction) more intentionally and pursue creative outlets for publication. I’ll share the fruits of that labor as they harvest.

This is a place where I share personal reflections on my life and work. If any of this connects for you, I’d love for you to join me.