Dr. Janice Cohn is a psychotherapist who has specialized, for the past twenty-five years, in helping adults and children cope with grief, loss and life transitions.  For the last decade she has specialized, as well, in children’s character education, especially with regard to fostering compassion and moral courage in what has become an increasingly violent world.  Dr. Cohn holds a doctorate in clinical social work and has written and lectured widely on these and related topics, providing consultation to schools and a variety of professional and community organizations.  Her weekly column for the Family Times Section of The Washington Times, which focused on raising compassionate children, ran for over two years and reached approximately half a million people.  She is a former Presidential Faculty Appointee to the Columbia University Continuing Education Seminar on Death and Dying, and former chairperson of the Multidisciplinary Bereavement Committee of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. 

Dr. Cohn has served as a special consultant to the Family Division of the New Jersey Superior Court in Ocean County, New Jersey, focusing on the emotional needs of children and parents during the process of separation and divorce.  She has also developed, for the courts, a special parent education program and accompanying video for divorcing parents.  In conjunction with this project, she has written an educational handbook, Surviving the Pain of Divorce:  Eight Steps for Parents and Children, which has been distributed throughout the state via the family court system. 

Dr. Cohn’s book, I had a Friend Named Peter:  Talking With Children About the Death of a Friend (William Morrow, 1987) has been cited for excellence by a number of educational organizations and has received critical praise from publications such as The New York Times Book Review and The School Library Journal.  Her second book, Why Did It Happen?  Helping Children Cope With the Existence of Violence (Morrow, 1994) was chosen as a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and has been praised by The School Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly, among other publications.  A third book, Molly’s Rosebush (Albert Whitman, 1994), which deals with a young child’s reaction to her mother’s miscarriage, was equally well received.  The Christmas Menorahs:  How A Town Fought Hate (Albert Whitman, 1995) has received and/or been nominated for more than a dozen national awards.  It has also been adapted into a play, which is currently touring nationally.  Dr. Cohn’s book, Raising Compassionate, Courageous Children In A Violent World (Longstreet Press, 1996) has been widely used by schools and parent and religious organizations.  Dr. Cohn’s most recent work is Paper Candles: How Courage and Goodness Triumphed in an American Town, a play for upper elementary and middle school children, or for high school students to perform for the lower grades. 

Dr. Cohn maintains psychotherapy practices in New York and New Jersey.