About The Semicolon Group
Our Story
The Semicolon Group PLLC was founded in 2019 to respond to the rising public health issue of young people considering, attempting, and dying by suicide. We are the only practice of its kind working exclusively with suicide in the United States.*
* We searched for a year for something similar to serve as a model for this launch but could not find anyone anywhere treating suicide exclusively. We’d love to be proven wrong and to have a partner in this fight! If you are or know of anyone else working exclusively with suicide, please contact us so we can connect!
About Our Brand
A semicolon indicates a pause in a sentence that has more to say. It has been adopted as a symbol for hope and motivation for those with suicide experiences, symbolically saying “Your story is not over yet.” (See Project Semicolon for more background on the movement). We adopted the semicolon in our name to pay homage to the movement, to be recognizable to those with lived experience, and to signify our dedication to work exclusively with suicide.
- An acorn houses the seed that turns into an oak tree. We chose to make the acorn central to our brand out of what it symbolizes:
“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out, and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.”
– Cynthia Occelli
We view suicide similarly: in order for growth to come out of suicide, suicide must be unraveled; it must come out in order for everything to change; for most people, suicidality looks like complete destruction; to those experiencing it, it can feel like complete destruction. We believe that your experience with suicide is just another crack in your acorn, and that you too have greatness within you.
Our Founder
Whitcomb Terpening, MSW, LCSW
Check out Our Team page for more information!
