Kintsugi Heroes
The story I had to share
Sarah Rosse
A mental health professional discovers that her training couldn't prepare her for her son's suicide attempt, and that presence matters more than fixing.
Kintsugi Studio
Kintsugi Heroes
Sarah Rosse
A mental health professional discovers that her training couldn't prepare her for her son's suicide attempt, and that presence matters more than fixing.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Sarah Rosse spent years in human services, supporting others through crisis. She thought she knew how to help. Then, in October 2023, her sixteen-year-old son attempted suicide, and everything she believed about herself as a mother shattered. She carried shame on the street, convinced people could see her failure written across her face. But sitting on his bedroom floor in the dark, she discovered something no training had taught her: there was nothing to fix, no professional knowledge that mattered. What helped was presence. Listening. Staying put when there were no answers.
Sarah had always told stories, through photography and scrapbooking and writing. When crisis came, she journaled to survive it. Over time, her scattered thoughts became intentional, reflective work that helped her reframe not just what happened, but who she was. She realized the mental health system her son moved through had its own fractures: people asked to repeat their trauma over and over, follow-up calls that never came, impossible choices presented as if they were simple. Without her professional knowledge, she might have been left waiting, waiting, waiting for help that would never arrive.
Now Sarah is stepping into things that terrify her. Speaking publicly. Having conversations. She has committed to 100 conversations over twelve months about parenting, mental health, identity, and caregiving. She stopped dyeing her hair and started writing her truth. She wants her sons to know they are enough, that feeling uncertain and uncomfortable is human and okay, and that talking about it changes everything. What she hopes for herself is peace, and the confidence to keep showing up, fully present, for people who need to know they are not alone in this.
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