a Belgian social worker, marital and family therapist, and hypnotherapist with extensive training in complex trauma, grief, and themes of separation.  She has developed a series of creative, arts-based techniques for grief counseling with children, families, teachers, and helping professionals.  Lies has more than a decade of experience in crisis and disaster response in schools and communities and has authored several books on understanding grief and loss in children and families, supporting children undergoing cancer treatment and palliative care, helping children cope with anxiety in times of war and terrorism, and answering children’s questions about death in their own language.  She coordinates and teaches the Postgraduate Program in Grief and Loss Counseling at PXL University of Applied Sciences and Arts, maintains an active private practice, and provides training for grief counselors and first responders in several countries.  She was the first professional student to be awarded the Certification in Grief Therapy as Meaning Reconstruction by the Portland Institute.