the book

     Julie A. Rocco is an internationally emerging voice in suicide prevention, mental health advocacy, and trauma-informed storytelling. As both a suicide loss survivor and a suicide ideation and attempt survivor, her lived experience catalyzed a commitment to challenging silence and expanding how we talk about suicide and mental health in public spaces.

     She is the founder of What I Would Have Missed, a movement dedicated to preventing suicide and promoting mental wellness by cultivating connection, camaraderie, and community. Through writing, speaking, art, and community gatherings, Julie works to shift the narrative from isolation to connection and from individual blame to collective responsibility. She believes suicide prevention and mental wellness require both personal courage and systemic awareness — recognizing that access to care, community support, and cultural conditions shape who receives care and who is left to struggle alone.

     Her work seeks to elevate and amplify the authentic voices of suicide ideation, attempt, and loss survivors across multiple platforms, including an international podcast, social media, theatre, and a YouTube docuseries blending lived experience with data to deepen public understanding. As a trained facilitator with certifications in brain health and integrative behavioral health, and a background in systems change, collaboration, community power-building, and community development, Julie bridges professional expertise with lived truth, meeting people where they are while advocating for broader cultural and structural change as well as redistribution of narrative power.

     Her approach is informed by research demonstrating that connection, belonging, and meaning-making are protective factors in suicide prevention. Drawing from narrative psychology and post-traumatic growth frameworks, she positions authentic storytelling not as anecdotal, but as a vital component of public health — reducing isolation, strengthening identity, and expanding pathways toward help.

     Julie’s work stands on two simple but urgent beliefs: we cannot heal what we are not allowed to name, and when we allow stories to be shared in their full expression by those who have lived them, we create the conditions for courage and connection — and connection saves lives.