Current management team

Dana Lammers
Dana Lammers

Dana took advantage of our offer a few years ago after her father suddenly passed away. As a social worker, she has been working with children and young people for many years. Topics such as mourning, nature education and pastoral care have accompanied her professionally and privately for a long time. In 2018, she therefore decided to support Junge Trauer Essen. Due to this professional context and her private commitment, she has already taken part in various training courses on the topics of child and youth grief and terminal care. She completed further training as a family grief counselor (according to M. Schroeter-Rupieper) in 2020. She is involved in the outpatient hospice service at the Alfried Krupp hospital Rüttenscheid, as well as in the function of hospice attendant for the outpatient ecumenical hospice group in Werden.

Peter Pfand
Peter Pfand

In Peter ist aufgrund persönlicher Erfahrungen mit dem Verlust eines nahestehenden Familienmitgliedes der Wunsch gereift, diese tiefgreifenden und lebensverändernden Erfahrungen an Menschen mit ähnlichen Erlebnissen weiterzugeben. Sein Vater ist gestorben, als Peter noch ein Teenager war. Da es zu diesem Zeitpunkt keine Vergleichbaren Trauergruppen für Jugendliche gab, gibt Peter sein Wissen weiter, um trauernden Menschen im Rahmen eines Ehrenamtes helfen zu können. Im Jahr 2019 hat er sich daher entschieden, die Junge Trauer Essen zu unterstützen. Als Ansprechpartner für IT-Belange kann er seine hauptberufliche Leidenschaft auch hier optimal einsetzen. Er bringt sich im ambulanten Hospizdienst am Alfried Krupp Krankenhaus Rüttenscheid ein und hat eine Fortbildung zum Familientrauerbegleiter (nach M. Schroeter-Rupieper) im Jahr 2023 absolviert.

Jana Milz
Jana Milz

Jana found to Junge Trauer Essen in 2019 - after her father's death - as a participant in the youth grief group. Since the spring of 2023, she has felt the need to take her own positive and supportive experiences with her in order to support others in a similar situation. She works full-time as a full-time educator at a primary school and brings a lot of empathy, sensitivity and commitment.
Out of personal interest and commitment, Jana deals a lot with the topics covered by Junge sadness Essen. She successfully completed further training as a grief counselor for the outpatient hospice service at the Alfried Krupp Hospital in Rüttenscheid in 2024.

Founding team

Caren Baesch
Caren Baesch, among others

Caren has been a freelance family bereavement counselor since 2014 (according to M. Schroeter-Rupieper ) and grief-centered specialist advisor according to the guidelines of the Bundesverbandes Trauerbegleitung. She is the owner of the funeral home Alternative Bestattungen – Caren Baesch. She also put her professional knowledge to use as head of the youth grief group Essen and shares it with interested people as a freelance speaker. The youth grief group Essen handed Caren over to the current management team for the transformation into Junge Trauer Essen. In addition, she is socially involved as a qualified and voluntary worker in the outpatient hospice service at the Alfried Krupp hospital Rüttenscheid. She is also a scout with the Deutschen Pfadfinderschaft St. Georg.

Karin Ricken
Karin Ricken

Karin worked for 25 years as a teacher at a special needs school with a focus on intellectual development. Since she retired in 2004, she has worked as a qualified and voluntary worker in the outpatient hospice service at the Alfried Krupp hospital Rüttenscheid. During this time she has a qualification for grief counseling on Trauerinstitut A. Laurs acquired. In addition, she has completed a training in professionalized bereavement support and loss management at the university of Essen. As the mother of a son and grandmother of two grandchildren, as well as her work as a teacher, she has a strong connection to young people. That is why she offered her skills as a grief counselor to the young people in the former youth grief group Essen.