The marvelous spirit we know as "Rickie" expressed passionate loving compassion in many different roles throughout her life.

She was acclaimed as a group leader, therapist, teacher, song writer, and author. She was deeply loved as a devoted mother, engaged grandmother, passionate partner, and steadfast friend.

Her unquenchable spirit transformed everyone she touched. She empowered people to be ferociously open-hearted. She relentlessly championed the right of individuals to live fully, including the right to choose how their lives end. She used intuition, humor, and love to help clients, family, and friends to get more out of life. She loved people, life, teaching, match-making... and she was good at it!

In the early 1980s, after earning a PhD in counselling psychology, Rickie began leading therapeutic groups in Europe. She called them Playshops. She and her devoted partner Henry Marshall, PhD settled in Amsterdam. They loved, worked, and created as a powerful team for thirty-four years. During this time Rickie led hundreds of groups, composed teaching songs, recorded CDs, and authored numerous books. She founded and developed Tri-Energetics (TE), an integral system for satisfying needs, simplifying wants, and clarifying intentions. She trained hundreds of students to use TE to live more satisfying lives and to serve as counsellors, coaches, and trainers. She delighted in the vibrant, diverse TE Community that developed to carry on the principles she practiced and taught: “Know what you need, say what you want, have clear intentions. Be flexible, compassionate, and curious."

Rickie wrote passionately about living fully and choosing a beautiful death. She considered it a basic human right to "leave" on one's own terms and to have the support of loved ones and health care professionals. When her physical condition began dramatic decline, she requested euthanasia and called her family to be with her. Well before the protocol could be completed, she developed pneumonia... and she embraced it. She said her good-byes and began palliative sedation. In a matter of hours, she let go her worn-out body... at home in the arms of her beloved.

She did it right… all the way into the light.

Sail on, silver girl!