Special Forces of the Heart: Willow Clerici’s Mission to Heal, Lead, and Uplift
How a mother, mentor, and suicide prevention advocate turned grief into purpose—and created a blueprint for resilience and service.
🔥 Meet Willow Clerici: A Warrior in Her Own Right
Twenty years of coaching, mentoring, and speaking.
Mother of two. Wife to an Air Force veteran.
Character Does Matter mentor with the Travis Manion Foundation.
Author of the transformative new book “Special Forces.”
Willow Clerici isn’t wearing camouflage or saluting on a parade field—but make no mistake, she’s part of a Special Forces unit all her own: forged in faith, resilience, motherhood, and a mission to serve.
“When you become a special needs parent, you become a detective, a doctor, a planner, and a protector. You operate on a level of vigilance most can’t imagine. That’s my kind of special ops.”
“Resilience isn’t about avoiding pain—it’s about allowing it, feeling it fully, and choosing not to stay there forever.”
— Willow Clerici
🌪️ The Day Everything Changed
In 2017, Willow's stepbrother Albie—a firefighter in Atlantic City and 9/11 responder—died by suicide.
It was a gut-wrenching moment that split her life into before and after.
“We will always carry it. But I knew I couldn’t just sit in the grief. I had to move through it—and do something with it.”
She leaned into her yoga and meditation practice, leaned on her friends, and found purpose again in action. One invitation to a 9/11 Heroes Run led to a powerful connection with the Travis Manion Foundation—and that changed everything.
💪 Turning Pain Into Power
Willow didn’t stop at healing herself. She built a suicide prevention training program and brought it directly to her brother’s firehouse, reconnecting with his coworkers and creating a safe space for dialogue around mental health.
That led to mentoring youth through TMF’s Character Does Matter (CDM) initiative—an experience that gave her clarity on why she’s here.
“These kids are our future. I mentor them because I want them to be better prepared than we were.”
📖 Special Forces — The Book
![Optional: Embed cover image of the book here or link to purchase/download]
Willow’s book, Special Forces, is not just a memoir—it’s a manifesto for healing. Through personal stories of:
Grief and loss (losing her mother, brother, and surviving breast cancer)
Resilience in parenting special needs children
Faith and personal growth
Divorce and remarriage
Military family life and service to others
Willow invites readers into the trenches of her life—and shows them how to navigate their own with courage.
“People felt alone in their diagnoses, in their grief, in their struggle. I wrote this book to say: You’re not. You’re never alone.”
Emotional Intelligence as a Superpower
Willow teaches kids (and adults) to build what she calls an “emotional vocabulary.” It’s not just about knowing what sadness or anger are—it’s about knowing what they feel like in your body. Where they sit. How to distinguish grief from rage, disappointment from shame.
“You learn to know yourself. And then you know how to move through those feelings instead of staying stuck in them.”
That self-awareness, she says, becomes the gateway to choice. And choice is what separates those who survive from those who rise.
“Whatever grief you’re feeling—you are not meant to feel it forever. You can choose to change. But it takes knowing when you're ready. And being brave enough to take that step.”
The Power of Choosing Again and Again
Willow doesn’t sugarcoat it: healing is not linear.
There are days when it feels like you’re back at square one. But even then, she believes, you’ve made progress—because you’ve chosen to stay in the fight.
Her own life proves that resilience is not a one-time decision. It’s something she chooses again and again. When she coaches families of children with special needs. When she stands before a group of teenagers talking about character. When she revisits the firehouse where her brother once served to deliver suicide prevention training.
She chooses to rise.
And she invites the rest of us to do the same.
📍 From New Jersey to Tennessee — A Shared Mission
Like many in our TMF family, Willow shares roots in New Jersey and now calls Tennessee home. She continues to coach families, advocate for youth, and use her story as a light for others walking through darkness.