Like so many of us, Katie Lingras, PhD, wishes certain realities of life — violence, trauma, death — weren’t reality at all.

“We want to tell our kids, ‘These things won’t happen here. You’re safe,’” says Lingras, an associate professor in the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. “But we know we can’t promise that. What happens when we actually experience the unthinkable? What do we do?”

In the wake of the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in South Minneapolis in 2025, Lingras and her Medical School colleagues Anne Gearity, PhD, and Sophia Vinogradov, MD, set out to answer those questions and provide actionable guidance to help a grieving community move forward.

The team created a free 12-page guide grounded in mental health expertise that aims to support children, parents and communities as they navigate the hours, days, months and years after a school shooting. It’s called “What Now? A Guide to Navigating the First Days and Weeks After the Annunciation Shooting.”

Written in a gentle, conversational tone, the guide provides a roadmap of how healing might happen in the aftermath of a violent event. Lingras and her team encourage readers to use the guide “not as a checklist or prescription” but instead to use its tips, advice and recommendations as they make sense for each individual person and family.

She notes that some people may not ever fully “heal” from tragic experiences but will instead learn to live with loss and integrate those experiences into their identity.

“Take what helps, leave the rest,” the guide reads. “There is no one right answer and no one right way to heal. Healing doesn’t happen overnight, and will take time. One step at a time. One day (or sometimes, one hour) at a time. And if all else fails, just take a breath and do the next right thing you can think of.”

While some of the information in the guide is specific to school shootings, Lingras says much of the advice applies to other community traumas, too — like the federal government’s immigration enforcement surge that rattled the Twin Cities this year, for example.

Regardless of the event, Lingras says healing afterward is less of a direct path from A to B, and more of a “choose the path that’s right for you” endeavor.

“It’s kind of like a role-playing game with quests,” Lingras says. “There’s not a clear end point or conclusion; it’s more about the decisions you make along the way and about writing a story of healing that feels right for each child, family and community.”

Informed by the “What Now?” guide, here are some of the destinations families may encounter on their own healing quest.

ILLUSTRATION BY LISA HAINES