Miami Beach woman's DayNew app aims to help heal after loss
MIAMI - One Miami Beach woman is using her own experience with devastating loss to help others by creating a platform to bring "healing at hand."
"Aaron and I met in LA in 2008 and it was a beautiful romance," Karine Nissim recalled happier times with her husband Aaron Hirschhorn. "There was a horrible accident and we lost him and it was very tricky."
A tech founder and entrepreneur, Hirschhorn was killed in a Biscayne Bay boating accident in March 2021.
He was 42 years old with three children and a loving wife.
"Since then, it's been an interesting and bumpy journey of healing and growth and coming to terms with my new identity as a young widow and a solo mom," Nissim said.
She doesn't want others to ever feel like they are grieving alone.
So she and her business partner, a fellow widow, created DayNew, an app to help with the organizational, emotional and social aspects of life after loss.
"It's for anyone going through any kind of trauma, like loss, divorce, illness," Nissim explained. "They answer a few questions and get features like 'Find a Buddy' or a community page where you can communicate to the people in your life the ways they can help you beyond flowers and casseroles without having to ask directly."
The app also includes a daily "mood check", prompts for journaling, checklists to stay organized and sign-ups for workshops and retreats.
"For me, it is so much a balance of grieving and actively healing with the pursuit of joy and pleasure every chance I can," Nissim said.
Dr. Allison Golden is a licensed psychologist with Goodman Jewish Family Services of Broward who specializes in working with patients who've experienced trauma, crisis and grief.
"At some point we all, hopefully, experience grief. It's part of being human," she said.
Dr. Golden says apps like DayNew can be a great supplement to therapy as well as family and peer support-- either in person or virtual.
"For the person who really needs the hug or needs the handhold or needs the energy in the room, they might need support in person," she said. "But for the person who doesn't need that, they may get all of what they need out of something virtual. I always recommend they explore all their options."
For Nissim, DayNew is also an ode to Aaron and their tech ties.
They started their first platform together – DogVacay- back in 2012.
Now she hopes her latest app will help others optimize their healing journey.
"Our goal is to normalize the conversation around grief and trauma and loss," she said. "This idea that you can live a life of greater meaning and purpose, not in spite of what's happened, but because of it."
The app is free to download.
Certain features, like messaging other users, require a $5 monthly subscription, mostly to protect members' personal data.