Team
HESH REPHUN
Editor-in-Chief
BreakUpService.com
At the age of 32, after ten years of marriage, with three children, out of work, and despite every practical consideration, I made the toughest decision of my life: I got divorced. This was a decision based solely on instinct, on the conviction that my happiness and that of my children, depended on it. The last time I had broken up with someone I was in my second year of college; now I was about to experience a breakup on a grand scale – and with grave, irreversible consequences. The wrong decision would require not one but five people to pay a very, very high price.
Mine was not a road without bumps and roadblocks. I dated, fell in love again, and broke up with that person no fewer than four times, for any number of ridiculous reasons. I made the foolhardy decision to fly across the country and interrupt my ex-girlfriend’s family vacation in a last-ditch effort to reconcile. I might easily have ended up face-down in the woods behind her parents’ house…but I successfully transitioned from “mindfucker” (in her dad’s words) to man, finally remarried, and formed what has become an expanded, unified, and happy family.
Throughout the many ups and downs of these relationships, close friendships were on hand; good counsel and access to an open forum on the subject of breakups, however, were not always in great supply.
Had BreakUpService.com been established back then, I most certainly would have made use of it. I first became aware of the site just over a year ago, when I was going through a breakup of another kind, a professional separation, and, frankly, the similarities are many. I realized that people everywhere would at some point – and probably more than once – have occasion to connect with and benefit from such a forum.
I come to BreakUpService.com with a career in communications spanning nearly two decades. I bring to BreakUpService my expertise as a writer and publicist, and as founder and editor-in-chief of RagingArtists.com, I’ve presided over a successful on-line magazine that sits on the cusp of branded content, covering experimental and commissioned advertising.
Taking the reins as Editor-in-Chief of BreakUpService.com, my mission is to unite the voices of relationship experts, medical professionals, acclaimed authors, and everyday people, to present a forum unlike any other, one dedicated to helping others navigate the treacherous territory of heartbreak, escape, recovery and return.
Justo Diaz
CEO
BreakUpService.com
Welcome to BreakUpService.com (BUS). I was involved in a pretty traumatic breakup as a younger man. This event significantly changed my life. I was lucky because it was a clean, albeit dramatic, split. During this most intense drama, I learned a lot about myself, my hopes, and my dreams. I found that breaking up allowed me to rediscover who I was. In a strange way, being locked into a long-term relationship made me crave freedom. Once out of this relationship, I vowed always to be myself and to give my partner the same freedom.
I’ve been in the Web business a long time. I’m the CEO of Diangy Systems, the mother company of several successful Web sites (including BUS). I studied Biology in college (BS degree) and earned a Masters in Management of Information Systems a few years later. Nothing prepared me more for success than the lessons I’ve learned through partnerships and relationships. If one becomes skilled at creating and maintaining relationships, many doors open and remain open. Success is the ability to make your way through any window of opportunity. I hope to give our readers the chance to discover all the greatness that comes from second chances. The greatest love of my life is my family. I cannot conceive of a world without these close connections. Whether you are born into them or create them yourself, relationships are the motivation behind the most significant experiences and successes in your life.
I purchased this site (along with my partners) in order to preserve what the original founders created. The next priority was to expand on the idea so that people in a break up could find a community in which to heal. Our hope is to provide a service that is both compassionate and insightful. Our vision is for this service to help those in relationships (of any kind) find an evocative and compassionate path to parting ways.
Breaking up is emotionally difficult for all parties involved. Furthermore, there are few venues in which each player in a breakup can express their emotions or their point of view. We plan to change all that by creating a site where every party in a break up situation can express themselves. Our goal is to provide a venue where breakup communities can form an alliance of support for healing, comedic relief or self expression. Thank you for being a part of this adventure, and stay tuned as we evolve…
Dr. Michael Salce
Contributing Author, Chief Psychological Consultant
BreakUpService.com
In over 10 years of working with and counseling others, I’ve come to realize that the major obstacle to positive change in people’s lives is their willingness to move to action. In the case of a crisis (such as a break-up), people are ready to move forward and are often extremely motivated to do so - they just need some help. I view BreakUpService.com as not only a chance to help others through crisis, but also a unique opportunity to help others make amazing positive change in their lives through self-awareness and a mindful openness to new information and experiences.
My experience as a psychologist working with youth and young adults, as well as their families, in significant life crisis and transitions, has armed me with the experience necessary to understand first-hand the unique needs and demands of those in a break-up situation.
While breakups are not the province of a specific age group, I’ve found that my work as a psychologist within schools, as well as maintaining a private practice that focuses on interventions for children and adults who suffer from anxiety and attention deficits, is extremely helpful in my role at BreakUpService.com. Additionally, as an Adjunct Professor at a major university, teaching graduate level coursework in the fields of psychology and education, I have the benefit of an ongoing forum in which new ideas about relationships are shared, ideas I bring to my work on this site.
Praveen Angyan
Chief Technology Officer
BreakUpService.com
I’m a big fan of truth. It’s at the heart of science and technology, in that we pursue the truth in order to find solutions to complex problems. However, on a much more personal and substantive level, I am completely fascinated by and enamored of people who are “real”, specifically people who are “themselves” in spite of their cultural or religious background. We all know that one’s background can strongly influence our actions and often dictates the public face we put on.
The internet allows people to project two faces: the “fake” face - attractive and flawless - and the “real” face - protected by anonymity and open to expression in ways most would never attempt in life. The web is a place where people can express their innermost fears, thoughts, and desires. What better forum that BreakUpService.com to confront the emotions and vulnerabilities associated with the end of a relationship, while learning to marry honesty with skillful communication? At BUS, I hope to provide the technology that helps people put on both faces at the same time.
To this end, we’re always working on new tech for the site. For example, we’re working toward the use of “avatars” that would allow our readership to develop a look for themselves, as well as an anonymous chat room that would allow readers to speak out.
I was born with a silicon chip in my mouth (my first computer was an abacus with an LED screen), and through many years of experience providing the technology for a wide variety of sites, from medical sites to retail sites and entertainment sites, I’ve learned this: technology is worthless if it gets in the user’s way. With BreakUpService.com, my personal goal is to provide useful, innovative technology that frees our readership, assists them in their own quest for truth, and lets them get back to the “business of breaking up”, a business in which we are all going to find ourselves engaged at one time or another.
