Tendrils of Grief: Recent Episodes
Susan Ways
Grievers and grief professionals share their personal stories and describe what was helpful for them or their clients in working through grief. This podcast will outline steps to have hope and build meaning into your life.
In this touching episode of Tendrils of Grief, we sit down with Molly, founder of Birthdays from Beyond, to explore the healing power of preserving love and memories in the face of loss.
When Molly’s father was diagnosed with cancer, she was struck by the painful realization that he wouldn't be there to celebrate future birthdays with her. Wanting to hold onto his presence, she gave him a stack of blank cards and asked him to write birthday messages for the years to come. That beautiful and emotional gesture inspired her to create Birthdays from Beyond, a heartfelt way for people to stay connected with their loved ones even after they’ve passed.
Molly shares how this act of love became a mission—to help others capture meaningful messages, memories, and life lessons from their parents or grandparents, allowing those words to be treasured for years to come.
In this episode, we talk about:
- How grief inspired Molly’s vision
- The importance of creating emotional keepsakes
- Navigating anticipatory loss with intention
- The legacy of love through written words
This conversation is a powerful reminder that even after loss, connection and comfort can continue in meaningful and lasting ways.
Episode Highlights
- legacy grief support
- anticipatory grief healing
- how to preserve memories after loss
- birthday letters for after death
- grief rituals and healing
- connecting with loved ones after death
- memory keepsakes for grief
- emotional healing after losing a parent
- birthdays after loss
- grief-inspired businesses
Connect with Molly Pearson
Website: www.birthdaysfrombeyond.com
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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Tendrils of Grief-Survivor of Loss
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In this deep episode of Tendrils of Grief, I’m joined by Hannah Rumsey—writer, performer, and podcaster based in Chicago—whose journey through grief began with the sudden loss of her best friend, Lauren, in 2015. What began as a deeply personal experience of loss soon blossomed into a powerful mission to give voice to an often overlooked kind of grief: the loss of a close friend.
From her one-woman show 42 Days of Summer to her memoir-in-progress L is for Lauren, Hannah has channeled her sorrow into storytelling that resonates deeply with anyone who has experienced profound friendship and heartbreaking loss. She’s also the Founder and Director of Friends Missing Friends, a podcast and community offering peer support groups specifically for those grieving the death of a friend.
Join us for an honest, moving, and empowering conversation about the depth of friend-loss, the healing power of creativity, and the importance of finding community in grief. Whether you’ve lost a friend or are supporting someone who has, this episode is a beautiful reminder that grief of all kinds deserves space, understanding, and love.
Episode Highlights
- Grieving a best friend
- Creative grief healing
- Coping with friend loss
- Hannah Rumsey Friends Missing Friends
- Peer support for grief
- Grief podcast episodes
- Processing grief through storytelling
- Grief after losing a friend
- Tendrils of Grief podcast
Connect with Hannah Rumsey
Website: friendsmissingfriends.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/friendsmissingfriends/
Grief Groups: friendsmissingfriends.com/griefgroup
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
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Tendrils of Grief-Survivor of Loss
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Today in Tendrils of Grief, host Susan welcomes guest Ted Neil, an author and advocate who shares his deeply personal and transformative journey through grief. Together, they explore the complex emotions of loss, the often-unspoken aspects of male grief, and the healing power of storytelling.
Ted opens up about how writing helped him process the pain of losing loved ones and how grief has reshaped his perspective on life, purpose, and connection. This episode offers an honest and insightful look into how we carry grief, how it evolves over time, and how we can find meaning and hope even in the darkest moments.
Whether you're in the midst of loss or supporting someone who is, this conversation will resonate deeply, reminding you that you're not alone.
Episode Highlights
- Grief and healing
- Male grief and vulnerability
- Storytelling as therapy
- Ted Neil author interview
- How to navigate loss
- Writing through grief
- Emotional resilience after death
- Tendrils of Grief podcast
- Coping with the death of a loved one
- Grief support resources
- Mental health awareness 2025
- Transforming grief into purpose
Connect with Ted Neil
TedNeilFacebook
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
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In today’s episode of Tendrils of Grief, we welcome Julie Barth, a mother of six, trauma survivor, and tireless advocate for women facing life-altering adversity. Julie’s story is one of extraordinary resilience—navigating her daughter Tayt’s diagnosis with Primordial Dwarfism, her husband Colin’s heartbreaking battle with stage-four pancreatic cancer, and the deep wounds of emotional and financial abuse that followed.
As the founder and CEO of The Colin James Barth Outreach, Julie has turned her personal grief and trauma into a beacon of hope for women-led households in crisis. Her nonprofit, supported by The Gabby Petito Foundation, provides essential resources and unwavering support to women seeking security, stability, and healing after devastating life events.
Through her voice and mission, Julie empowers other women to protect themselves, think resourcefully, and break free from stigma. This conversation is not only a testament to human endurance—but also a call to action for advocacy, healing, and strength.
Tune in for an episode that is honest, raw, and deeply moving.
Episode Highlights
- Turning Trauma Into Purpose
- Empowering Women Through Grief
- Navigating Complex Loss and Caregiving
- Nonprofits Supporting Grieving Families
- Healing from Emotional Abuse
- Building Resilience After Loss
- Parenting Special Needs Children
- How Grief Shapes Advocacy Work
- Foundations Inspired by Personal Loss
- Breaking Stigma Around Women’s Self-Protection
- Julie Barth grief journey
- Primordial Dwarfism awareness
- Pancreatic cancer caregiver story
- Women-led households in crisis
- Trauma-informed advocacy
- Nonprofit support for women
- Colin James Barth Outreach
- Emotional abuse recovery
- Resilience after loss
- Grief and healing podcast
Connect with Julie Barth
JulieBarthAuthor.net
CJBOutreach.org
TikTok
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
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In this powerful episode of Tendrils of Grief, we welcome Lynn Lewis—Certified Grief Educator, speaker, author, and the visionary force behind Destined To Thrive Grief Coaching. After the devastating loss of her son in August 2019, Lynn made a courageous decision: not to be consumed by her grief, but to live fully in the aftermath.
Lynn shares her deeply moving journey, including how embracing self-love has transformed the way she navigates grief. Her story, titled “I Choose to Live in the Aftermath,” is a testament to resilience, healing, and the daily choice to keep moving forward. Through her work, Lynn now supports adults who are ready to rediscover meaning and purpose after profound loss.
Lynn is the author of My Suicide Grief Journey Journal & Memory Book and co-author of Prepare For Purpose – Your Invitation To The Next Level. After 39 years in the automobile claims industry, she now devotes her life to guiding others through grief with empathy, strength, and grace.
Tune in to be inspired by Lynn’s story and learn how healing is possible, even in the deepest sorrow.
Episode Highlights
- Living with grief after loss
- Suicide grief journey
- Grief coaching for adults
- Self-love and healing after loss
- Life after child loss
- Grief empowerment coach
- Grief educator podcast
- Grief support resources
- Destined to Thrive Grief Coaching
- Healing through journaling
- The Power of Self-Love in Grief Recovery
- Transforming Tragedy into Purposeful Living
- Suicide Grief: Navigating Life After Loss
- Journaling Through Grief: Tools for Healing
- Grief Coaching and Emotional Empowerment
- The Role of Faith and Resilience in Grief Healing
- Redefining Life After Child Loss
- Empathy-Driven Coaching for Grieving Adults
- Creating Community for Suicide Loss Survivors
Connect with Lynn Lewis
For more information go to www.destinedtothrivegriefcoaching.com
www.linkedin.com/in/lynn-lewis-718173149
www.facebook.com/lynnlewis7545
www.instagram.com/griefcoachlynn
Journal/Memory book I published.
https://buy.stripe.com/aEUeYxadz3VK4Ug6oJ
Anthology I collaborated on.
https://mitchellproductions.my.canva.site/lynn
Schedule a complimentary chat
www.calendly.com/destinedtothrive
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
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In this heartfelt episode of Tendrils of Grief, we welcome Jillene Gallatin, whose journey through grief began at the tender age of 14 when she lost her mother to suicide. At a time when grief resources were scarce—especially for teenagers—Jillene was left to navigate unimaginable loss on her own. That life-altering experience became the catalyst for her lifelong dedication to grief advocacy and mental wellness.
Now an ordained pastor in the ELCA since 2001, Jillene brings deep spiritual insight and compassion to her work as a certified 300-hour yoga teacher specializing in Grief Yoga and as a Grief, Loss, and End of Life Coach. She’s on a mission to build supportive communities that honor emotional healing and break the silence around grief and mental health.
Join us as Jillene shares her story, her tools for healing, and her unwavering commitment to helping others move forward in grief with grace, support, and connection.
Episode Highlights
- Teen grief support
- Mother loss to suicide
- Grief yoga for healing
- Grief and mental wellness
- End of life coach
- ELCA ordained pastor
- Suicide survivor stories
- Healing from parental suicide
- Faith-based grief healing
- Yoga for emotional release
- Grief support for teens
- Holistic grief recovery
- Navigating childhood trauma
- Grief coaching and yoga therapy
- Emotional healing through movement
- Holistic Approaches to Grief Recovery
- Faith and Spirituality in Mental Wellness
- Yoga as a Tool for Processing Grief
- Teenage Grief and Emotional Development
- Healing Generational Trauma
- Suicide Prevention Through Storytelling
- Navigating Parental Loss in Adolescence
- Creating Safe Spaces for Grief Conversations
- End-of-Life Coaching as Emotional Support
- Trauma-Informed Faith-Based Counseling
Connect with Jillene Gallatin
website www.groundedloveforgrief.comonleyinc/
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
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Tendrils of Grief-Survivor of Loss
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This week on Tendrils of Grief, we're joined by Jill Vyn, a Master Adult Chair Coach and compassionate empowerment guide for high-achieving women, professionals, and entrepreneurs. With a background as the co-founder and co-director of a nonprofit, Jill brings both heart and experience to her transformative coaching work.
Jill’s journey is deeply rooted in personal grief—losing her father at just six years old left her carrying a silent belief that she was unworthy of love. It wasn't until later in life, through energy healing and self-discovery, that she began to unravel that identity shaped by loss and step into her own light. Now, she helps others do the same.
In this powerful conversation, Jill shares how mindset work, inner child healing, and energy alignment can help us move beyond fear, release emotional blocks, and fully trust ourselves again. Through her intuitive and compassionate approach, she empowers others to break free from self-doubt and live a life that reflects their true worth.
Tune in for an inspiring discussion about healing, identity, and the strength found in reconnecting with who we really are.
Episode Highlights
- grief and healing coaching
- inner child healing
- emotional empowerment for women
- overcoming self-doubt
- energy healing for grief
- coaching for high-achieving women
- mindset and trauma recovery
- personal growth after loss
- grief-informed life coaching
- stepping into self-worth
Connect with Jill Vyn
website http://jillvyn.com
king Up’ in 2019. https://www.linkedin.com/in/careyconleyinc/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/careyconleyinc/
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
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Tendrils of Grief-Survivor of Loss
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In today’s episode of Tendrils of Grief, we welcome the inspiring Carey Conley. Carey is a speaker, author, and vision expert who travels the world helping men and women build self-empowering skills and create lives filled with purpose, joy, and abundance. Through her powerful "vision methodology," Carey teaches people how to release the pain, fear, and hardship of the past to manifest the beautiful lives they truly deserve.
Carey’s message is made even more profound by her own journey of extraordinary success and heartbreaking tragedy. After losing both her husband and son to suicide just three years apart, Carey found the strength to continue living her purpose — becoming a guiding light for others facing their own battles. Her personal story brings authenticity, hope, and deep wisdom to every stage and every heart she touches.
She is also the co-author of the bestselling book Keep Looking Up, a moving reminder that even through unimaginable grief, we can continue reaching for something greater. Join us as Carey shares her transformative journey, her passion for helping others find their vision, and how she continues to inspire healing, growth, and resilience around the world.
Episode Highlights
- Carey Conley
- Vision methodology coaching
- Grief and resilience speaker
- Overcoming loss and tragedy
- Personal empowerment after grief
- Manifesting a purpose-driven life
- Healing from suicide loss
- Keep Looking Up book
- Building self-love and confidence
- Grief recovery and vision building
- Creating a life after loss
- Spiritual connection after grief
- Empowerment through vision work
- Inspirational grief speakers
- Suicide loss survivor stories
- Vision Mapping for Personal Growth
- Turning Grief into Purpose
- Healing After Suicide Loss
- The Future of Resilience and Emotional Wellness
- Empowering Women Through Vision and Self-Love
- The Role of Spiritual Connection in Grief Recovery
- Coaching After Trauma: A Growing Field
- Navigating Mental Health and Grief with Purpose
- From Loss to Leadership: Stories That Inspire
- Manifesting a Purposeful Life After Tragedy
Connect with Carey Conley
https://www.linkedin.com/in/careyconleyinc/
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
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Tendrils of Grief-Survivor of Loss
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https://www.eftsocialclub.com
https://www.instagram.com/eftsocialclub
https://www.youtube.com/@EFTSocialClub
In this deeply moving episode of Tendrils of Grief, we welcome Tanya Marcon Moore—an author, advocate, and survivor whose life has been shaped by profound grief, trauma, and unyielding resilience. Tanya’s story begins with the tragic loss of her mother at just 13 years old, a turning point that left her vulnerable to abuse and confusion. Her journey from silence to strength reveals the devastating impact of childhood grief and the courage it takes to confront generational trauma.
Tanya shares the harrowing experiences of familial betrayal, the complexities of blended family dynamics, and the quiet suffering that often goes unheard. Her path led her to Canada, where she found love and started a family, only to face another monumental challenge—her husband's long battle with melanoma and the anticipatory grief that came with it.
Throughout her darkest moments, Tanya turned to faith, meditation, and journaling as lifelines. Now, as the author of The Day I Learned to Pump Gas, she uses her voice to advocate for survivors of childhood trauma and grief, challenging societal myths and offering hope for healing.
Join us for an intimate and powerful conversation about pain, perseverance, and the transformative power of truth and advocacy.
Episode Highlights
- Childhood grief support
- Trauma healing journey
- Blended family abuse awareness
- Anticipatory grief
- Healing after childhood trauma
- Memoirs of survival and strength
- Faith-based trauma recovery
- Women overcoming abuse
- Grief and trauma advocacy
- Journal therapy for emotional healing
- The Silent Impact of Childhood Grief
- Blended Families and the Hidden Risks of Abuse
- Breaking Generational Cycles of Trauma
- Healing After Anticipatory Grief
- Faith as a Lifeline Through Trauma
- Advocating for Survivors of Familial Betrayal
- The Therapeutic Power of Journaling
- From Survivor to Storyteller: A Memoir of Resilience
- The Role of Mindful Practices in Trauma Recovery
- Childhood Grief and the Long Road to Healing
Connect with Tanya
Blog at:
https://bepowerfulmedia.com/
Substack : Lemonade
https://open.substack.com/pub/tanyamarconmoore?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=366t96
My Book
https://mybook.to/dayilearnedtopumpgas
instagram.com/tmmoore17
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
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Tendrils of Grief-Survivor of Loss
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Dr. Jan Canty is a Detroit native, seasoned psychologist, author, speaker, educator, and host of the Domino Effect of Murder podcast. With over four decades of experience in the mental health field, she holds a terminal degree in psychology and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in family therapy at Wayne State University School of Medicine.
In July 1985, Jan’s life took a tragic and unexpected turn when her husband of 11 years went missing. A week later, she was called to the Detroit Homicide Division and informed he was the likely victim of a violent crime. His body was later identified at the Wayne County Morgue, marking the beginning of a 30-year chapter of private grief and survival.
Jan quietly relocated to the Midwest, where she continued teaching psychology while keeping her personal story hidden. After decades of silence, she now shares her experience to help others navigate the complicated aftermath of homicide and violent loss—both through a professional lens and as a survivor herself.
Today, she hosts the internationally heard podcast Domino Effect of Murder, now in its sixth season and reaching listeners in over 22 countries. She’s also the author of A Life Divided, a personal memoir, and What Now? Navigating the Aftermath of Homicide and Suicide, a comprehensive guide for survivors. Her upcoming book, Rekindled: Healing Grief, will explore the science and stories of after-death communication.
Dr. Canty is also an active advocate for the Innocence Project, working to raise awareness and support for those affected by wrongful convictions and violent crime.
Episode Highlights
- Aftermath of Tragedy: Navigating Grief in a Post-Pandemic World
- The Rise of Trauma-Informed Coaching in Mental Health Support
- Breaking the Silence: Sharing Personal Stories of Loss and Survival
- The Power of Podcasts in Grief Education and Community Healing
- AI and Mental Health: How Technology is Supporting Trauma Survivors
- From Grief to Growth: Turning Loss into Life Purpose
- Healing the Hidden Wounds: Understanding Complicated Grief
- Holistic Approaches to Processing Trauma and Emotional Pain
- The Future of Grief Support: Virtual Reality and Digital Therapy
- Redefining Resilience: What It Means to Thrive After Loss
- Rebuilding Identity After Tragedy: Tools for Long-Term Healing
- True Crime and Healing: The Psychology Behind Survival Stories
- Spirituality and Science: Bridging the Gap in Grief Recovery
- Mental Health Advocacy in the Age of Authentic Storytelling
- The Impact of Collective Grief on Community Wellness
Connect with Dr. Jan Canty
Website www.jancantyphd.com
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
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Tendrils of Grief-Survivor of Loss
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Tami Wong has been navigating life with alopecia since the age of 15, turning her personal journey into a mission to empower others. With a BA in Psychology and two decades of experience in healthcare—ranging from physical therapy to biotech operations and patient advocacy—Tami has dedicated her career to supporting those facing medical and emotional challenges.
In September 2024, she founded Hair Loss Pride, a coaching and support group designed to uplift and guide women and teens experiencing hair loss. She is also the bestselling author of the children's book Hair Pride, inspiring young readers to embrace self-love and confidence. Through her advocacy, coaching, and storytelling, Tami is reshaping the conversation around hair loss and self-acceptance.
Join us as we dive into her journey, the lessons she’s learned, and the impact she’s making in the hair loss community and beyond.
Episode Highlights
- Alopecia awareness
- Hair loss support for women
- Self-acceptance and confidence
- Hair loss in teens
- Women’s empowerment and self-love
- Coaching for hair loss
- Psychological impact of hair loss
- Hair Loss Pride community
- Overcoming beauty standards
- Best books for kids about self-acceptance
- Alopecia advocacy 2025
- Mental health and hair loss
- Hair loss and emotional well-being
- Building confidence with alopecia
- Self-care for hair loss
- Redefining Beauty Standards
- Mental Health and Hair Loss
- Empowering Teens with Hair Loss
- The Rise of Holistic Hair Health
- AI & Virtual Support Groups for Hair Loss
- Children’s Books Promoting Diversity & Self-Love
- Breaking the Stigma of Hair Loss in Women
- Social Media & Hair Loss Advocacy
- Mindfulness & Meditation for Confidence
- The Future of Hair Loss Coaching & Mentorship
Connect with Tami Wong
Website: www.therealtamiwong.com
IG and TikTok: @hairlosspride
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tami-wong-27008253
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
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In this episode of Because We Love – Finding Meaning After Loss, we welcome Lisa Heacock, an International Certified and Accredited Life Coach, Grief Coach, Certified Grief Educator, Inspirational Speaker, Podcast Host, and International Best-Selling Author. She is also a proud mother, devoted partner, and a resilient Breast Cancer Survivor.
After experiencing the devastating loss of twelve loved ones in just twenty-two months—including her niece, parents, and son-in-law—Lisa knew she needed help to survive both physically and mentally. Through various healing modalities, she transformed her pain into purpose, creating Holistic Life Coaching with Lisa Marie to guide others through their own grief journeys.
Lisa specializes in helping individuals navigate loss, stress, and emotional struggles by providing a safe and confidential space to heal. She empowers men and women to live authentically, rebuild their lives, and align with their true purpose. Join us as Lisa shares her powerful story and insights on resilience, healing, and finding fulfillment after loss.
Episode Highlights
- Grief coaching
- Life after loss
- Finding purpose after grief
- Healing from grief
- Transforming pain into purpose
- Overcoming loss
- Navigating grief journeys
- Certified grief educator
- Emotional healing
- Personal growth after loss
- Holistic life coaching
- Mindfulness and grief
- Resilience after loss
- Self-discovery through grief
- Mental health and grief recovery
- Living authentically after loss
- Grief transformation
- Grief support for families
- Empowerment through healing
- Coping with multiple losses
- Running as therapy
- Holistic Healing for Grief
- The Role of AI in Grief Support
- Building Emotional Resilience After Loss
- The Future of Mental Health & Grief Coaching
- Grieving in a Digital World
- Finding Purpose After Tragedy
- The Connection Between Grief and Physical Health
- Creating a Safe Space for Grief Conversations
- Self-Care Practices for Grieving Individuals
- Redefining Happiness After Loss
Connect with Lisa Heacock
https://holisticlifecoaching.org.uk/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/holistic_coach_lisa/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/lisa.messexheacock/
https://www.facebook.com/holisticlifecoachingwithlisamarie/
Linktree : https://linktr.ee/CoachLisaMarie
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
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Tendrils of Grief-Survivor of Loss
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Email @susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Let me hear your thoughts!
In this episode of Tendrils of Grief, we reconnect with Phil Pinti, a Marine Corps Veteran, Federal Government employee of 17 years, and an experienced recreational ultra runner. Phil, a graduate of West Chester University, resides in Ellicott City, Maryland, with his fiancée, Kellie, and their three children.
The last time we spoke with Phil in June 2021, we were both in different places—personally and in our grief journeys. Since then, Phil has continued pushing his limits, taking on the grueling 2021 Desert RATS ultra-running endurance event, a six-day stage race covering 150 miles across the Kokopelli Trail from Fruita, Colorado, to Moab, Utah. His journey is featured in the documentary A Long Way From Nowhere, available on the Audacious Report YouTube channel, where runners share the physical and emotional discoveries that come with endurance racing.
Join us as Phil reflects on his experiences with grief, resilience, and the life lessons he's gained through pushing his physical and mental limits in one of the most extreme endurance events in the world.
Episode Highlights
- Ultra running endurance
- Overcoming grief through running
- Phil Pinti documentary
- A Long Way From Nowhere film
- Desert RATS race 2025
- Running for mental health
- Coping with grief through sports
- Extreme endurance challenges
- Ultra marathon training tips
- Healing through physical challenges
- Veteran ultra runners
- Mindfulness and running
- Trail running mental resilience
- Pushing past limits in ultra races
- Running as therapy
Connect with Phil Pinti
Phil Pinti on Facebook
Watch his documentary
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Today our guest Fleur, a former therapist turned coach who is passionate about helping women break free from societal conditioning and embrace life on their own terms. Tired of maintaining the appearance of having it all together, Fleur embarked on a journey to "unbecome" everything she never truly was. Through this process, she discovered the power of self-acceptance and inner peace.
As a highly sensitive person and introvert, Fleur deeply understands the need for women to feel heard, seen, and nurtured in a way that truly lights up their souls. Now, she dedicates her work to supporting those who are exhausted by self-help cycles and simply want to reconnect with their authentic selves. Join us as we explore Fleur’s inspiring journey, her insights on personal transformation, and how she helps others rediscover hope, joy, and the courage to follow their heart’s desires.
Episode Highlights
- Women’s empowerment coaching
- Breaking free from societal conditioning
- Personal transformation for women
- Embracing authenticity
- Highly sensitive person (HSP) support
- Self-acceptance and self-love
- Healing from self-doubt
- Overcoming perfectionism
- Coaching for introverts
- Feminine energy healing
- Finding inner peace and joy
- Self-growth and personal development
- Living life on your terms
- Emotional healing and self-discovery
- Mindfulness and self-care for women
- The power of "unbecoming" to find your true self
- Breaking free from the “shiny” social media facade
- How highly sensitive people can thrive in today’s world
- The exhaustion of self-help and what to do instead
- Embracing imperfection: The path to true happiness
- The importance of being seen, heard, and nurtured
- Why women feel pressure to “have it all together”
- Finding joy in life’s simple pleasures
- Overcoming burnout and reclaiming your energy
- How to follow your heart’s desires without fear
Connect with Fleur Sclarandisvisit her website
Website: www.fleursclarandis.com
Substack (I'm not active on social media!) https://wordstonourishyoursoul.substack.com/
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We welcome Stacey Sanderson, a Registered Social Worker and Psychotherapist based in Ontario, Canada. With over 30 years of experience supporting those navigating grief, Stacey brings a deeply personal and professional perspective to healing. Her own journey began with the loss of her father in a car accident at just four years old, shaping her lifelong commitment to grief work and emotional healing.
Stacey is the author of Heart Wide Open: A Holistic Guide to Self-Recovery from Narcissistic Wounding, where she explores trauma-informed healing and self-recovery. A dedicated advocate for holistic healing, she offers various programs and workshops that integrate intuitive guidance with therapeutic support. In this conversation, she shares insights on complex grief, particularly in cases of estrangement and severed relationships—an increasingly common experience post-pandemic. Join us as Stacey provides invaluable wisdom on healing, resilience, and embracing life after loss.
Episode Highlights
- Grief and Healing
- Trauma Recovery
- Narcissistic Wounding
- Holistic Therapy
- Emotional Healing
- Grief and Estrangement
- Post-Pandemic Healing
- Self-Recovery Journey
- Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy
- Healing from Childhood Loss
- Mental Health and Grief
- Navigating Difficult Relationships
- Grief Support and Guidance
- Overcoming Emotional Trauma
- Personal Growth After Loss
- The Impact of Childhood Grief on Adult Life
- Healing from Narcissistic Wounding and Emotional Trauma
- How Estrangement Affects the Grieving Process
- Post-Pandemic Grief: Navigating Relationship Challenges
- The Role of Holistic Healing in Mental Health Recovery
- How to Rebuild After a Life-Altering Loss
- Trauma-Informed Therapy: A New Approach to Healing
- The Connection Between Grief, Trauma, and Self-Discovery
- Mind-Body Healing Techniques for Emotional Recovery
- Breaking Generational Patterns of Emotional Pain
Connect with Stacey Sanderson visit her website
https://www.staceysanderson.ca/
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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We welcome Stacey Sanderson, a Registered Social Worker and Psychotherapist based in Ontario, Canada. With over 30 years of experience supporting those navigating grief, Stacey brings a deeply personal and professional perspective to healing. Her own journey began with the loss of her father in a car accident at just four years old, shaping her lifelong commitment to grief work and emotional healing.
Stacey is the author of Heart Wide Open: A Holistic Guide to Self-Recovery from Narcissistic Wounding, where she explores trauma-informed healing and self-recovery. A dedicated advocate for holistic healing, she offers various programs and workshops that integrate intuitive guidance with therapeutic support. In this conversation, she shares insights on complex grief, particularly in cases of estrangement and severed relationships—an increasingly common experience post-pandemic. Join us as Stacey provides invaluable wisdom on healing, resilience, and embracing life after loss.
Episode Highlights
- Grief and Healing
- Trauma Recovery
- Narcissistic Wounding
- Holistic Therapy
- Emotional Healing
- Grief and Estrangement
- Post-Pandemic Healing
- Self-Recovery Journey
- Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy
- Healing from Childhood Loss
- Mental Health and Grief
- Navigating Difficult Relationships
- Grief Support and Guidance
- Overcoming Emotional Trauma
- Personal Growth After Loss
- The Impact of Childhood Grief on Adult Life
- Healing from Narcissistic Wounding and Emotional Trauma
- How Estrangement Affects the Grieving Process
- Post-Pandemic Grief: Navigating Relationship Challenges
- The Role of Holistic Healing in Mental Health Recovery
- How to Rebuild After a Life-Altering Loss
- Trauma-Informed Therapy: A New Approach to Healing
- The Connection Between Grief, Trauma, and Self-Discovery
- Mind-Body Healing Techniques for Emotional Recovery
- Breaking Generational Patterns of Emotional Pain
Connect with Stacey Sanderson visit her website
https://www.staceysanderson.ca/
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In this episode of Tendrils of Grief, we welcome the inspiring Casey Kang, a three-time acute lymphoblastic leukemia survivor and stroke survivor. Having endured immense physical and emotional challenges, Casey has dedicated her life to helping other cancer survivors heal beyond treatment. As a Trauma-Informed Cancer Coach, she uses somatic movement, breathwork, and holistic wellness techniques to empower survivors to reclaim their lives and build strength—physically, mentally, and emotionally—without living in fear.
Casey is the author of Finding Your Way Back to Heart Center: Cancer Treatment Ended, Now What? and holds multiple certifications in trauma-informed yoga, cancer exercise, nutrition, somatics therapy, and Reiki healing. Through her work, she guides survivors toward healing, resilience, and renewed purpose. Join us as Casey shares her powerful journey, the tools she uses to help others heal, and her mission to support cancer survivors in living a life of strength and joy.
Episode Highlights
- Cancer survivor healing
- Trauma-informed cancer coaching
- Somatic movement therapy
- Breathwork for cancer recovery
- Cancer exercise specialist
- Healing after cancer treatment
- Yoga for oncology patients
- Emotional healing after cancer
- Reclaiming life after cancer
- Mind-body connection in healing
- Cancer recovery and holistic health
- Stroke survivor wellness
- Overcoming trauma with somatic therapy
- Breathwork for emotional resilience
- Cancer coaching and support
- Holistic healing for cancer survivors
- The role of somatic movement in cancer recovery
- How breathwork can support emotional healing
- Trauma-informed care for cancer survivors
- Overcoming the fear of recurrence after cancer
- The connection between physical and emotional healing
- Yoga therapy for oncology patients
- Building resilience after stroke and cancer
- The importance of holistic support in cancer treatment
- Finding purpose after surviving a life-threatening illness
- Nutrition and exercise for cancer recovery
Connect with Casey Kang
You can find her on IG & FB @thehappierhustle
www.thehappierhustle.com
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-kang-head-37a4b488/
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyApiKxkUYmVGioZgadGv_g
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thehappierhustle
Here's the freebie I would like to offer your audience:
Links for free guide: 4 Ways to Reduce Anxiety.
https://casey-head.mykajabi.com/free-guide
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We welcome Aleen, a dedicated spiritual mentor and therapist who helps individuals navigate the depths of loss and transform their pain into personal growth and healing. With a compassionate and justice-centered approach, Aleen creates a safe and supportive space for clients to process their grief, break free from generational cycles of pain, and rediscover their strength.
Her work is ideal for those ready to honor their grief and use it as a catalyst for meaningful change. Join us as Aleen shares her insights on the healing journey, the power of self-transformation, and how grief can lead to profound personal empowerment.
Episode Highlights
- Grief healing
- Spiritual mentor
- Transforming grief
- Breaking generational cycles
- Grief and personal growth
- Healing after loss
- Grief counseling
- Emotional healing
- Empowerment through grief
- Navigating loss
- Mindful grieving
- Grief transformation
- Finding purpose after loss
- Holistic grief support
- Spiritual grief healing
- Turning Pain into Purpose – How grief can lead to personal transformation.
- Breaking Generational Cycles of Trauma – Healing past wounds for future generations.
- Grief as a Catalyst for Growth – Finding strength in loss.
- The Role of Spiritual Mentors in Healing – How guidance helps in the grieving process.
- Processing Grief in a Safe Space – Why emotional support is essential.
- Embracing Grief to Find Empowerment – How honoring loss leads to self-discovery.
- Healing Through Compassion and Justice – The importance of a holistic approach to grief.
- Mindfulness and Grief – Using mindfulness to navigate pain and loss.
- Redefining Yourself After Loss – Finding a new sense of self through healing.
- The Power of Self-Compassion in Grief – Learning to heal without guilt.
Connect with Aleen Raybin
hello@aleenraybin.com
www.aleenraybin.com
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In this episode of Tendrils of Grief , we welcome Becky, a compassionate and gifted psychic medium who serves as a bridge between the spiritual and physical realms. With the loving support of her dog Ollie, Becky brings healing, guidance, and messages from loved ones who have crossed over.
Her work is deeply rooted in providing comfort and reassurance to those seeking connection, helping them navigate grief and find peace through the wisdom of the spirit world. Join us as Becky shares her journey, the power of mediumship, and the incredible role Ollie plays in her spiritual practice.
Tune in for an enlightening and heartfelt conversation about love, loss, and the unseen connections that continue beyond this life.
Episode Highlights
- Psychic medium
- Spiritual connections
- Afterlife communication
- Pet-assisted mediumship
- Intuitive guidance
- Healing through spirit
- Messages from beyond
- Bridging physical and spiritual realms
- Energy healing
- Grief and spiritual support
- The role of pets in spiritual healing
- How psychic mediums connect with the afterlife
- The power of intuition in everyday life
- Signs from loved ones who have passed
- Spiritual tools for grief and healing
- The growing interest in mediumship and spiritual readings
- Understanding energy and vibrations in mediumship
- How to develop your own intuitive abilities
- Real-life experiences of communicating with the other side
- The connection between animals and the spirit world
Connect with Becky Dotson
https://www.dogmommedium.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dogmom_medium/profilecard/?igsh=b3g0NHppNnRzMW83
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
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We welcome Christine Passo, a certified support and transformation coach dedicated to helping midlife women heal unresolved grief and find clarity. As the host of the Unconscious Evolution YouTube show and podcast, Christine shares powerful insights on personal growth, healing, and transformation.
Through her unique approach, ‘Recycling Pain,’ Christine helps women move from feeling stuck in grief to living a life filled with meaning and purpose. Whether you're mourning the loss of a loved one, grieving a missed opportunity, or searching for a renewed sense of self, Christine’s compassionate guidance and practical tools will empower you on your healing journey.
Join us as Christine shares her personal experiences with loss and how she transformed pain into a deeper, more fulfilling life. This conversation is for anyone seeking hope, healing, and a path forward after grief.
Episode Highlights
- Grief healing
- Transforming pain into purpose
- Midlife transformation
- Unresolved grief recovery
- Grief support for women
- Personal growth after loss
- Healing from grief
- Emotional healing journey
- Overcoming grief and loss
- Finding clarity in midlife
- Mindset coaching for grief
- Navigating grief with purpose
- Self-discovery after loss
- Life after grief
- Podcast for grief support
- The power of grief transformation
- Midlife reinvention and healing
- Overcoming personal loss and setbacks
- Emotional resilience in difficult times
- How to turn pain into growth
- Finding meaning after loss
- Healing grief through self-awareness
- Mindfulness practices for grief
- The impact of grief on personal identity
- Creating a fulfilling life after loss
- Women’s empowerment through grief healing
- Navigating major life transitions with purpose
Connect with Christine Passo
https://christinepasso.com/
https://www.instagram.com/christinepasso_supportcoach/
https://www.youtube.com/@christinepasso
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In this episode of Tendrils of Grief, we are honored to welcome Kelly Daugherty, a seasoned social worker with over two decades of clinical experience and a Fellow in Thanatology: the study of death, dying, and bereavement. Based in Malta, NY, Kelly is the founder of Greater Life Grief Counseling and the Center for Informed Grief, LLC. Her personal journey with grief began as a teenager following the loss of her mother to breast cancer, inspiring her lifelong dedication to supporting individuals navigating the complexities of grief.
Kelly's mission extends beyond individual support to creating a more grief-informed society. Through the Center for Informed Grief, she provides tools and training for educators, therapists, and communities, ensuring that no one faces their grief alone. Additionally, as co-owner of Healing Strides, LLC, Kelly combines emotional and physical well-being through a unique seven-week program that pairs therapeutic grief groups with 5K race training. She is also the co-author of several impactful books, including The Grief Experience: Tools for Acceptance, Resilience, and Connection.
Join us for an insightful conversation as Kelly shares her professional expertise, personal experiences, and her innovative approach to grief support. Whether you're navigating your own grief journey or supporting someone else, this episode offers valuable tools and inspiration for healing, growth, and resilience.
Tune in now to learn from Kelly's profound insights and compassionate perspective on grief and healing.
Episode Highlights
- Grief counseling resources
- Thanatology expert
- Kelly Daugherty grief specialist
- Center for Informed Grief
- Grief-informed society
- Therapeutic grief programs
- Healing through running programs
- Greater Life Grief Counseling
- Grief support tools and techniques
- Navigating grief and loss
- Grief-informed education and training
- Holistic approaches to grief support
- Coping with the loss of a loved one
- Emotional and physical healing programs
- Grief books and resources
- Kelly Daugherty grief counseling books
- Healing Strides grief program
- Personal growth through grief
- Resilience after loss
- Professional grief training for therapists
Connect with Kelly
https://linktr.ee/kellydaugherty
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In this heartfelt episode of Tendrils of Grief, we are joined by Katie, a talented actress whose journey into acting began two years after losing her mother to dementia at a young age. Katie’s role as Denise in Sophie Jones marked the start of a new chapter in her life—one that beautifully weaves together her previous roles as an English major, mother, and portrait photographer.
Katie is widely recognized for her roles as Beth in Winter Island and Sadie in Going Home, seasons 1 & 2. She has earned accolades for her work in award-winning films like Front Porches and the web series Gamer. Katie is currently working on her first feature film, Wake Up Maggie, a deeply personal project and love letter to her late mother.
When Katie isn’t on set, she’s busy capturing portraits, coaching aspiring actors, or creating meaningful content. Outside of her creative work, Katie enjoys practicing yoga, hiking in nature, taking tap classes, and, of course, savoring a good cup of coffee.
Tune in to this inspiring conversation as Katie shares her journey of loss, healing, and channeling grief into art, passion, and purpose.
Episode Highlights
- Katie actress Sophie Jones
- Katie Winter Island Beth role
- Katie Going Home Sadie role
- Wake Up Maggie feature film
- Grief and acting journey
- Healing through acting
- Actress Katie award-winning films
- Katie Front Porches best actress
- Portrait photographer turned actress
- Acting after loss
- Grieving mother dementia story
- Katie creating content online
- Acting coach and yoga enthusiast
- Katie tap classes and hiking
- Wake Up Maggie love letter to mom
- Acting as a Tool for Healing – How art helps process grief.
- Turning Grief into Creativity – Stories of transformation through art.
- Wake Up Maggie: A Love Letter in Film – Honoring loved ones through storytelling.
- Award-Winning Indie Films – Rising stars in independent cinema.
- From Photography to Acting – Transitioning creative careers.
- Balancing Parenthood and Passion – How Katie embraces her roles.
- Dementia Awareness Through Art – Highlighting dementia stories in film.
- The Intersection of Life and Creativity – Channeling personal stories into acting.
- Coaching the Next Generation of Actors – Sharing skills and stories.
- Self-Care for Creatives – Yoga, tap, and hiking for balance.
Learn more about Katie
Website www.katieprentiss.com
Movie www.wakeupmaggiemovie.com
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/katieprentiss/
IMBd https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10018602/
Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@katieprentiss
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/wakeupmaggiemovie/
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In this episode of Tendrils of Grief, we are joined by the remarkable Holly, a TEDx speaker, award-winning author, and intuitive healer whose voice has resonated across countless podcasts and networks. Holly draws from her own life journey to inspire and empower others, channeling her experiences into writing and healing practices that help people create the life they’ve always dreamed of.
With a unique blend of wisdom and compassion, Holly shares insights on navigating challenges, finding purpose, and unlocking personal transformation. When she’s not speaking, writing, or guiding others, Holly’s passions take her to the dance floor, the world of K-pop, or dreaming about her next adventure to Seoul.
Tune in to this uplifting conversation and discover how Holly’s journey can inspire your own path to healing, self-discovery, and joy.
Episode Highlights
- Holly TEDx speaker
- Award-winning author and intuitive healer
- Healing through life experiences
- Personal transformation journey
- How to create the life you dream of
- K-pop and personal inspiration
- Living with purpose and joy
- Navigating challenges with resilience
- Intuitive healing practices
- Inspiration for self-discovery and healing
- Planning a trip to Seoul
- Writing for healing and empowerment
- Insights on living authentically
- TEDx speaker on healing and growth
- The power of storytelling in personal transformation
Learn more about Holly
By-Lines, Podcast Appearances, and TEDx Talk links:
Website: https://hollyhughesintuitive.com
Follow me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/holly_hughes_intuitive/q
My TEDx talk: https://youtu.be/TdY-F8sb2G4?si=yPnEHRi8xjtw9hIc
https://linktr.ee/hollyhughesintuitive
Read my book: https://amzn.to/3awfZBz
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
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In this episode we welcome Jennifer ‘Suki’ Otsuki, an Austin native whose journey has been shaped by resilience, healing, and a deep connection to service. After dedicating nearly two decades to the restaurant industry in Dallas following her graduation from the Texas Culinary Academy, Jennifer discovered the transformative power of yoga, cultivating a 20-year practice that would become her sanctuary through life's challenges.
Jennifer’s story is one of profound transformation. In 2020, she faced the closure of her passion project and restaurant, as well as the end of a 13-year engagement. These losses left her feeling buried under the weight of grief, which she only came to recognize during a women’s retreat. Through self-love, healing, and years of reclaiming a life worth living, Jennifer discovered the tools to navigate her journey. However, just as she began hosting retreats and sharing her gifts with others, she was struck by the sudden loss of her partner, sous chef, and best friend at the end of 2023.
Now, Jennifer channels her experiences and healing journey into guiding others through grief, healing, and connection. Whether it’s through her nourishing meals, her yoga flows, or the profound experiences of her retreats, Jennifer demonstrates that it is possible to create a life you don’t have to retreat from. She joins us today to share her story of perseverance, the lessons she’s learned from navigating grief, and how she’s helping others find the space to heal and grow.
Tune in for a conversation filled with hope, resilience, and the power of self-love and connection.
Episode Highlights
- Jennifer ‘Suki’ Otsuki yoga retreats
- Healing through grief and self-love
- Grief recovery through retreats
- Mind-body connection practices
- 20-year yoga practice for healing
- Overcoming loss and finding purpose
- Transformative women’s retreats
- Navigating the dark night of the soul
- Somatic wisdom and daily practices
- Reclaiming life after profound loss
- Yoga for emotional healing
- Grief and healing through connection
- Nourishing the body and soul after loss
- Culinary and yoga retreat experiences
- Coping with the sudden loss of a spouse
Learn more about Jennifer
She will be hosting a 4-night retreat at the Retreat Ranch outside of Austin in Marble Falls, TX in May of 2025 (May 16-20): From Grief to Gratitude
-Somatic Bodywork/Somatic Writing
-Horse connection
-Nourishing meals
Jennifer “Suki” Otsuki is an Intuitive. Somatic Healer. Mindfulness Chef. Retreat Host. Yoga Enthusiast. Divine Feminine. Truth Seeker. Lover. Creator.
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In this heartfelt episode of Tendrils of Grief, we welcome Cleo Childs, a spoken word artist who recently released her debut poetry album, "Moving With", on May 15th. This deeply personal collection is the result of two and a half years of writing, chronicling Cleo's profound journey through grief after losing her mother to Alzheimer's when she was just 28 years old.
Cleo’s passion for writing is deeply rooted in her family history. With her mother as an English major and her grandmother—a 30-year English teacher—now serving as one of her editors, Cleo naturally turned to poetry as her tool for processing grief. Through her spoken word album, she explores the evolution of her emotions, from having her mother, to losing her, and finally arriving at a place of peace and acceptance.
With "Moving With", Cleo aims to provide an authentic and honest portrayal of grief, creating a space of connection and understanding for others navigating loss. Her hope is to show that no one has to grieve alone and to foster a sense of community in shared experiences.
Join us as Cleo shares her story, her creative process, and the transformative power of using art to navigate loss and find healing. This is an episode full of raw emotion, creative inspiration, and a reminder that grief, though isolating, can be a journey we don’t have to take alone.
Episode Highlights
- Cleo Childs spoken word poetry
- Moving With poetry album
- Grief journey through poetry
- Coping with loss through art
- Alzheimer's and family loss
- Spoken word for healing grief
- Writing to process grief
- Community support through grief
- Honest portrayal of grief
- Peace and acceptance after loss
- Poetry inspired by family legacy
- Healing through spoken word
- Creative ways to navigate grief
- Grief and acceptance poetry
Learn more about Cleo
Visit her website cleochilds.com
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In today’s episode of Tendrils of Grief, we welcome the inspiring and heartfelt Bambi. After years of finding her voice, Bambi has embraced her name, her purpose, and her calling with pride. A mother of six adult children and grandmother to thirteen (and counting!) grandchildren, Bambi’s life has been shaped by her passion for people and the transformative power of storytelling.
An author of two published books with many more in the works, Bambi’s gift for writing has been a lifelong journey, sparked by her 7th-grade teacher who recognized her talent. Her mission is to share her story and inspire others to hold onto hope, reminding us all that storms don’t last forever, and brighter days are ahead.
Bambi’s love for connection extends beyond her writing. Through her work across various industries, she’s had the privilege of meeting countless individuals, listening to their stories, and sharing her own to ignite hope and purpose. She believes that discovering your purpose is everything—and once you find it, you should run with it to make a difference in the world.
Join us for a heartfelt and uplifting conversation as Bambi shares her journey of self-discovery, her love for storytelling, and her unwavering belief in the power of purpose.
Episode Highlights
- The Healing Power of Storytelling
- Overcoming Life’s Storms
- Embracing Your Name, Your Identity
- Generational Inspiration
- The Journey of a Writer
- The Importance of Purpose
- Faith and Resilience
- Connecting Through Stories
- Inspiring Others Through Writing
- Finding Beauty After the Storm
Learn more about Bambi
Visit her website healingthroughstories.com
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In this episode, we are joined by The Rev. Christine Vaughan Davies, an ordained Presbyterian Minister, Certified Educator with the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, Seminary Professor, and trained Spiritual Director.
Christine is a writer, speaker, and educator who brings over two decades of experience as a hospital chaplain, pastoral educator, cognitive behavioral therapist, and healthcare administrator. Her heartfelt work centers on normalizing grief, fostering spiritual growth, and helping people connect with their emotional and spiritual selves.
With her Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Master of Social Work from Rutgers University, Christine’s wealth of real-world experience shines through as she speaks about life, loss, and spirituality.
Christine currently lives on a small farm in New Jersey, where she enjoys family life, caring for chickens, and supporting her school-aged children’s adventures.
Join us as Christine shares her powerful insights on grief, spirituality, and the sacredness of everyday moments.
Episode Highlights
- Grief education and healing
- Advance care planning
- Spiritual practices for daily life
- Hospital chaplain stories
- Normalizing grief and loss
- Effective caregiving tips
- Self-care for caregivers
- Emotional and spiritual well-being
- Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE)
- Certified Spiritual Director
- Managing grief and spirituality
- Cognitive behavioral therapy and spirituality
- Sacred practices in modern life
- Seminary professor insights
- Faith and emotional wellness
- Living fully in the moment
- Grief and self-discovery
- Spiritual growth and reflection
- How to be a better listener
- Chaplaincy experiences and lessons
Learn more about Christine Vaughan Davies
Visit her website www.christinevdavies.com
Newsletter https://journeyingalongside.substack.com/
Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/rev-christine-davies/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cvdavies/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/christine.davies
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In this episode, we sit down with Andrea, an author, poet, artist, book illustrator, and yoga practitioner who writes under the pen name Cheydrea. Andrea’s journey is one of brave authenticity, deep healing, and passionate storytelling. From her 15+ year journey of religious deconstruction to healing her inner child and navigating family estrangement, Andrea candidly shares her experiences and lessons learned along the way.
Andrea’s passions extend to fostering healthy and sustainable relationships, including a 28+ year marriage shaped by religious and childhood trauma, as well as meaningful friendships with women. She also opens up about her writing and publishing process, her indie-author journey, and her latest book, A Poet’s Playground.
Join us as Andrea dives into the stories, struggles, and triumphs that have shaped her life. Together, we explore topics like the power of vulnerability, her personal growth in health and healing, and how she uses art and words to inspire and empower women.
Episode Highlights
- Andrea Cheydrea
- Religious deconstruction journey
- Healing from childhood trauma
- Inner-child healing stories
- Family estrangement recovery
- Healthy and sustainable relationships
- Marriage and religious trauma
- Writing and publishing process
- Indie author journey
- A Poet’s Playground by Andrea
- Women’s empowerment through writing
- Bravely sharing personal stories
- Mindful healing through yoga and art
- Emotional healing and storytelling
- Building meaningful female friendships
- The Power of Vulnerability in Healing Relationships
- Religious Deconstruction: Reclaiming Identity Beyond Faith
- How Inner-Child Healing Transforms Adult Relationships
- Finding Strength Through Family Estrangement
- Art as a Healing Tool: A Poet’s Journey
- Marriage Beyond Trauma: 28+ Years of Growth and Healing
- Navigating the Indie Author World: A Journey to A Poet’s Playground
- Embracing Authenticity: A Path to Personal Evolution
- Yoga, Art, and Writing: Tools for Emotional Healing
- Supporting Women in Their Healing and Writing Journeys
- Balancing Vulnerability and Strength in Modern Relationships
- How Stories of Transformation Inspire Global Conversations
- Creating Healthy Friendships Among Women
- The Role of Poetry in Emotional and Spiritual Healing
- How Sharing Personal Stories Empowers Others to Heal
Learn more about Andrea
Visit her website www.cheydrea.com
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In today's episode Julie Fingersh, an accomplished writer and freelance journalist with a knack for exploring the intricacies of life. Through her essays, editorials, and reporting, Julie dives into topics like culture, wellness, relationships, and parenting adult children—all while offering insights on how to lead a better, more meaningful life.
Her work has graced the pages of The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, The Huffington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Miami Herald, to name a few. Julie's current blog is a midlife sequel to her award-winning humor column she wrote in her twenties for Billboard Publications.
Living in Marin County, California, with her husband and cherishing her role as a mother of two adult children, Julie brings humor, wisdom, and authenticity to her storytelling. Join us as we explore her journey, writing career, and reflections on life's beautiful messiness.
Episode Highlights
- Midlife writing journey
- Parenting adult children
- Freelance journalism tips
- Leading a better life through writing
- Julie Fingersh articles
- Personal essays and storytelling
- Relationships in midlife
- Parenting challenges with grown kids
- Humor in life writing
- Wellness and lifestyle articles
- Writing for major publications
- Culture and relationships writer
- Personal growth through storytelling
-
Writing for The New York Times and Oprah Magazine
-
The art of personal essays: Finding your voice through storytelling.
- Parenting adult children: Navigating relationships as they grow.
- Midlife reinvention: Exploring the next chapter through creativity.
- Wellness and lifestyle writing: Sharing tips for leading a better life.
- Freelance journalism in 2024: Breaking into major publications.
- The impact of humor in writing: Connecting with audiences authentically.
- Balancing family and career as a writer.
- The rise of personal blogs: Creating connections in the digital age.
- The evolving role of culture in storytelling.
- Writing for impact: How personal stories shape societal conversations.
Learn more about Julie Fingerish
Read more about Julie and her work at juliefingersh.com.
To receive a review copy, or to schedule an interview, please contact: Heather Huzovic, 646.972.0033 or heather.huzovic@gmail.com
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Meet Rhonda Linn, a writer, poet, and entrepreneur who is deeply connected to the rhythms of nature. Over the past 11 years, Rhonda has been slowly cultivating a food forest on 36 acres in Michigan, transforming her land into a thriving sanctuary of seasonal living. Through her Substack, Earthen Jar; Stars, she inspires readers to reimagine a world cradled by nature’s beauty—embracing both the magic and the muck of everyday life.
This fall, Rhonda’s first poetry book, The Chapel of Small Breath, is set to be published, offering readers a heartfelt glimpse into her reflections on life and the natural world.
But that’s not all—Rhonda is also the founder of a marketing agency that supports holistic wellness, nature-based, and spiritual businesses through Virtual Assistant, Online Business Management, and Copywriting services. A former educator, Rhonda left teaching in 2020 to pursue her passions full-time, quickly building a thriving business that aligns with her values.
Rhonda is on a mission to help others connect with their natural rhythms, embrace seasonal living, and find joy, ease, and purpose in their personal and professional lives. She believes wholeheartedly in building a better, more connected world—and is here to show us that it’s possible.
Episode Highlights
- The Rise of Seasonal Living
- Food Forest Movement
- Homesteading in the Modern Era
- Nature-Inspired Poetry
- Holistic Marketing Trends
- Spiritual Entrepreneurship
- Virtual Assistance for Nature-Based Businesses
- Sustainable Practices for Entrepreneurs
- Mindful Business Strategies
- Publishing Poetry in a Digital World
Learn more about Rhonda Linn
LINKS:
https://rhondalinn.substack.com/ https://rhondalinn.comhttps://www.facebook.com/rhonda.linn.3 https://www.instagram.com/rhonda.m.linn/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhondalinnvirtualsolutions/
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In this episode of the Tendrils of Grief podcast, we are joined by the incredible Kisha Washington, a powerhouse in the culinary world and a passionate mental health advocate. Kisha is the Executive Chef, Owner, and Founder of TheKeyIngredient, LLC, a personal and private chef business providing upscale dining experiences in the comfort of clients' homes. She is also the visionary behind the nonprofit Cookzcreed Foundation, dedicated to supporting chefs and hospitality professionals with scholarships, mental health and substance abuse resources, and mentorship.
Kisha’s journey is as inspiring as her accolades, which include being a self-published author of Cultivating Healthy Minds: A Guide To Mental Health Resources Volume 1, a 7-time Top 10 winner at The World Food Championships, and a champion in various culinary competitions. She has graced TV screens on Fakers vs. Bakers and Plate It Baltimore, and her impressive affiliations include being a James Beard Foundation Legacy Network alum, a member of the Mental Health Hospitality Coalition, and an advocate with the AFSP Virginia Chapter.
In this heartfelt conversation, Kisha opens up about her passion for mental health advocacy, her journey through the culinary world, and the powerful ways she’s helping others thrive both in the kitchen and in life. Join us as Kisha shares her story of resilience, creativity, and a relentless commitment to making a difference in the lives of others. This episode is one you won’t want to miss!
Episode Highlights
- Private chef services
- Upscale private dining
- Personal chef business
- Cookzcreed Foundation
- Mental health advocacy in the culinary world
- Substance abuse resources for chefs
- Mental health in the hospitality industry
- Scholarships for chefs and hospitality professionals
- Culinary mentorship programs
- Competition chef accomplishments
- Mental health resources for chefs
- Kisha Washington chef
- World Food Championships winner
- Cultivating Healthy Minds book
- Suicide prevention in the culinary world
- Understanding burnout and depression
- Hospitality industry mental health support
- James Beard Foundation Legacy Network alum
- Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training
- Culinary Fight Club champion
- Culinary mental health advocate
Learn more about Yvonne Caputo
LINKS:
https://www.instagram.com/chefkish_dyan?igsh=MTlwZ3VrN2t6NGUyNQ==
https://www.instagram.com/cookzcreedfoundation?igsh=bDE5cnh6cDlsOWk4
https://www.facebook.com/kisha.washington.773?mibextid=ZbWKwL
Cultivating Healthy Minds: A Guide To Mental Health Resources Volume 1 For Chefs and Hospitality Individuals https://a.co/d/6purQvN
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In today’s episode, we are joined by the inspiring Yvonne Caputo, a woman whose journey has spanned roles as a teacher, psychotherapist, corporate trainer, and Vice President of Human Resources. With a master’s degree in education and clinical psychology, Yvonne has spent her life connecting with others through her powerful storytelling – from expanding young minds in the classroom to helping clients work through life’s toughest moments.
Yvonne is the author of Flying with Dad, a heartfelt memoir that explores her relationship with her father through the lens of his World War II stories. In her second book, Dying with Dad, she shares the emotional journey of having difficult conversations with her father about his end-of-life wishes. Her storytelling brings these deeply personal experiences to life, resonating with readers and audiences alike.
Join us as Yvonne shares her wisdom on family, connection, and the importance of open, honest conversations. She reminds us of the power of storytelling to heal, inspire, and bridge gaps, even across generations. This episode is sure to touch your heart and broaden your perspective on family relationships, life, and legacy.
Episode Highlights
- Yvonne Caputo
- Flying with Dad book
- Dying with Dad book
- World War II stories
- Father-daughter relationship
- Family legacy and storytelling
- End-of-life conversations
- Emotional healing through storytelling
- Navigating grief and loss
- Power of storytelling in relationships
- Open conversations about death
- Family dynamics and communication
- Teacher and psychotherapist insights
- Personal growth through family stories
- Impact of storytelling on mental health
- Yvonne Caputo podcast interview
- World War II memories and family legacy
- Yvonne Caputo speaker and presenter
- Family stories and intergenerational bonds
- Coping with grief and family loss
- The Power of Storytelling in Healing and Connection
- Conversations on Death and End-of-Life Planning
- Navigating Family Relationships Through Tough Conversations
- Lessons from World War II: Family Stories That Bridge Generations
- The Role of Storytelling in Mental Health and Emotional Growth
- Creating a Family Legacy Through Shared Experiences
- How End-of-Life Conversations Can Bring Families Closer
- Exploring Father-Daughter Bonds Through Life Stories
- Embracing Vulnerability in Family Relationships
- The Importance of Discussing Death and Legacy with Loved Ones
- Storytelling as a Tool for Healing in Grief and Loss
- Honoring Parents' Legacies Through Written Memories
- Family Dynamics and the Challenges of Communication
- Exploring History Through Personal Family Stories
- Psychotherapy Insights on Family and Loss
Learn more about Yvonne Caputo
LINKS:
Book : https://ingeniumbooks.com/yvonne-caputo/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonne-caputo-1449137/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xcskiyvonne
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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We are honored to speak with Annie Bourke, a Brisbane-based international bestselling author and renowned animal communicator and medium. Annie has a unique and heartwarming gift: she communicates with animals, both living and in spirit, acting as a bridge between them and their human companions. Through these powerful conversations, Annie provides messages of comfort, healing, and understanding, offering peace of mind to those who love their animal friends deeply.
Annie’s passion for animals goes far beyond simple communication. Her mission is to raise global awareness of the profound importance of animals in our lives. She wants people to truly understand that animals have souls, that they experience emotions, that they understand us more than we may realize, and that they are in our lives for a reason.
In addition to her conversations with animals, Annie offers an Animal Communication Mentorship Program, guiding others to develop the ability to communicate telepathically with their own animals. She also provides distance healing support for both animals and humans. Her podcast, What Animals Tell Me, showcases remarkable stories and highlights some of her incredible experiences with animals. She also presents free online masterclasses each month, helping animal parents deepen their bond with their beloved pets.
Join us as we explore the world of animal communication with Annie Bourke and discover the beautiful messages animals have for us, fostering deeper connections and greater understanding between animals and humans. This episode is a heartfelt journey into the soul of animal companionship.
Episode Highlights
- Animal Communication
- Animal Medium
- Talking to Animals
- Animal Soul Communication
- Telepathic Animal Communication
- Pet Medium
- Animal Healing
- Pet Grief Support
- Communicating with Pets
- Animal Psychic
- Connecting with Pets in Spirit
- Animal Communication Mentorship
- Pet Distance Healing
- Animals' Emotional Intelligence
- Animal Communicator Brisbane
- Understanding Animal Souls
- Animal Messages from Beyond
- Animal Spirituality
- Healing for Pets and Humans
- How to Communicate with Animals
- Understanding the Souls of Animals: Are Pets Spiritual Beings?
- Bridging the Gap Between Humans and Animals Through Telepathy
- The Healing Power of Talking to Your Pets
- Animal Communication for Grief and Closure
- Exploring the Afterlife Connection with Pets in Spirit
- Can Animals Really Understand Us? Exploring Animal Emotions
- Animal Communication Mentorship: Learning to Talk to Your Pets
- The Role of Animal Communicators in Pet Loss Healing
- Emotional Intelligence in Animals: What We Can Learn from Our Pets
- How to Connect with Animals on a Deeper Level
- Spiritual Connections with Pets: What Do They Mean?
- The Science and Spirituality Behind Animal Communication
- Breaking the Barriers: How Telepathy Helps Humans and Animals Connect
- Healing Support for Pets and Humans: A Journey of Compassion
- Animal Communication Masterclasses: What You Can Learn
- Why Animals Come Into Our Lives: Exploring the Purpose of Pets
Learn more about Annie Bourke
LINKS;
Email: CHIntuitive@bigpond.com
Website: https://www.cosmicheartintuitive.com.au
Free guide downloads: Animal Communication – A guide for animal parents
Rescuing the rescues - A guide for animal parents
How to introduce a new animal to your home
How to cope with pet loss
Facebook Personal: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011229976148
Facebook Business: https://www.facebook.com/CosmicHeartIntuitive
LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anniebourkecosmicheartintuitive
LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cosmic-heart-
intuitive/?viewAsMember=true
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anniebourke_animalcommunicator/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiWk7nu1K8skogPonW9_nhQ
Podcast: “What animals tell me” :
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/annie6509
Books:
The Bridge to Animal Consciousness (2018) International bestseller
The Bridge To Animal Consciousness: Bourke, Annie: 9781721649679:
Amazon.com: Books (USA)
Australian sales - purchase directly from Annie - email CHIntuitive@bigpond.com
International sales – Amazon online
Evolving Hearts and Souls – The Guide to Spiritual Awakening (2018)
Amazon #1 bestseller
Evolving Hearts and Souls: Bourke, Annie: 9781721196876: Amazon.com: Books
(USA)
Australian sales - purchase directly from Annie - email CHIntuitive@bigpond.com
International sales – Amazon online
Crossing the bridge to Animal Consciousness (2023)
Crossing the Bridge to Animal Consciousness: Animal Soulology: Bourke, Annie:
9781925370850: Amazon.com: Books (USA)
Australian sales - purchase directly from Annie - email CHIntuitive@bigpond.com
International sales – Amazon online
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
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In this profoundly touching episode of the Tendrils of Grief podcast, we welcome Lisa Boehm, a mother whose world was shattered when her 17-year-old daughter tragically died in a car accident. In the wake of her devastating loss, Lisa found herself confronting not only the deep ache of grief but also society’s discomfort and silence around death and mourning. Determined to shed light on these shadows, she embarked on a journey to help others navigate the isolating path of child loss.
Lisa poured her heart and soul into her book, Journey to HEALING: A Mother’s Guide to Navigating Child Loss, where she vulnerably shares her raw experience with grief and the slow steps toward reclaiming a life of meaning. With gratitude and intentional living as her guiding principles, Lisa has found a way to honor her daughter’s memory every day.
Today, Lisa is an author, speaker, and certified grief educator, dedicated to spreading hope and the importance of human connection. In her presentations, workshops, and book, she offers comfort to grieving hearts, letting them know that they’re not alone and that healing is possible. Join us as Lisa shares her story of loss, resilience, and the strength to rebuild a life forever changed. This conversation will touch your heart and inspire you to approach grief with compassion and courage.
Episode Highlights
· Child Loss Grief Support
· Navigating Grief and Loss
· Grieving the Loss of a Child
· Finding Hope After Loss
· Mother’s Journey Through Grief
· Healing from Child Loss
· Journey to Healing Book
· Grief and Gratitude
· Lisa Boehm Author
· Coping with Sudden Loss
· Grief Education and Support
· Intentional Living after Loss
· Supporting Grieving Parents
· Child Loss and Mental Health
· Reclaiming Life After Tragedy
· Grief Educator Podcast
· Finding Meaning After Loss
· Honoring a Lost Loved One
· Coping Mechanisms for Grieving Mothers
· Grief Workshops and Presentations
· The Power of Gratitude in Healing
· Breaking the Silence Around Child Loss
· Living with Loss: Finding Purpose and Meaning After Tragedy
· Transforming Pain into Purpose
· Hope and Resilience in the Face of Grief
· Intentional Living After Tragedy
· The Role of Community in the Healing Process
· How to Support Grieving Parents
· Overcoming Isolation in Grief
· Writing as Therapy: How Journaling and Memoirs Aid in Healing
· Parenting After Loss
· Grief Education for a Better Tomorrow
· Mental Health Awareness and Grief
· The Importance of Grief Literacy
· Honoring Lost Loved Ones Through Positive Action
Learn more about Lisa Boehm
LINKS;
Book: bit.ly/JourneyHeal
Podcast: www.risingstrongpodcast.com
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In this episode, we welcome Dr. Adina Silvestri, a Licensed Professional Counselor whose passion for helping others overcome life’s challenges shines through in everything she does. With over a decade of experience, Dr. Silvestri has dedicated her career to empowering individuals on their journeys of addiction recovery, eating disorder treatment, and emotional healing. But what truly sets her apart is her holistic approach—embracing alternative therapies like Hypnotherapy, Brainspotting, and Internal Family Systems to unlock deep healing.
Dr. Silvestri is also the founder of Writing Bravely, a program that transforms the power of the written word into a tool for resilience and recovery. Through expressive writing, she helps people process trauma, reclaim their voice, and find strength in their stories.
In this conversation, Dr. Silvestri opens up about the struggles and triumphs of her clients, the life-changing impact of storytelling, and her own personal journey toward balance and well-being. With heart and wisdom, she shares how writing can be a profound coping mechanism and a way to heal from even the deepest wounds.
Join us for an inspiring exploration of healing, recovery, and the transformative power of words.
Episode Highlights
· Dr. Adina Silvestri addiction recovery
· Holistic healing for eating disorders
· Writing Bravely course trauma recovery
· Using writing for mental health
· Brainspotting therapy for trauma
· Internal Family Systems (IFS) in counseling
· Hypnotherapy for addiction recovery
· Expressive writing for emotional healing
· Trauma recovery through storytelling
· Alternative therapies for mental health
· Men's group counseling services
· Grief and loss journaling IFS
· Transformative power of writing for trauma
· How writing can transform your trauma recovery journey
· Alternative healing: Brainspotting, IFS, and Hypnotherapy explained
· Dr. Adina Silvestri on using storytelling to process grief and loss
· Addiction recovery through expressive writing: Dr. Silvestri's insights
· Empowering your mental health journey with holistic therapies
· Writing for resilience: How words can help heal emotional wounds
· How to use writing as a tool for self-discovery and trauma healing
· The intersection of addiction recovery and alternative therapies
· Dr. Adina Silvestri's approach to healing through writing and therapy
· Unlocking the power of your story: Writing Bravely and trauma healing
Learn more about Dr. Adina Silvestri
Explore Dr. Silvestri's Work:
· Writing Through Grief and Loss: An IFS Journal for Healing - https://tinyurl.com/ifsjournal
· Writing Bravely Course - http://www.writingbravely.com/
· Men's Group Counseling Services - https://lifecyclesc.lpages.co/mens-group/
Connect:
· Website: https://adinasilvestri.com/
· Podcast: AtheistsinRecovery
· Instagram: @lifecyclescounseling
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In this episode, we’re joined by the amazing Tabitha Westbrook, LMFT-S, LCMHC-QS, LPC-S, a licensed therapist and expert in complex trauma, domestic abuse, and coercive control. As the Founder and CEO of The Journey and The Process, a private practice specializing in helping individuals recover from messy, painful pasts, Tabitha has made it her mission to empower people to live whole and healed lives today.
With a background as an EMDRIA Certified Therapist, Certified Sex Addiction Therapist, and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, Tabitha is no stranger to navigating the deepest layers of trauma. She’s also a sought-after speaker, training churches, therapists, and advocates on domestic abuse and coercive control. In this episode, Tabitha shares her wisdom on trauma recovery, the importance of healthy boundaries, and reclaiming your life after abuse.
She’s also the author of the forthcoming book, Body & Soul, Healed & Whole: An Invitational Guide to Healthy Sexuality After Trauma, Abuse, and Coercive Control, where she offers practical tools for healing. Join us as Tabitha delves into the powerful process of recovery, providing hope, guidance, and a path to wholeness.
Episode Highlights
- Tabitha Westbrook trauma recovery
- Healing from complex trauma
- Domestic abuse and coercive control expert
- EMDR therapy for trauma
- Recovering from childhood abuse
- Empowering lives after trauma
- Healing from emotional abuse
- Trauma-informed therapy techniques
- Breaking free from coercive control
- Healthy sexuality after trauma and abuse
- Faith-based domestic abuse advocacy
-
G5 Men’s Batterer Intervention Group
-
How to heal from domestic abuse and coercive control
- EMDR therapy: A powerful tool for trauma recovery
- Breaking the cycle of abuse: A conversation with Tabitha Westbrook
- Empowering your life after trauma: Healing from messy, painful pasts
- The role of faith-based advocacy in domestic abuse recovery
- Healthy sexuality after trauma: Practical tips from an expert therapist
- Tabitha Westbrook’s approach to trauma recovery and empowerment
- How to rebuild self-worth and boundaries after abuse
- Navigating emotional healing through trauma-informed therapy
- Training advocates: How churches can support domestic abuse survivors
Learn more about Tabitha Westbrook
Book preorder: https://www.amazon.com/Body-Soul-Healed-Whole-Invitational/dp/1496490665
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tabithathecounselor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TabithaTheCounselor Websites: https://www.tabithawestbrook.com/ and https://thejourneyandtheprocess.com/
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@devaneely4
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deva-neely/
X(formerly Twitter) - https://x.com/Imadiva4
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChL-_Xeuwnf9vPc9OEZdZNw
Free Grief Journal: https://stan.store/griefrelief/p/get-my-free-grief-relief-journal-now
Free Workshop - https://stan.store/griefrelief/p/join-me-at-the-webinar-u1tzi
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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Today we are joined by Deva, a Psychic Medium and Grief Coach who helps people connect with their loved ones on the other side. Deva’s life took a profound turn in 2013 when she tragically lost her brother to suicide. This devastating event opened up an unexpected path for her, leading her to rediscover a gift she had since childhood—one her brother helped her reclaim from beyond.
After spending over 20 years in the classroom teaching music and French and running a performance academy, Deva is now devoted to guiding others through their grief journeys. With her certification as a Life Transition Counselor and Coach, she teaches that death is not a finality, helping people tap into their intuitive abilities to communicate with their departed loved ones and bridge the gap between the human and spirit worlds.
In this episode, Deva shares her incredible story of transformation, grief, and spiritual awakening, and offers insight into how we can all deepen our connection to those we’ve lost.
Episode Highlights
· Psychic medium grief coach
· Communicating with departed loved ones
· Life after death spiritual connection
· Grief journey and spiritual awakening
· Healing through mediumship
· Connecting with loved ones in the spirit world
· Intuitive abilities and mediumship
· Life transition counselor grief support
· Spiritual healing after suicide loss
· Bridging human and spirit worlds
· Death is not the end mediumship
· Overcoming grief through psychic connection
· How psychic mediumship can help in the grief process
· Communicating with the spirit world: Deva’s story of loss and healing
· The intersection of grief and intuition: Unlocking spiritual abilities
· Grieving a loved one? Discover how to connect with their spirit
· Healing through mediumship: Transforming grief into connection
· Finding comfort after loss: Deva’s journey from tragedy to mediumship
· Spiritual awakening after trauma: How one woman rediscovered her gift
· Can you communicate with the dead? A psychic medium’s perspective
· Exploring the afterlife: Bridging the gap between the living and the departed
· Understanding death and healing: Tapping into intuitive gifts
Learn more about Deva Neely
Website: https://stan.store/griefrelief
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/deva.neely
Grief Relief FB Group: www.facebook.com/groups/griefreliefwithdeva/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Deva_Neely_
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@devaneely4
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deva-neely/
X(formerly Twitter) - https://x.com/Imadiva4
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChL-_Xeuwnf9vPc9OEZdZNw
Free Grief Journal: https://stan.store/griefrelief/p/get-my-free-grief-relief-journal-now
Free Workshop - https://stan.store/griefrelief/p/join-me-at-the-webinar-u1tzi
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In this eye-opening episode, we’re joined by Brooke Kekos, a dynamic Trauma Healing Mentor, Rapid Transformational Therapist (RTT), and NLP Practitioner. Having personally triumphed over deep-rooted indoctrination, abuse, and toxic relationships, Brooke brings both her expertise and lived experience to help survivors transform their lives.
As a best-selling author, speaker, and passionate advocate against religious abuse and domestic violence, Brooke is devoted to guiding women through their healing journeys. She specializes in breaking the cycles of trauma, enabling women to reclaim their power, heal emotionally, and rebuild healthier, authentic lives.
With her innovative and holistic approach, Brooke empowers women to fast-track their healing by addressing the root of their pain, healing their nervous systems, and freeing themselves from outdated patterns. In this episode, she shares how her unique methods allow clients to shed years of emotional baggage, reclaim their voice, and rediscover their true selves.
Join us for an inspiring conversation where Brooke reveals the path to overcoming trauma, rebuilding self-worth, and living in full alignment with your true identity.
Episode Highlights
· Healing trauma with Brooke Kekos
· Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT) for trauma
· Breaking free from abusive relationships
· Reclaiming life after abuse
· Trauma healing mentor Brooke Kekos
· Empowering women through NLP and RTT
· Overcoming religious abuse and domestic violence
· Healing the nervous system from trauma
· Trauma recovery and emotional healing
· Authentic living after childhood trauma
· Shattering the cycle of abuse
· Fast-tracking trauma recovery with RTT
· How Rapid Transformational Therapy can heal trauma faster
· Reclaiming your power after surviving abuse
· Brooke Kekos on breaking free from religious indoctrination
· Healing your nervous system after trauma
· How to rebuild your life after toxic relationships
· Transforming trauma into strength: Brooke Kekos’ holistic approach
· The emotional toll of religious abuse and how to recover
· Fast-track your healing: Breaking cycles of abuse with RTT
· Women’s empowerment through trauma recovery
· Moving from survival to thriving after trauma
Learn more about Brooke Kekos
Grief Monster Book: https://a.co/d/3BD6qzG
https://www.lifecoachinggoddess.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-kekos-253905231
https://www.instagram.com/lifecoachinggoddess
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075036248909
https://www.tiktok.com/@brookekekos?_t=8UL4XMCBiu3&_r=1
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In this powerful episode, we are joined by Sabrina Trobak, a Registered Clinical Counsellor, author, and trauma specialist. Sabrina has spent decades helping people uncover the roots of their pain, particularly those who struggle with anxiety, insecurity, and self-doubt. Her work focuses on one crucial truth: so many of us are carrying the heavy burden of core beliefs like not good enough, not important, or not valued—beliefs that often stem from trauma or difficult experiences in childhood.
Sabrina’s book, Not Good Enough: Understanding Your Core Belief and Anxiety – A Handbook, is a heartfelt guide to understanding how these beliefs form and, more importantly, how we can begin to rewrite them. In this episode, Sabrina opens up about the profound impact trauma has on our sense of self and how we can break free from the emotional chains that hold us back.
Whether you’ve experienced trauma yourself or simply feel weighed down by anxiety or self-doubt, Sabrina’s wisdom will resonate deeply. She shares not only her extensive expertise but also the compassion and hope that healing is possible.
Join us for an emotional and enlightening conversation as we explore how to heal from the inside out, challenge the stories we tell ourselves, and reclaim our worth.
Episode Highlights
· Core beliefs and anxiety
· Healing childhood trauma
· Challenging core beliefs
· Not good enough core belief
· Overcoming self-doubt and insecurity
· Trauma and mental health
· Rewriting negative self-beliefs
· Impact of trauma on self-worth
· Anxiety and core belief healing
· Emotional healing from past trauma
· Understanding core beliefs and anxiety
· Self-worth and trauma recovery
· How childhood trauma shapes core beliefs
· Breaking free from the “not good enough” mindset
· Healing anxiety by challenging core beliefs
· Understanding how trauma impacts self-worth
· Emotional healing: rewriting your core beliefs
· Overcoming insecurity and self-doubt through therapy
· Rebuilding your self-worth after trauma
· Transforming anxiety by addressing the root cause
· Mental health breakthroughs: core beliefs and recovery
· How trauma therapy helps reclaim your self-worth
Learn more about Sabrina Trobak
Trobak Holistic Counseling
Not Good Enough Book
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In this episode, we welcome Jocelyn, a true cultivator of curiosity in the human experience. As a Soul Art Guide, Akashic Records Guide, Yoga Nidra Guide, and Human Design Mentor, Jocelyn has spent over 25 years helping people uncover their most authentic selves and find purpose in life. Her work as an Expressive Arts Therapist and EFT Master Practitioner has touched countless lives, guiding people through their own transformations.
But two and a half years ago, Jocelyn’s world was shattered. Losing both of her parents just seven days apart plunged her into a grief she never imagined. Since then, she’s been on a deeply personal journey, navigating through the overwhelming sorrow and finding unexpected light along the way. Grief, as painful as it is, has expanded her view of life, deepened her creativity, and reshaped her understanding of her life’s story.
In this conversation, Jocelyn opens her heart and shares how this profound loss has not only transformed her, but also brought clarity and purpose to her life in ways she couldn’t have foreseen. Together, we explore how grief—while devastating—can also be a source of growth, creativity, and meaning.
Join us for this powerful episode as we honor the raw truth of grief and the incredible resilience of the human spirit.
Episode Highlights
· Grief and creativity
· Healing through grief
· Finding purpose after loss
· Coping with grief through art
· Grief and self-discovery
· Grief journey transformation
· Creativity in grief healing
· Expressive arts therapy for grief
· Life after losing parents
· Akashic records and grief healing
· Emotional healing through human design
· Navigating grief and purpose
· How grief can unlock hidden creativity
· Finding purpose after profound loss
· The healing power of expressive arts therapy
· Transforming pain into creativity and growth
· Rediscovering yourself through grief and loss
· Grief as a catalyst for self-discovery
· Spiritual tools for healing after loss
· How losing loved ones can change your life’s story
· The intersection of art, healing, and grief
· Using yoga nidra and human design to navigate grief
·
Learn more about Jocelyn Bates
Website
Substack
Insight Timer
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In this deeply personal solo episode, I open up about the three most transformative lessons I’ve learned on my grief journey. This episode is not just about coping—it's about finding a way to live fully, even as grief becomes part of who you are.
I share raw, honest reflections, including a vulnerable moment with my daughter Madison that challenged me to confront feelings of shame and guilt. Through this experience, I realized that healing comes when we stop judging our emotions and start embracing them.
Grief is not something we "get over." It’s a lifelong companion, but one that can walk beside joy, hope, and meaning. I hope my story helps you feel less alone and gives you the strength to honor your own journey, wherever you are in it.
Episode Highlights
· Grief journey lessons
· Coping with grief
· Healing from loss
· Grief and personal growth
· Emotional healing through grief
· Grief and vulnerability
· Conversations about grief
· Overcoming shame in grief
· Living with grief
· Grief and self-discovery
· Grief and family connections
· Grieving parent stories
· Navigating grief with children
· How to embrace grief without guilt
· Transforming grief into personal growth
· Talking openly about grief with loved ones
· Healing through vulnerability and connection
· Lessons learned from grieving a loved one
· Balancing joy and grief in everyday life
· The lifelong impact of grief on families
· Emotional breakthroughs during the grief process
· How sharing grief stories can lead to healing
· Parenting through loss and grief
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In this episode, we welcome Melissa Miller, an experienced caregiver and entrepreneur with over 15 years as a Certified Nursing Assistant, primarily working in Long-Term Care facilities. Melissa's caregiving journey has included caring for her grandmother, father, and her husband following his epilepsy diagnosis in July 2020. When her husband's health prevented her from returning to traditional employment, Melissa decided to create her own business, finding the flexibility she needed as a spousal caregiver and stay-at-home partner.
What started as a blog has grown into her true passion: http://www.caregivingentrepreneurshipreimagined.com . Now, as the host of the Caregiver & Entrepreneurship Reimagined podcast, Melissa supports entrepreneurs who care for chronically ill loved ones, helping them balance their caregiving and business responsibilities by developing stress-free systems. Her belief is clear: you don't have to choose between caregiving and entrepreneurship—you can successfully do both.
Tune in as Melissa shares her story and offers practical advice for anyone balancing these two important roles.
Episode Highlights
· Work-Life Balance
· Remote Work for Caregivers
· Mental Health Awareness
· Chronic Illness Care
· Women in Entrepreneurship
· Self-Care for Caregivers
· Technology and Caregiving
· Epilepsy Awareness
· Long-Term Care Insights
· Resilience and Adaptability
· Caregiving entrepreneurship
· Spousal caregiver support
· Managing caregiving and business
· Caregiver podcast
· Balancing caregiving and work
· Caregiving systems and strategies
· Chronic illness caregiving tips
· Flexible work for caregivers
· Entrepreneurship for caregivers
· Stress-free caregiving solutions
Know more About Melissa Miller
Website: https://www.caregivingentrepreneurshipreimagined.com
Email: melissamiller@tyrosupermom.com
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/caregiving-entrepreneurship-reimagined-podcast/id1651861199
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In today's episode of the Tendrils of Grief podcast, we are joined by David Woods Bartley, a man who has faced both incredible successes and profound challenges. David's journey has taken him from leading a nationally recognized nonprofit to battling severe depression and surviving a suicide attempt.
Through his own recovery, David has become a passionate advocate for mental health, shining a light on issues like suicide, male sexual trauma, and mental illness. With certifications in Mental Health First Aid, SafeTALK, and QPR suicide prevention, David is committed to moving these critical conversations from the shadows into the public eye.
David has delivered over 800 presentations worldwide, including TED talks, where he shares his message of hope and resilience. Join us as David discusses his journey from "mental hellness" to wellness, and his ongoing mission to help others find healing and strength in the face of adversity.
Episode Highlights
· Suicide Prevention
· Male Sexual Trauma Awareness
· Clinical Depression Recovery
· Mental Health First Aid
· TED Talks on Mental Health
· SafeTALK Certification
· QPR Suicide Prevention
· Resilience in Mental Health
· Servant Leadership in Mental Wellness
· Overcoming Childhood Trauma
· Suicide Awareness and Support
· Mental Wellness Journey
· Public Speaking on Mental Health
· Trauma-Informed Care
· Breaking Mental Health Stigmas
· Mental Health in 2024: Emerging Trends and Strategies
· The Importance of Mental Health Awareness in Male Populations
· Suicide Prevention Initiatives and their Impact
· The Role of Resilience in Mental Health Recovery
· The Global Mental Health Crisis: What Can Be Done?
· From Darkness to Light: Inspiring Stories of Overcoming Mental Illness
· How Trauma Affects Mental Health and Recovery Processes
· The Future of Mental Health Advocacy: Moving Conversations Forward
· Effective Tools and Techniques for Suicide Prevention
· The Power of Storytelling in Healing from Trauma
Know more About David Woods Bartley
FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/david.w.bartley.5
LIKEDIN : https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-woods-bartley-96325512/
INSTAGRAM : https://www.instagram.com/davidwoodsbartley/
CHECK HIM OUT https://www.ted.com/talks/david_woods_bartley_how_connection_saved_my_life?trigger=5s
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_woods_bartley_how_to_save_a_life_by_sitting_down?trigger=5s
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In today's episode of the Tendrils of Grief podcast, we are joined by Jason Tuttle, a father who has bravely transformed his profound grief into a mission to help others. Jason was a devoted stay-at-home parent and loving father to two children with multiple physical and cognitive disabilities. His life took a heartbreaking turn when he lost his 15-year-old special needs son on January 28, 2022.
In the wake of this unimaginable loss, Jason made a powerful decision: to channel his grief into something meaningful. He created "Letters To Zachary," a deeply personal and raw platform where he openly shares his emotions, thoughts, and the complex journey of grieving as a father. Through this project, Jason provides a rare and honest glimpse into the male experience of grief, offering support and solidarity to others who may be facing similar challenges.
Join us as Jason courageously opens up about his journey, the inspiration behind "Letters To Zachary," and the healing power of vulnerability in the grieving process. This episode is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the impact of sharing our stories to help others find their way through grief.
Episode Highlights
· Grief Support
· Male Grief Experience
· Parenting and Grief
· Special Needs Parenting
· Loss of a Child
· Bereavement Journey
· Emotional Healing
· Vulnerable Grief Narratives
· Letters To Zachary
· Coping with Loss
· Coping Strategies for Grieving Parents
· The Impact of Losing a Special Needs Child
· Male Perspectives on Grief
· Emotional Expression and Healing
· Personal Stories of Grief and Loss
· Supporting Parents Through Bereavement
· The Role of Vulnerability in Grief
· Creating Supportive Communities for Grieving Parents
· Managing Complex Emotions After Loss
· How Writing Can Aid in Grief Recovery
Know more About Jason Tuttle
Contact Info: Jason Tuttlejasonctuttle2017@gmail.com --------------------------------------------------
Social Media Links:
LettersTo Zacharywww.LettersToZachary.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552174684952 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@letters2zachary Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letters2zachary/
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In today's episode of Tendrils of Grief, we have the privilege of speaking with Patricia Roos, a former professor of sociology at Rutgers University, whose life took a tragic turn in 2015 when her 25-year-old son, Alex, passed away from a heroin overdose.
Guided by her academic background in sociology, Patricia embarked on a deeply personal journey to make sense of the devastating loss that her family endured. This journey led her to write a compelling and insightful sociological memoir, Surviving Alex: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Addiction, which was published by Rutgers University Press in May 2024.
Patricia brings a unique perspective to the conversation, blending her professional expertise with her lived experience as a grieving mother. In this episode, she shares her insights into the complex factors surrounding addiction, the challenges faced by families navigating this crisis, and the process of healing and rebuilding life after such a profound loss.
Join us for a poignant and enlightening discussion as Patricia opens up about her personal story, the creation of her memoir, and her mission to bring awareness and understanding to the multifaceted issue of addiction and its impact on families.
Episode Highlights
· Grief and Loss
· Addiction and Recovery
· Heroin Overdose
· Sociological Perspectives on Grief
· Healing After Loss
· Parenting Through Addiction
· Memoir of Grief
· Surviving Alex book
· Rutgers University Press
· Coping with Child's Death
· Sociology of Addiction
· Parental Grief and Addiction
· Addiction Crisis in Families
· Mental Health and Addiction
· Substance Abuse Awareness
· The Opioid Crisis
· Mental Health Awareness
· Breaking the Stigma of Addiction
· Navigating Grief During the Holidays
· The Role of Family in Recovery
· Mothers Speaking Out on Addiction
· Raising Awareness of Substance Abuse
· The Impact of Grief on Mental Health
· The Intersection of Sociology and Personal Experience
· Memoirs that Heal: Stories of Loss and Recovery
· The Role of Education in Understanding Addiction
· Community Support for Families Facing Addiction
· How Grief Transforms Lives
· The Hidden Epidemic: Parental Grief Over Addiction
· How to Support a Loved One Through Addiction
Know more About Patricia Roos
Link to her book:
Surviving Alex: A Mother’s Story of Love, Loss, and Addiction: Roos, Patricia A.: 9781978837027: Amazon.com: Books
Visit her page at www.patroos.com
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Welcome to the Tendrils of Grief podcast! Today, we have the honor of speaking with Dr. George Ackerman, a dedicated advocate for Parkinson’s awareness. Hailing from Brooklyn, NY, and now residing in Florida, George's professional journey spans law, police work, and education. His commitment to Parkinson’s advocacy began after the loss of his beloved mother, Sharon Riff Ackerman, on January 1, 2020, due to Parkinson’s Disease.
To honor his mother and further the cause of Parkinson’s awareness, George founded TogetherForSharon®, a family initiative dedicated to keeping Sharon's memory alive and spreading awareness and hope for a cure. The initiative's website, TogetherForSharon.com, now reaches thousands of individuals nationwide, promoting crucial messages about Parkinson’s Disease.
George also conducts interviews with individuals across the Parkinson’s community, including various foundations, caregivers, and Parkinson’s warriors, to share their inspiring stories and causes. Join us as George discusses his journey, the meaningful work of TogetherForSharon®, and his mission to transform grief into purpose and make a positive impact in the Parkinson’s community.
Tune in for an insightful and moving conversation about finding strength in loss and driving change through advocacy.
Episode Highlights
· Parkinson’s Disease Awareness
· Dr. George Ackerman
· TogetherForSharon
· Sharon Riff Ackerman
· Parkinsons advocacy
· Parkinsons community
· Parkinsons warriors
· Parkinsons caregivers
· Parkinsons foundations
· Parkinsons Disease cure
· Parkinsons Disease support
· Grief journey
· Transforming grief into purpose
· Parkinsons Disease interviews
· Parkinsons Disease initiatives
· Innovative treatments for Parkinsons Disease
· Personal stories of Parkinsons warriors
· The role of caregivers in managing Parkinsons Disease
· Advancements in Parkinsons Disease research
· Impact of family support on Parkinsons Disease patients
· Mental health and chronic illness
· Community initiatives for Parkinsons awareness
· The importance of early diagnosis in Parkinsons Disease
· Fundraising for Parkinsons Disease research
· Personal journeys of advocacy and activism
Know more About Dr. George Ackerman
All Social can be found and linked here
https://linktr.ee/togetherforsharon
Website https://www.togetherforsharon.com/
Email togetherforsharon@gmail.com
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-ackerman-ph-d-esq-mba-00871a82/
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@togetherforsharon1
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/togetherforsharon112020
Twitter/X https://twitter.com/togetherforsha1
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/togetherforsharon/
& Threads
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeBLOelhaLQNvgeNMzu-5g
Podcast Link https://www.togetherforsharon.com/podcast-interviews/
Interview link https://www.togetherforsharon.com/interview-index/
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Welcome to the Tendrils of Grief podcast. Today, we have the privilege of speaking with Dr. Natasha P. Trujillo, a distinguished expert in the nuances of grief and loss. In her forthcoming book, "And She Was Never the Same Again," Dr. Trujillo challenges the notion of a "correct" way to grieve. She strongly advocates against the pathologization and over-medication of grief, emphasizing that it is a profoundly personal and natural process that should be embraced rather than suppressed.Drawing from both her academic studies and personal experiences, Dr. Trujillo has not only studied the theories and concepts surrounding grief but also lived them. Her journey serves as a testament to the transformative power of understanding and navigating grief, resonating deeply with those who encounter her work.Based in Denver, Colorado, Dr. Trujillo specializes in a wide array of issues, including grief, loss, eating disorders, trauma, life transitions, identity development, anxiety, depressive disorders, perfectionism, and performance psychology. She also works extensively with athletes and performers across the nation, both individually and within team settings.
Dr. Trujillo's holistic approach to healing and her unwavering commitment to her clients make her a beacon of hope and resilience in the mental health field. Join us to gain invaluable insights and compassionate guidance on navigating grief and finding strength in the journey.
Episode Highlights
· Grief and loss
· Dr. Natasha P. Trujillo
· Understanding grief
· Natural grieving process
· Challenges of grief
· Pathologization of grief
· Over-medication of grief
· Personal grief journey
· Transformative power of grief
· Grief support
· Denver grief specialist
· Mental health and grief
· Holistic healing
· Life transitions
· Identity development
· Performance psychology
· Anxiety and depressive disorders
· Trauma recovery
· Eating disorders therapy
· Grief and mental health
· Embracing natural grief processes
· Challenging the medicalization of grief
· Transforming grief into personal growth
· The role of spirituality in grief
· Integrating grief theories into real life
· Coping with loss in high-stress professions
· Mental health strategies for performers
· Overcoming perfectionism in grief
· Supporting athletes through life transitions
· Grief therapy approaches and best practices
Know more About Dr. Natasha P. Trujillo
LINKS:
NPT Website:npttherapy.com Instagram:instagram.com/npttherapy Facebook:facebook.com/npttherapy LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/natasha-p-trujillo-ph-d
Book : andshewasneverthesameagain.com
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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Welcome to the Tendrils of Grief podcast. Today, I have a unique and exciting episode that I can't wait to share with you. I'm thrilled to be joined by Courtney Webber, a witch, writer, tarot advisor, and teacher. Courtney is the creator of Tarot of the Boroughs and the author of several books, including Hecate, The Morrigan, Brigid, and Tarot for One (I hope I pronounced those correctly!). She also contributes to Cancer Witch and co-hosts the That Witch Life podcast.
Courtney brings her own experiences with loss to the table, offering guidance as you navigate the challenging path of grief. She encourages incorporating your spirituality into the grieving process and shares stories that help you find your own way through. In this episode, you'll learn how to uncover the gifts that can arise from loss, cope without closure, and support others who are grieving. Her insights and her book provide the strength to keep moving forward and help you feel a little better each day.
Episode Highlights
· Grief Support
· Grief Journey
· Spirituality in Grief
· Healing from Loss
· Tarot and Grief
· Witchcraft and Healing
· Coping with Grief
· Personal Grief Stories
· Grief Resources
· Courtney Webber Author
· Tarot Advisor
· Witch Life Podcast
· Transforming Grief
· Grief Empowerment
· Navigating Loss
KNOW MORE ABOUT COURTNEY WEBBER
Courtney Weber (Portland, OR) is a witch, writer, tarot advisor, and teacher. She is the creator of Tarot of the Boroughs and the author of Hekate, The Morrigan, Brigid, and Tarot for One. She is also a contributor to Cancer Witch (9780738772837) and a cohost of That Witch Life podcast.
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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Welcome to today's episode! We're excited to introduce our guest, Michelle, a Master Life Coach, Intuitive Guide, and Certified Hypnotherapist. Michelle is dedicated to empowering highly sensitive individuals, families, and professionals who are driven by a profound sense of purpose. With over two decades of experience, she has honed her skills in utilizing energetic tools to ignite extraordinary breakthroughs, reshape limiting beliefs, and bring simplicity to life's complexities—all while ensuring the journey is enjoyable.
Intimately familiar with the experience of grief, Michelle is deeply passionate about supporting people through this inevitable yet often misunderstood life process. Her unique approach, combined with her deep empathy, makes her a beacon of hope and transformation for those navigating their grief journey.
Join us as we delve into Michelle's insights, experiences, and the wisdom she shares to help others find strength and clarity amidst their challenges.
Episode Highlights
· Master Life Coach
· Intuitive Guide
· Certified Hypnotherapist
· Highly Sensitive Individuals
· Energetic Tools for Breakthroughs
· Reshaping Limiting Beliefs
· Grief Support
· Purpose-Driven Professionals
· Life Transformation
· Navigating Grief Journey
· Empowering Highly Sensitive People
· Utilizing Hypnotherapy for Breakthroughs
· Transforming Limiting Beliefs
· Supporting Families through Grief
· Life Coaching for Purpose-Driven Individuals
· Energetic Healing Tools
· Navigating Complex Emotions
· Personal Growth and Transformation
· Intuitive Guidance for Life Challenges
· The Role of Fun in Personal Development
KNOW MORE ABOUT MICHELLE WOODWARD
VISIT HER WEBSITE
https://www.michelleraewoodward.com/
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Join us on this episode of the Tendrils of Grief podcast as we welcome Kelly Snider, a bestselling author and story curator known for her remarkable ability to collect and preserve stories. Kelly's expertise lies in creating events, writing books, interviewing guests on her podcast, and facilitating life-changing story workshops. She excels at extracting stories and identifying value and strength within narratives.
As an acclaimed event producer, Kelly has successfully highlighted her clients' individual stories, needs, and goals, raising over fifteen million dollars for charities worldwide through her story-focused events. Kelly's mission is to support and inspire others by sharing the stories that connect us all. Her own experiences of overcoming adversity and challenge have emboldened thousands to find the freedom and strength to share their own stories.
Through her platforms, including The Power of Story Conference 2017, the Epic Exchanges Podcast, and her books “Your Story, Your Strength” and “The Gift In Your Story,” Kelly helps people uncover the true gifts within their stories and share them to inspire others and transform lives.
Episode Highlights
· Kelly Snider
· Bestselling Author
· Story Curator
· Event Producer
· Charity Fundraising Events
· The Power of Story Conference
· Epic Exchanges Podcast
· Life-Changing Story Workshops
· Your Story Your Strength Book
· The Gift In Your Story Book
· Narrative Extraction
· Inspiring Personal Stories
· Overcoming Adversity
· Transformative Storytelling
· Storytelling for Charities
· Trending Topics
· The impact of storytelling in personal and professional growth
· How to effectively raise funds for charities through storytelling events
· The role of narrative in overcoming adversity and personal challenges
· Techniques for uncovering and preserving personal stories
· The power of sharing personal stories in community building
· The benefits of participating in story workshops
· The influence of podcasts on modern storytelling
· The significance of narrative in mental health and healing
· How to write and publish a bestselling book
· The importance of generosity and vulnerability in storytelling
KNOW MORE ABOUT KELLY SNIDER
VISIT HER WEBSITE
www.kellysniderauthor.com
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Welcome to the Tendrils of Grief podcast. Today, I'm hosting a solo episode with the purpose of informing, educating, and offering hope to those on a grief journey or supporting someone who is
In this episode, I'll be sharing some pivotal moments from my own grief journey, which has been filled with ups and downs, highs and lows, and a blend of good and bad experiences. My focus is not on the individuals involved, but on the situations, as there's a commonality in these experiences. Frequently, I hear others say "me too," or I find myself saying it.
This podcast connects us through our shared stories. Today, I'll discuss three key experiences from my grief journey. These experiences have come full circle for me, and I want you to understand that it's perfectly okay to grieve in your own way. Don't let anyone judge your grief.
I'll share three stories where I felt judged, but in the end, I found strength and power in my actions rather than feeling judged.
Episode Highlights
· Grief Journey
· Personal Grief Stories
· Grief and Healing
· Permission to Grieve
· Judgment in Grief
· Navigating Grief
· Ups and Downs of Grief
· Healing from Loss
· Grief Support
· Coping with Grief
· Emotional Healing
· Tendrils of Grief Podcast
· Full Circle Grief Experiences
· Finding Power in Grief
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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In today's episode of Tendrils of Grief, we are joined by Krista Rizzo, PCC, an Empowerment Mentor for Healing Hearts. Krista is a Certified Grief Treatment Educator and Life Coach dedicated to guiding others through the intricate journey of grief. With a mission to impact one million lives, she empowers people to navigate grief on their terms and in their own time. Her compassionate approach provides tools and resources that promote healing and self-discovery, fostering resilience and hope in the face of loss.
During the pandemic, Krista relocated from Brooklyn, NY to Connecticut, where she is active in her community and lives with her family and their beloved dog, Boomer. Join us as Krista shares her insights and strategies for navigating grief and finding hope and resilience through the healing process.
Tune in and gain valuable insights from Krista Rizzo's compassionate approach to grief. Don't miss this inspiring episode!
Episode Highlights
· Grief Treatment
· Empowerment Mentor
· Certified Grief Educator
· Life Coach
· Healing Hearts
· Navigating Grief
· Grief Journey
· Pandemic Relocation
· Compassionate Grief Support
· Resilience and Hope in Grief
· Krista Rizzo
· Healing from Loss
· Self-Discovery
· Grief Resources
· Brooklyn to Connecticut
· Community Involvement
More about Jamie Lee Silver
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/officialkristarizzo/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialkristarizzo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristarizzo/
website: www.youcanttellmehowtofeel.com
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
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Welcome to the Tendrils of Grief podcast. Today, I am joined by Jamie Lee Silver, known as The Grief to Gratitude Guru. Certified in EFT and grief counseling, Jamie specializes in using EFT Tapping and Energetics to help people find peace and healing through grief. Her "Grief to Gratitude" System has transformed countless lives.
Jamie’s journey began when her son Ben, who battled late onset schizophrenia, tragically took his own life in 2015. Motivated by her grief, Jamie turned her pain into healing for others, finding solace through EFT Tapping and rediscovering joy.
She co-authored Our Forever Ben: One Mom’s Letters to Her Son in Spirit and His Poetic Replies and founded the non-profit "Ben's Memorial Mile," raising over $150,000 for mental health causes. With a background in Unitarian Universalism, Buddhism, and Christianity, Jamie emphasizes an appreciative spirit for happiness. Currently in Florida, Jamie continues to inspire others on their emotional well-being journey. Welcome, Jamie.
Episode Highlights
· Grief to Gratitude Guru
· EFT Tapping for grief
· Emotional Freedom Techniques
· Grief and healing
· Transforming sorrow into gratitude
· Jamie Lee Silver
· Ben's Memorial Mile
· Mental health advocacy
· Grief counseling
· Coping with loss
· Schizophrenia awareness
· Healing after tragedy
· EFT for emotional healing
· Spiritual healing
· Tapping therapy
· Grief transformation
· Grief and mental health
· Automatic writing
· Spiritual correspondence
· Emotional well-being
· Innovative approaches to grief healing
· The impact of EFT Tapping on emotional recovery
· Personal journeys of overcoming profound loss
· Advocacy for mental health and grief support
· Raising awareness about schizophrenia through personal stories
· The intersection of spirituality and mental health healing
· How to find purpose and gratitude after tragedy
· Community support and non-profits in mental health
· Techniques for transforming grief into growth
· The role of appreciative spirit in emotional healing
More about Jamie Lee Silver
WEBSITE: tapforhappiness.com
LINKEDIN: linkedin.com/in/jamieleesilver
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/jamieleesilver
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/jamieleesilver
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Welcome to another episode of the Tendrils of Grief podcast. Today, we have a deeply moving and inspiring guest, Elizabeth “Liz” O’Donnell. After the heart-wrenching experience of being sent home empty-handed from the hospital following the stillbirth of her daughter, Aaliyah, Liz decided to share her pain publicly. Her Instagram post, showing her holding Aaliyah in her hospital bed, went viral, drawing attention to the often overlooked struggles of stillborn families.
Fueled by the outpouring of support and a desire to honor her daughter’s spirit, Liz left her teaching career to advocate for parents of stillborn children. She founded the nonprofit organization Aaliyah in Action, which provides curated “self-care” packages as a first step toward healing for birthing parents and families. Liz also took on the fight for more compassionate maternity leave laws, successfully pushing for the passage of an Emergency Bereavement Bill in D.C. in March 2021. Today, Aaliyah in Action has partnered with 21 hospitals across six states and the District of Columbia.
Liz's advocacy work continues nationally as the Co-Director of Awareness for PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy, a parent-led group dedicated to reducing the U.S. stillbirth rate and empowering expectant families. Recently, PUSH launched a Pregnancy After Loss Provider Training program to help prenatal care providers offer sensitive care to patients who are pregnant again after a perinatal loss.
Join us as we delve into Liz's journey, her mission to support and advocate for stillborn families, and her tireless efforts to create meaningful change.
Episode Highlights
· Elizabeth O’Donnell
· Tendrils of Grief podcast
· stillbirth advocacy
· Aaliyah in Action
· self-care packages for bereavement
· Emergency Bereavement Bill
· PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy
· pregnancy after loss
· perinatal loss support
· maternal mental health
· stillborn families
· maternity leave laws
· prenatal care providers
· grief support
· bereavement care
· Mental health awareness
· Bereavement support and resources
· Advocacy for parental rights
· Changes in maternity leave policies
· Nonprofit organizations making a difference
· Personal stories of grief and healing
· Social media activism and its impact
· Support for families experiencing stillbirth
· Training programs for healthcare providers
· The role of community in healing after loss
More about Elizabeth “Liz” O’Donnell
Website www.aaliyahinaction.org
Instagram @aaliyahinaction
Facebook Aaliyah in Action
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Welcome to the Tendrils of Grief podcast. I am delighted to have Ona Gritz with us today. Ona holds a Master of Arts in Poetry from New York University's Creative Writing Program. She is the author of "August or Forever," a Reader's Choice and Wishing Shelf finalist in middle grade fiction. Her nonfiction has appeared in numerous notable publications, including Brevity, The Guardian, The New York Times, River Teeth, The Rumpus, and The Utne Reader. Her essays have been recognized as notable in The Best American Essays and Best of the Year in Salon.
Ona's earlier works include "On the Whole: A Story of Mothering and Disability" and "Geode," a finalist for the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award. She won the Poetry Archive Now Worldview 2020 competition and has earned many other honors for her widely anthologized poems. Ona resides near Philadelphia with her husband, writer Daniel Simpson. For more information, visit her website at www.onagritz.com, and we'll include the link in the show notes. Welcome, Ona!
Episode Highlights
· Ona Gritz
· Tendrils of Grief podcast
· Poetry Creative Writing Program
· Master of Arts in Poetry
· August or Forever book
· Reader’s Choice finalist
· Wishing Shelf finalist
· Middle grade fiction
· Nonfiction writing
· Best American Essays notable
· Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award
· Poetry Archive Now Worldview 2020
· Anthologized poems
· Creative writing
· Philadelphia writers
· Mothering and Disability
· River Teeth publication
· The Rumpus essays
· Brevity essays
· The Guardian articles
· Grief and poetry
· The role of poetry in healing
· Middle grade fiction and its impact
· Representation of disability in literature
· Writing through personal loss
· The power of creative writing programs
· Recognized female poets
· Contemporary nonfiction essays
· Anthologized modern poetry
· The importance of literary competitions
· Notable essays in American literature
· Creating relatable middle grade fiction
· Achievements in creative writing
· Inspiring stories of resilience
· Writing partnerships and collaborations
More about Ona Gritz
Instagram @onagritz
Website www.onagritz.com
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Welcome to our podcast featuring Laura Donohoe, a seasoned Human Resources professional with over 20 years of strategic HR management experience. Laura holds prestigious certifications such as SPHR and SHRM-SCP, showcasing her expertise in HR principles and practices.
With an MBA and three Bachelor degrees, Laura excels in aligning human capital initiatives with organizational goals. She has a proven track record of developing HR strategies that foster positive workplace cultures and drive organizational success.
Laura is also the founder of Elite HR Connections, an online HR community that offers networking opportunities and industry insights to HR professionals. Join us as we explore Laura's insights on talent management, inclusive workplace cultures, and HR leadership strategies. Let’s listen to this show.
Episode Highlights
· HR strategies for employee engagement
· Talent management best practices
· Workplace culture and diversity
· Leadership development programs
· Remote work policies and practices
· Employee wellness and mental health support
· HR technology and digital transformation
· Performance management and feedback systems
· Recruiting strategies in a competitive market
· HR compliance and legal updates
More about Laura Donohoe
Instagram @mojodonohoe
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Welcome to another enlightening episode of our podcast! Today, we're honored to introduce Tara Nash, a remarkable individual who has transformed her life journey from the fashion world in London to becoming a dedicated advocate for conscious grieving and spiritual healing.
Tara's story is one of profound transformation and resilience. After years of running from her grief, she made a courageous decision to uproot her life and pursue a master's degree in Spiritual Psychology in Los Angeles. It was during this transformative period, thousands of miles away from her familiar surroundings, that Tara finally confronted the deep-seated pain of losing both her parents at a young age.
Her father's sudden passing from a heart attack when she was just 9, followed by her mother's battle with breast cancer and subsequent passing when she was 21, left Tara navigating a journey of grief that went unrecognized by traditional therapy and coaching methods. Determined to uncover the truths and complexities of grief, Tara delved into a journey of self-discovery and healing.
Today, Tara is on a mission to shed light on the often-misunderstood process of grief. Through her unique approach, which includes Grief Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Breathwork, and the Conscious Grief Program, Tara helps individuals move through their grief with mindfulness and compassion. Join us as we delve into Tara's inspiring story and gain valuable insights into the transformative power of conscious grieving. Stay tuned for an insightful and empowering conversation!
Episode Highlights
· Grief Yoga
· Kundalini Yoga for Grief
· Conscious Grief Program
· Spiritual Psychology
· Transformative Healing
· Coping with Loss
· Emotional Resilience
· Mindfulness Practices
· Breathwork for Grief
· Spiritual Growth
· Coping with Parental Loss
· Conscious Living
· Emotional Wellness
· Self-Discovery
· Healing Journey
· Mental Health Awareness
· Mindfulness and Meditation
· Holistic Healing Practices
· Personal Growth and Development
· Coping with Grief and Loss
· Spiritual Awakening
· Self-Care and Self-Compassion
· Wellness and Well-Being
· Empowerment and Resilience
· Healing Trauma
More about Tara Nash
Email: tara@tara-nash.com
Assistant: consciousgriefseries@gmail.com
Website: https://www.consciousgrief.co.uk/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/taranashyoga
Conscious Grief Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/consciousgriefcommunity/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tara_nash_seeker/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-rebecca-nash-b7199217/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@consciousgrief
FREE Virtual Series: Conscious Grief - Transforming Pain into Evolution & Growth (17th-25th Feb 2024) https://www.consciousgriefseries.com/
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Today, I am thrilled to have Maureen Desmond join me on the podcast. Maureen is a compassionate guide who helps individuals navigate significant changes and losses with grace and humanity. Having experienced her own share of tragic losses within her family, as well as a personal journey with cancer, Maureen understands the complexities of grief and the importance of compassionate support throughout the process.
Join us as we delve into meaningful conversations about grief in the workplace and explore Maureen's insights on navigating grief with empathy and understanding. Welcome, Maureen!
Episode Highlights
· Grief support
· Coping with loss
· Healing after loss
· Grief counseling
· Bereavement support
· Coping strategies for grief
· Life transitions
· Navigating change
· Emotional wellness
· Mental health support
· Self-care during grief
· Personal growth after loss
· Finding meaning after loss
· Mindfulness and grief
· Resilience and grief recovery
More about Maureen Desmond
Phone Number : 703-969-0445
Email : mailto:desmondcoaching930@gmail.comdesmondcoaching930@gmail.com
Website: www.navigatingchangeandloss.com
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Welcome to the latest episode of Tendrils of Grief podcast! I'm thrilled to bring you today's show, which promises to be insightful and heartfelt. Over time, I've received numerous messages expressing how much listeners appreciate episodes featuring my daughter, Madison. Many of you have also reached out, curious about her journey through grief and how she's been coping. So, I'm delighted to have Madison join me on the podcast today to share her experiences, insights, and progress along her grief journey.
Madison's openness and willingness to share her story have resonated deeply with our audience, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to have her on the show again. It's moments like these that allow us to connect, empathize, and learn from each other's experiences. So, without further ado, let's welcome Madison to the podcast and delve into her unique perspective on navigating grief and finding resilience.
Episode Highlights
· Grief journey insights
· Coping with grief
· Resilience after loss
· Healing through grief
· Navigating grief stages
· Grief support resources
· Personal grief experiences
· Overcoming loss
· Emotional healing process
· Finding hope after loss
· Mental health awareness and support
· Coping strategies during challenging times
· Self-care and wellness practices
· Building resilience and inner strength
· Empathy and compassion in grief
· Positive mindset and growth mindset
· Healing through storytelling and sharing experiences
· Mindfulness and meditation for emotional well-being
· Transformative journeys of personal growth
· Community support and connection in grief recovery
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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Join us as we explore the world of holistic healing with Dr. Jeana Locke, a Human Design & Energy Healer Master Coach. With a PhD and over 25 years of experience in teaching, counseling, and administration, Dr. Locke's unique approach blends western science with eastern medicine assessments to support personal growth and development.
Through her expertise in Human Design, Quantum Alignment Systems, Emotion Code, Akashic Records, counseling, and more, Dr. Locke empowers her clients to bridge the gap between their current state and their desired outcomes. Her holistic coaching process focuses on clarity-building, healing past wounds, nurturing intuition, and helping individuals live in alignment with their natural energy blueprint. Join us for an enlightening conversation as we delve into Dr. Locke's multi-modal approach, uncovering insights and strategies for living a fulfilling life with confidence, peace, and joy.
Episode Highlights
· Holistic healing
· Human Design coaching
· Energy healing
· Quantum Alignment Systems
· Emotion Code
· Akashic Records
· Personal growth
· Holistic wellness
· Healing modalities
· Inner wisdom
· Holistic health and wellness
· Energy healing techniques
· Personal growth and development
· Mind-body-spirit alignment
· Human Design insights
· Healing past traumas
· Integrative healing approaches
· Spiritual awakening and transformation
· Emotional release techniques
· Inner guidance and intuition
More About Dr. Jeana Locke
JKL Social Media and Web LINKS.
Web. https://jeanalocke.com/
IG @DrJeanaLocke https://www.instagram.com/drjeanalocke/
YouTube. @drjeanalocke https://www.youtube.com/@drjeanalocke
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanalocke/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DrJeanaLocke/
Sacred Soul Circle Membership https://jeanalocke.com/sacred-soul-circle/
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Discover the profound odyssey of Ashmeeta Rama Madhav, a multi-faceted educator, grief advocate, entrepreneur, and author. From her early twenties, Ashmeeta navigated deep grief, facing miscarriage, rejection, and the loss of her parents and husband. Her journey reflects themes of love, acceptance, growth, and self-discovery, resonating with those who've encountered loss or seek self-discovery post-loss.
Through her experiences, Ashmeeta emphasizes the transformative power of personal growth. Her book "What’s Your Story?" shares her journey, offering comfort and inspiration to those facing similar challenges. She champions the idea that profound loss doesn't end a story but marks the beginning of a new, meaningful chapter, filled with hope and healing. Tune in to delve into Ashmeeta's wisdom and message of resilience.
Episode Highlights
· Grief support
· Self-discovery after loss
· Coping with grief
· Personal growth
· Healing after loss
· Ashmeeta Rama Madhav
· Author
· Lifelong learner
· Entrepreneur
· Inspirational stories
· Mental health and well-being
· Coping with loss and grief
· Self-help and personal development
· Resilience and healing
· Mindfulness and meditation
· Inspirational stories of overcoming challenges
· Life transitions and transformations
· Empowerment and motivation
· Supporting others through difficult times
· Hope and positivity
More About Ashmeeta Rama Madhav
Website: storyoutellyourself.com
Facebook: Growth-StoryHub
Youtube: ashmeeta-madhav-93802922
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Welcome to our podcast episode featuring Tom Harrison, a talented author with a passion for crafting captivating narratives. Hailing from the vibrant city of Memphis, Tom's storytelling prowess is deeply influenced by the rich rhythms and cultural tapestry of the South.
Tom's connection to Memphis runs deep, as he believes his soul is intricately intertwined with the city's music, its people, and the myriad of challenges and triumphs it has witnessed. Notably, Memphis holds a unique place in music history, being mentioned in more recorded song lyrics than any other city in the world. Join us as we delve into Tom's literary journey and explore the essence of storytelling rooted in the soul of Memphis.
Episode Highlights
· Tom Harrison
· Author
· Memphis
· South
· Storytelling
· Music
· Cultural Tapestry
· Soulful Narratives
· Literary Journey
· Historical Significance
More About Tom Harrison
FromPunishmentToPeace.com
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Welcome to the Tendrils of Grief podcast! Today, we're honored to have Richard Strother with us. Richard's career has been driven by a deep curiosity about human relationships and life's complexities.
In 2018, Richard faced a profound loss when his wife passed away from a rare cancer after 20 years together. Despite this, he found the courage to embrace love again and now offers support through the Widower's Wing Man.
Join us as Richard shares his journey of love, loss, and rediscovery, offering valuable insights for those navigating similar paths. Welcome, Richard!
Episode Highlights
· Love after loss
· Widower's journey
· Grief recovery
· Finding love again
· Coping with loss
· Relationship advice
· Healing from loss
· Dating after loss
· Widower support
· Emotional healing
· Mental health awareness
· Coping strategies for grief
· Self-care practices
· Resilience and strength
· Online dating tips
· Mindfulness and meditation
· Building healthy relationships
· Personal growth and development
· Overcoming challenges
· Inspirational stories of healing
More About Richard Strother
Website : http://thewidowerswingman.com
Email : coaching@rstrother.com
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardstrother/
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Welcome to the Tendrils of Grief podcast, where we delve into the depths of emotions and healing journeys. In today's episode, we are honored to have Ben Stimpson He will be joining us. Ben is a therapist, lecturer, student, and spiritual director, bringing a unique blend of expertise and passion to our conversation.
One of Ben's notable areas of focus is on developing courses that explore intriguing topics such as ancestor veneration, the power of story, and folklore. When Ben isn't working directly with clients or engaged in writing, they are deeply immersed in their areas of study, which include religious studies, medieval and classical studies, folklore, and spirituality.
Join us as we uncover insights, share stories, and explore the intersections of grief, spirituality, and ancient wisdom with the remarkable Ben Stimpson. Let's dive in!
Episode Highlights
· Grief healing techniques
· Coping with loss
· Spiritual awakening
· Mindfulness practices
· Emotional wellness
· Self-care strategies
· Meditation and mindfulness
· Inner healing journey
· Finding purpose after loss
· Mental health awareness
· Emotional resilience
· Self-discovery and growth
· Holistic healing approaches
· Healing from trauma
· Self-compassion and self-love
· Mindfulness and meditation apps
· Mental health awareness campaigns
· Grief support communities and resources
· Wellness retreats and workshops
· Spiritual awakening and consciousness shifts
· Personal growth books and resources
· Online therapy and counseling services
· Emotional wellness podcasts and content
· Holistic healing practices such as Reiki and energy work
· Self-care products and routines.
More About Ben Stimpson
https://www.benstimpson.com/
Instagram @benstimpsonauthor Did you enjoy today’s episode?
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Welcome, everyone! In today's episode, we dive into the complex and deeply personal topic of dating as a widow. Join us as we sit down with Debbie Weiss to explore the various facets of this journey.
Dating after the loss of a spouse is a deeply individual choice, and it's okay to feel uncertain or conflicted about it. Whether you're considering dipping your toes back into the dating pool or firmly avoiding it altogether, know that wherever you are in your journey is perfectly valid.
Throughout today's discussion, we'll touch on some of the darker aspects of dating as a widow and the challenges that may arise in relationships. It's important to acknowledge that while the path to finding love again can be arduous, it's also filled with moments of self-discovery and growth.
As you listen, we encourage you to approach the dating world with optimism and hope, knowing that there's someone out there for you. However, we also recognize the realities of dating after loss – the messiness, the challenges, and the need for resilience.
Life is messy, relationships are messy, but through it all, we have the opportunity to become the best versions of ourselves. So, sit back, relax, and join us on this candid exploration of dating after loss. Enjoy the show!
Episode Highlights
· Widow dating
· Dating after loss
· Widowhood relationships
· Widow dating challenges
· Widow dating tips
· Widow dating advice
· Widow dating journey
· Widow dating experiences
· Widow dating podcast
· Widow dating support
· Coping with loss and grief
· Self-discovery after loss
· Navigating relationships as a widow
· Healing from loss
· Dating in later life
· Widowhood and resilience
· Emotional challenges of widowhood
· Online dating for widows
· Finding love again after loss
· Widowhood community support
·
More About Debbie Weiss
Author of Available As Is: A Midlife Widow’s Search for Love
hungoverwidow@gmail.com
DebbieWeissAuthor.com
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Welcome to the podcast featuring Ioanna Serpanos, a distinguished medium and mentor celebrated for her profound insights into mediumship and spiritual development. Drawing from her background in engineering, Ioanna seamlessly integrates her analytical prowess with her innate psychic abilities, guiding individuals towards lives filled with passion and purpose.
Ioanna's exceptional talents have garnered international recognition, including the prestigious CSNU award from the Spiritualist SNU, acknowledging her exceptional mediumship demonstrations and speaking skills. As the author of "Giving Spirit A Voice - the mechanics of mediumship" and "Giving Spirit A Voice - Mediumship Journal," she shares practical wisdom and grounded spirituality with students across the globe.
Additionally, Ioanna has pioneered the Ignition Member Community, offering students access to her expertise through self-paced online learning platforms for all levels of mediumship. Beyond her written works and mentorship, Ioanna is a devoted mother to her brilliant daughter and cherished fur baby, Buddy. Her unwavering commitment to spiritual growth and healing radiates through every facet of her life. Join us as we delve into Ioanna's journey and glean insights into the transformative power of mediumship and spiritual development.
Episode Highlights
· Mediumship Development
· Spiritual Growth
· Psychic Abilities
· Self-Paced Online Learning
· Practical Wisdom
· Grounded Spirituality
· CSNU Award
· Spiritualist SNU
· Mentorship Programs
· Personal Transformation
· Mindfulness and Meditation
· Self-Discovery and Inner Healing
· Wellness and Well-being
· Spirituality in Modern Life
· Holistic Living
· Empowerment and Self-Realization
· Mental Wellness Awareness
· Consciousness and Awakening
· Personal Growth and Development
· Alternative Healing Practices
More About Ioanna Serpanos
Her book link is http://amzn.to/35BZy10
Giving Spirit A Voice Mediumship Journal https://www.amazon.com/dp/064852504X/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_a_C7DWB097TYPZ2489XTA8
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Welcome to the Tendrils of Grief podcast, where we delve into the depths of the human experience with compassion and understanding. Today, I have the honor of speaking with Julia Pearce, a woman whose life has unfolded through three distinct acts, each filled with its own challenges, joys, and profound lessons.
In Julia's first act, she embarked on a journey filled with twists and turns, believing she knew her destination until she met her husband and welcomed their son into the world. Their son, an extraordinary soul, expanded their world in ways they never imagined, teaching them to dance through life's unexpected moments.
Then came the second act, a time of profound growth and transformation as they navigated the joys and trials of parenthood. But tragedy struck with the third act, as they faced the unimaginable loss of their beloved son. Yet, in the midst of grief and heartache, Julia is once again evolving, finding solace in faith, hope, and the courage to embrace the unknown.
Join us as we explore Julia's journey through acts and chapters, finding peace and purpose amidst life's uncertainties. Welcome to her third act, where she continues to learn, grow, and find beauty in the midst of pain.
Episode Highlights
· Grief podcast
· Coping with loss
· Emotional resilience
· Life's journey
· Healing after loss
· Finding purpose
· Personal growth
· Emotional wellness
· Overcoming adversity
· Self-discovery
· Mental health awareness
· Self-care practices
· Mindfulness and meditation
· Coping strategies during challenging times
· Building resilience
· Inspirational stories of overcoming obstacles
· Empowering personal narratives
· Supportive communities for grief and loss
· Emotional healing techniques
· Finding hope and meaning in difficult circumstances
More About Julia Pearce
https://juliapearce.net/
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Meet Pamela Downes, the visionary founder of Spirit Calling, an online community dedicated to guiding individuals through their spiritual awakening. Inspired by her own journey of understanding energy and life beyond the physical realm after her father's passing, Pamela embarked on a path of exploration into energy healing, plant medicine, and profound experiences that expanded her psychic and clairvoyant abilities. Recognizing the challenges and importance of support during such a transformative process, Pamela received a divine calling to create Spirit Calling, a safe haven for seekers of all beliefs to come together on their spiritual path. With a mission to ensure that no one has to navigate their spiritual awakening alone, Pamela and the Spirit Calling community offer classes, tools, and a nurturing environment for members to heal their body, mind, and spirit and reconnect with their true selves.
As a seasoned Creative Intuitive and Trance Channeler, Pamela authentically channels the wisdom of the Great Council of Light, providing real-time guidance and answers to support individuals on their spiritual journey. Over the past two years, Pamela's trance channeling has connected her with spirit guides, the Great Council of Light, offering profound guidance and glimpses into the future. She finds joy in using the Council’s wisdom to help individuals understand their spirit and fulfill their soul's purpose. Honored to offer a welcoming platform for those on their awakening journey, Pamela invites you to join the Spirit Calling community and unlock your fullest potential.
Episode Highlights
· Spiritual awakening
· Energy healing
· Clairvoyant abilities
· Spirit Calling community
· Trance channeling
· Great Council of Light
· Psychic guidance
· Holistic healing
· Mind-body-spirit connection
· Soul's purpose
· Spiritual growth and development
· Healing through grief and loss
· Mindfulness and meditation practices
· Connecting with spirit guides
· Holistic wellness communities
· Awakening to higher consciousness
· Psychic and intuitive abilities
· Self-discovery and self-realization
· Integrating plant medicine in spiritual practices
· Nurturing spiritual communities and support networks
More About Pamela Downes
You can follow Pamela on
- YouTube @SpiritCallingLiveTheCall
- Instagram spirit_calling
- Facebook SpiritCallingLiveTheCall
- Meetup https://www.meetup.com/spirit-calling-spiritual-awakening-group/
- TikTok. @spiritcallinglivethecall
Spirit Calling provides a supportive community, enriching education, transformative courses, and unwavering assistance for people on their spiritual awakening journey, so they don't have to be alone.
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Lets welcome Sara where we delve deep into the realm of health and wellness with your host, Sara. Not only is Sara the host of the esteemed Top 100 Health Podcast, Accelerated Health TV & Radio Show, reaching over 600,000 listeners monthly, but she is also the visionary behind the award-winning supplement company, Accelerated Health Products.
Sara's journey to wellness took an unexpected turn when faced with her own health challenges, including Crohn’s disease, hormonal issues, PCOS, IBS, and heavy metal toxicity. However, it was her son's leukemia diagnosis that propelled her into a new mission: to illuminate the world of natural healing. Drawing from her experiences and extensive knowledge, Sara is committed to helping her clients and listeners achieve their optimal state of health through innovative detox supplements, cutting-edge health technologies, and holistic modalities.
With degrees from Stanford University in Economics and Psychology, as well as certifications from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and the Invincible Wellness System, Sara is dedicated to empowering others to detox, reset, and rebuild their Body, Mind, and Spirit. Join us as we embark on a journey to uncover the transformative power of natural healing and holistic wellness.
Episode Highlights
· Health and wellness podcast
· Accelerated Health TV & Radio Show
· Natural healing
· Detox supplements
· Holistic wellness
· Top 100 Health Podcast
· Sara, health expert
· Integrative nutrition
· Cutting-edge health technologies
· Optimal state of health
· Natural remedies for common health issues
· The impact of holistic approaches on overall well-being
· Personalized health and wellness protocols
· Detoxification and its role in modern health practices
· Mind-body connection in healing
· Integrating Eastern and Western medicine principles
· Boosting immunity through nutrition and lifestyle
· Managing chronic conditions with holistic modalities
· Stress management techniques for better health
· The future of health technology in preventive care
·
More About Sara Banta
Instagram : acceleratedhealthproducts
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Welcome to Tendrils of Grief Podcast where we explore the journey of healing and resilience after baby loss with Amy, a compassionate and certified Life after Babyloss coach. Drawing from her own profound experiences of stillbirth, miscarriage, and pregnancy after loss, Amy combines empathy with proven mindset tools to support grieving parents on their path to rediscovery.
Inthis podcast, Amy shares valuable insights and practical strategies to help loss parents navigate their grief and find solace in rebuilding their lives. With a belief that addressing the roots of their struggles is key to progress, Amy guides her listeners towards healing and hope.
Join us as Amy hosts heartfelt conversations on the Smooth Stones Podcast, where she offers a safe space for her audience to explore their emotions and find strength in vulnerability. Beyond coaching, Amy finds joy in cherished moments with her family, indulging in baking adventures, and immersing herself in creative DIY projects.
Tune in to discover the tools you need to build a beautiful life, even in the face of unimaginable loss, with Amy as your compassionate guide and ally.
Episode Highlights
· Baby loss recovery
· Life after baby loss
· Stillbirth support
· Miscarriage healing
· Pregnancy loss coach
· Grieving parents support
· Coping with baby loss
· Infant loss counseling
· Bereaved parents guidance
· Healing after child loss
· Mental health support for grieving parents
· Coping strategies after baby loss
· Pregnancy loss awareness
· Self-care for bereaved parents
· Community support for grieving families
· Mindfulness practices for healing
· Advocacy for baby loss awareness
· Parenting after loss
· Coping with grief during holidays
· Finding joy after baby loss
More About Amy Watson
Websites : https://smoothstonescoaching.com/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/amy.smoothstonescoaching/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/smoothstonescoaching
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Welcome to an empowering episode featuring Marti, an Emotional Fitness Coach and a certified practitioner of Emotional Freedom Techniques, widely known as Tapping. Marti is the visionary behind the Women Embracing Aging Community Forum, a weekly gathering designed to provide support and camaraderie for women navigating the complexities of aging in a culture that often emphasizes youth.
As the Creator of the Transformational Tapping Certification, Marti goes beyond individual healing; she empowers others to become certified Tapping practitioners, enabling them to guide individuals toward reconnecting with their authentic selves. Marti is also an accomplished author with two impactful books, "Forbidden Emotions - The Key to Healing" and "365 Days to Embracing Forbidden Emotions - A Daily Guide to Peace and Fulfillment."
Join us in this insightful conversation as Marti shares her passion for dispelling the cultural programming that often pressures us into the "MAKE IT HAPPEN" mentality. Discover the transformative power of Tapping and Marti's commitment to fostering emotional well-being.
Episode Highlights
- Emotional Freedom Techniques
- Tapping for Wellness
- Aging Empowerment
- Women's Well-being
- Authentic Living
- Emotional Fitness Coach
- Forbidden Emotions Healing
- Tapping Practitioner Certification
- Mind-Body Connection
- Holistic Self-Care
- Daily Peace Practices
- Mindful Aging
- Transformational Wellness
- Reconnect with Authentic Self
- Empowering Mindset
More About Marti Murphy
Website: https://martimurphy.com/
Instagram: ziggy_mcmurphy
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Welcome to a transformative episode featuring Justin Wesenberg, a luminary in the realm of spirituality. Justin is not just an international bestselling author but also a channel, poet, and spiritual guide with a mission to illuminate the path to realizing your own divinity.
His books serve as profound guides for Soul Seekers who yearn for unity, freedom, awakening, self-realization, transformation, and enlightenment. Dive into the wisdom Justin imparts as he helps you claim your inner goddess and manifest a new reality that aligns with your true self.
Join us on this soulful journey as Justin shares his love for spending time in the mountains—hiking, climbing, skiing, and meditating in the serene embrace of nature. Get ready to explore the depths of your being and unlock the doors to a reality filled with divinity.
Episode Highlights
· Spiritual guide
· Self-realization
· Inner goddess
· Manifestation
· Soul seeking
· Awakening journey
· Transformational books
· Unity and freedom
· Mountain meditation
· International bestselling author
· Empowerment through spirituality
· Manifesting your reality
· Inner goddess awakening
· Nature meditation and well-being
· Spiritual journey for self-realization
· Transformational books for personal growth
· The allure of mountain retreats
· Channeling divine energy
· International bestselling spiritual authors
· Living a life of unity and freedom
More About Justin Wesenberg
Website: https://justinwesenberg.com
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Welcome to a profound episode featuring Bradley Vinson, The GRIEVE Coach. A devoted husband, loving father, and proud grandfather, Bradley's life took a significant turn after the tragic loss of his 4-year-old granddaughter, Alanna. This heart-wrenching experience led him to reshape his ministry, dedicating himself to serving those burdened by grief.
As a passionate keynote speaker and trainer, Bradley delves into various grief-related topics, offering insights on self-care, the unique challenges faced by grieving grandparents, men's grief, couples' grief, and the essential components of bereavement care. He is the creator of 'The GRIEVE Method(TM),' a comprehensive toolkit designed to provide practical action steps for those navigating the intricate journey of grief.
In addition to his speaking engagements, Bradley has authored numerous books and articles on biblical, spiritual, and grief-related subjects. As a Fire and Police Chaplain, he serves alongside and provides training for those who stand with us in our most vulnerable moments. His commitment extends to organizations like Grief and Faith, Camp Agape, Texas Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, and Compassionate Friends. Join us for a conversation filled with compassion and insights as Bradley Vinson shares his dedication to supporting and healing the grieving community.
Episode Highlights
· Grief support
· The GRIEVE Coach
· Bereavement care
· Men's grief
· Couples' grief
· Self-care after loss
· Healing from loss
· Grief coaching
· Coping with loss
· Grandparents' grief
· Navigating grief journey
· Self-care strategies for grief
· Grieving grandparents' challenges
· Men's experiences with grief
· Couples navigating grief together
· Practical steps for bereavement
· Healing after tragic loss
· The GRIEVE Method(TM)
· Grief in different family dynamics
· Supporting grieving community
More About Bradley Vinson
http://bradleyvinson
https://www.youtube.com/@BradleyVinson
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Welcome to a transformative episode featuring Nick Shaw, a seasoned executive coach, author, and speaker renowned for his profound insights into personal transformation and authentic leadership. Nick, the Co-founder of Mirrorbox Leadership Lab, specializes in helping leaders embrace their roles and foster environments where teams can flourish.
In his debut book, "My Teacher, My Son: Lessons on Life, Loss, and Love," Nick shares a deeply personal narrative about the loss of his son, William, at a tender age. This memoir goes beyond personal tragedy, becoming a guide for readers navigating their own complexities. Through poignant anecdotes, Nick encourages introspection, honesty, and self-compassion, urging individuals to reassess their choices for a more fulfilling existence.
Join us on this inspiring journey as Nick reflects on life, leadership, and the profound lessons learned through loss. His story is one of resilience, growth, and the pursuit of purpose.
Episode Highlights
· Executive coaching insights
· Authentic leadership development
· My Teacher, My Son book
· Personal transformation stories
· Meaningful and purposeful living
· Mirrorbox Leadership Lab
· Grief and loss reflections
· Self-discovery and introspection
· Leadership environments for team growth
· Inspirational life lessons
· Authentic leadership in the workplace
· Navigating grief and loss
· Personal growth and self-discovery
· Executive coaching for leadership development
· Transformative leadership stories
· Purposeful living and decision-making
· Coping with complex emotions
· Resilience and lessons from adversity
· Reflective practices for leaders
· Inspirational memoirs and life narratives
More About Nick Shaw
To purchase Nick's book, 'My Teacher, My Son," go to Amazon My Teacher My Son
For more information about Nick as an author, go to http://www.meetnickshaw.com
For more information about Nick and Mirrorbox Leadership Lab, go to www.mirrorboxleadershiplab.com
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Welcome to a transformative episode with Laura Saltman, an Emmy-nominated producer turned mindfulness teacher, conscious channel, and metaphysical author. From her career in television to a profound spiritual journey fueled by personal challenges, Laura guides us through a path of mindfulness and metaphysical insights. Her books, including "Wisdom of the All," offer practical wisdom, and her expertise extends to intuitive sessions, past life regressions, and more. Join us for a journey into spirituality, consciousness, and self-discovery with Laura Saltman.
Episode Highlights
· Laura Saltman
· Metaphysical teachings
· Mindfulness practices
· Conscious channeling
· Spiritual transformation
· Emmy-nominated producer
· Wisdom of the All
· Intuitive soul sessions
· Past life regressions
· Angel and Tarot readings
· Mindfulness in daily life
· Metaphysical intelligence
· Spiritual self-discovery
· Conscious channeling experiences
· Transformative wisdom
· Personal growth through challenges
· Navigating grief and loss
· Celebrities and mindfulness
· Emmy-nominated producers turned spiritual teachers
· The power of intuition
More About Laura Saltman
Instagram @laurasaltman Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
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Welcome to an impactful episode featuring Rebecca Thomas, where we explore the essential theme: "How To Grieve Well To Live Well." With over two decades of experience, Rebecca has been a guiding force, assisting individuals in overcoming life's hurdles. Recognized for her vibrant energy and unwavering confidence, she empowers women to authentically show up for themselves. Join us as Rebecca imparts wisdom on reclaiming personal power, living intentionally, and forging a unique path according to your own rules. This conversation promises inspiration and valuable insights for those navigating the journey to a fulfilling life after grief.
Episode Highlights
- Grieving Well
- Live Well After Loss
- Grief Transformation
- Empowerment Journey
- Personal Growth Podcast
- Coping with Grief
- Resilience and Healing
- Authentic Living
- Women's Empowerment
- Life Beyond Loss
- Self-Discovery
- Unapologetic Living
- Overcoming Obstacles
- Inspirational Conversations
- Healing After Loss
More About Rebecca Thomas
Rebecca Thomas - More Than A Life Coach she/her/hers https://linktr.ee/marieofvenus Phone: 517-242-4542 https://www.marieofvenus.com
Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarieOfVenus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marieofvenus/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marieofvenus/ Website: https://www.marieofvenus.com/
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Welcome to an emotional episode with Deborah Kasdan, debut author of "Roll Back the World: A Sister’s Memoir" ,releasing on October 17, 2023. This poignant memoir delves into the family's journey dealing with severe mental illness, particularly focusing on Deborah's older sister, Rachel, diagnosed with schizophrenia. The narrative unfolds over thirty years, exploring the impact of historical events and shedding light on personal and legal battles with the mental health system. Join us for a powerful exploration of love, grief, and resilience in the face of mental health challenges.
Episode Highlights
- Mental health memoir
- Schizophrenia family experience
- Deborah Kasdan author
- Roll Back the Waves book
- Family resilience
- Mental health battles
- Personal stories of mental illness
- Sibling relationships
- Emotional family journey
- NAMI advocate
- Mental health crisis
- Grief and survivor's guilt
- Historical impact on mental health
- Compassionate social work
- Family support in mental illness
- Mental health awareness
- Breaking the stigma around mental illness
- Family narratives in mental health
- Personal resilience stories
- Impact of historical events on mental health
- Navigating the mental health system
- Advocacy for compassionate care
- Intersections of family and mental health
- Emotional well-being
- Coping with chronic mental illness
- Grieving in the face of mental health challenges
- Empathy for individuals with mental illness
- Supporting loved ones with schizophrenia
- Community resources for mental health
- Art and poetry as expressions of mental health journeys.
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Welcome to an empowering episode with Carrie Conrad, the visionary founder of Beating Disaster. In this episode, Carrie sheds light on a crucial aspect of self-care during the holiday season—setting boundaries and honoring yourself. As a specialist in prevention, protection, and defense, Carrie brings a unique perspective to the challenges mothers face in maintaining both physical safety and emotional security.
Through her specialty school, Beating Disaster, Carrie goes beyond the conventional approach, offering niche training that empowers mothers. Join us as she shares invaluable insights on navigating the holiday season, offering practical tips on setting boundaries and prioritizing self-care. It's a conversation filled with wisdom and actionable advice, ensuring you not only survive but thrive during this festive time. Tune in to discover how to make the holidays a time of joy, connection, and self-honoring.
Episode Highlights
- Holiday Self-Care
- Setting Boundaries
- Honoring Yourself
- Emotional Security
- Prevention and Protection
- Beating Disaster
- Empowering Mothers
- Niche Training
- Festive Season Wellness
- Personal Safety
- Self-Care Strategies
- Stress-Free Holidays
- Carrie Conrad
- Specialty School
- Mindful Holidays
- Emotional Well-being
- Empowerment Tips
- Motherhood Journey
- Coping with Stress
- Holiday Balance
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Welcome to another enlightening episode of our podcast. Today, we have the privilege of delving into the profound journey of Kerri Scott, an astrophysicist turned meta-physicist, and the visionary founder of the Soul Selves Framework. Kerri is not only a co-author of the best-selling book "Prosperity Codes" but also a dedicated writer, researcher, grief advocate, and thought leader.
In the transformative wake of grief, Kerri found her calling to bring awareness to a silent epidemic. Having experienced the pain of losing a loved one to suicide, she navigates her grief journey as a spiritual quest. Kerri shares profound teachings and mindfulness tools to guide spiritual seekers toward profound self-love, eliminating the need for external validation.
Currently working on two solo books, "Celebrate Your Grief, Transforming Your Loss into Self-Love" and "The Soul Selves, Illuminating the Path from the Ego to the Soul," Kerri's work beautifully intersects psychology, science, and spirituality. Join us as we explore the depth of Kerri's insights, her unique perspective on grief, and her mission to illuminate the path from ego to soul. Kerri resides on Vancouver Island in Canada with her husband and two children. It's a conversation brimming with wisdom and the transformative power of self-love.
Episode Highlights
- Kerri Scott Podcast
- Soul Selves Framework
- Prosperity Codes Book
- Grief Advocate
- Meta-physicist Insights
- Mindfulness Teachings
- Transformative Self-Love
- Grief Journey Wisdom
- Astrophysicist Turned Meta-physicist
- Spiritual Seeker's Guide
- Intersection of Psychology, Science, and Spirituality
- Celebrating Grief and Transforming Loss
- Navigating Spiritual Quests
- Elevating Awareness on Mental Health
- Vancouver Island Living
- Family and Self-Love
- Navigating Profound Loss
- Soulful Living
- Awakening with Love
- The Path from Ego to Soul
More about Kerri Scott!
Website https://kerriscott.com/
Discover Your Soul Self Quiz
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Welcome to an empowering episode with Caroline, a professional coach, speaker, and educator whose passion lies in inspiring continual learning, growth, and the exploration of limitless potential. From her early days in the 5th-grade classroom to her impactful presence in the boardroom, Caroline has been a steadfast guide for those navigating personal and professional transformations. Her coaching approach revolves around mindset and accountability, uncovering clients' true strengths and untapped potential. Armed with a BA in Education and Linguistics, an MBA, and a graduate certificate in Organizational Psychology, Caroline is a certified coach with a wealth of knowledge and experience. Through her transformative process, clients explore their values, gain clarity on goals, and take inspired action to shape the life they've always dreamed of.
Caroline's overarching goal is to empower individuals to step beyond their comfort zones, grounded in gratitude for the present and a crystal-clear vision of their aspirations. She is set to launch a gratitude journal and a course designed to help individuals cultivate impactful habits through small, intentional steps. Away from coaching, Caroline thrives on adventures and travel, delights in being a dog mom, is a discerning cookie connoisseur, and has an unabashed obsession with books. Notably, she's set an ambitious goal for herself: to run a half marathon in every state. With 27 conquered and 23 to go, Caroline exemplifies the spirit of pushing boundaries and embracing life's adventures. Join us for an episode brimming with insights, inspiration, and the infectious enthusiasm of Caroline.
Episode Highlights
- Professional coach
- Speaker and educator
- Personal growth
- Continual learning
- Mindset and accountability
- Strengths exploration
- Certified coach
- BA in Education and Linguistics
- MBA
- Organizational Psychology
- Values exploration
- Goal clarity
- Inspired action
- Life transformation
- Gratitude practice
- Habits for success
- Adventure enthusiast
- Dog mom
- Cookie connoisseur
- Book lover
- Half marathon challenge
- Inspirational living
More about Caroline Mug !
Website : https://carolinemug.com/gratitudechallenge/
Instagram: @caroline.mug
linktr.ee/carolinemug
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Welcome to an inspiring episode featuring Jorge V. Gonzalez, a testament to the resilience and transformative power of reinvention. Born to Mexican immigrant parents, Jorge spent two decades in the warehouse distribution and logistics industry before life took an unexpected turn, leading to disability. Undeterred, he embarked on a remarkable journey into the real estate industry, where he has become an award-winning agent dedicated to helping families build generational wealth.
Jorge's story doesn't end there; he's also the inventive mind behind "The Batting Pro," a revolutionary batting machine for baseball and softball. His entrepreneurial spirit and determination shine through in both his real estate endeavors and innovative creations. As the author of the #1 bestselling book, "Answer The Call: Life Lessons From Family Origins Through Invention And Struggle," Jorge shares profound insights for those seeking guidance in exploring real estate opportunities, be it buying, selling, or investing.
This episode delves into Jorge's journey of reinvention, from overcoming disability to achieving success in the real estate industry and how his grief journey helped him in his journey and success.
Join us for a conversation that explores conquering fears, pursuing life's purpose, and the incredible journey of answering the call to reinvention and success.
Episode Highlights
- Jorge V. Gonzalez
- Real estate success
- Generational wealth
- Disability to reinvention
- Award-winning real estate agent
- The Batting Pro inventor
- Answer The Call book
- Real estate guidance
- Investing in real estate
- Entrepreneurial spirit
- Resilience and transformation
- Life lessons from family origins
- Overcoming adversity
- Pursuing life's purpose
- Conquering fears
- Innovative creations
- Reinvention journey
- Opportunities in real estate
-
1 bestselling author
- Creating wealth through real estate
- Overcoming Loss
More about Jorge V. Gonzalez !
Social media:
Instagram: @jorge_v_gonzalez
Youtube: Jorge V. Gonzalez
Check out Self Improvement Book
ANSWER THE CALL
With Jorge’s examples and guidance, readers will learn how to:
• Take risks and leave a legacy
• Go all in on your gifts and your talents
• Connect with a mentor
• Believe in yourself and never give up
• Live your life with purpose
Bookings & Interviews:
Phone: 805-283-9977.
Email: officialjorgevgonzalez@gmail.com
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Email @susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Let me hear your thoughts!
Welcome to a profoundly moving episode as we sit down with Angie Hanson, who bravely shares her grief journey that began in June 2006. It was a heartbreaking start as her 1-year-old son, Garret, passed away suddenly in his sleep due to an undetected heart condition. Tragedy continued to unfold when, 1 1/2 years later, Angie's husband, Jack, was diagnosed with Stage 4 terminal Ocular Melanoma. After a 16-month battle with chemo and radiation, Jack lost his fight in February 2009. In a heart-wrenching series of events, Angie's brother, Seth, who had been battling a brain tumor for 5 years, underwent a third surgery and, tragically, didn't recover. He passed away just two months after Jack, in April 2009. The thread of grief persisted as Angie unexpectedly lost her sister-in-law in 2018 due to alcoholism.
Despite these immense losses, Angie has found strength in her mission. She's successfully launched "Butterflies + Halo's," an online greeting card business focused on offering hope to grieving hearts. Her dedication extends to a podcast she co-launched called "From Loss to Light," aiming to change the narrative around grief and dispel the stigma associated with it. Angie's mission is clear: to educate everyone on grief and empower them to navigate it positively, fostering a culture where conversations about loss are met with understanding rather than awkwardness. Join us for this enlightening conversation as Angie Hanson shares her resilience, passion, and commitment to transforming the way we talk about grief.
Episode Highlights
- Angie Hanson
- Grief journey
- Butterflies + Halo's
- Greeting card business
- From Loss to Light podcast
- Ocular Melanoma
- Sudden death in sleep
- Grieving process
- Changing grief narrative
- Positive grief navigation
- Grief education
- Hopeful stationery products
- Loss and resilience
- Navigating grief positively
- Grief stigma
- Coping with loss
- Grief support
- Online business after loss
- Grief podcast
- Loss and transformation
More about Angie Hanson!
Instagram and Facebook @butterfliesandhalos
Website www.butterfliesandhalos.com
Check our her Podcast
Instagram @losstolightpodcast
losstolightpodcast.com
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
Get involve and share your thoughts and experiences in our online community
Tendrils of Grief-Survivor of Loss
To subscribe and review use one links of the links below
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Email @susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Let me hear your thoughts!
Welcome to a deeply poignant episode featuring Sheila Clemenson, the Founder/CEO of Transitions Coaching Services, LLC, a seasoned professional with over 25 years of expertise dedicated to "moving you forward" through challenging transitions. Sheila is not just a Certified Career Coach and HR Consultant but also a Grief Wellness professional, offering profound insights into navigating life's complexities.
Her book is set to be available on October 19th, Sheila's new book, "Over the Rainbow: From the Depths of Grief to Hope," extends beyond being a guide through the grief journey; it's a heartfelt love letter from someone who intimately understands the profound pain of loss. Having been a caregiver for several years and experiencing the loss of her first husband, Grant, at a young age to ALS, Sheila found herself in the depths of grief.
This book stands as a testament to Sheila's journey and wisdom accumulated over years of healing. It's crafted to be a companion in grief, combining personal experiences, practical exercises, and suggestions to help you navigate the labyrinth of loss. "Over the Rainbow" serves as an affirmation that, guided by Sheila's insights, you too can overcome challenging losses, bringing your loved one's memories forward in new and meaningful ways. As you progress, be prepared for potential mystical messages from your loved ones, akin to unexpected rainbows, illuminating your path forward in life. Join us for an enriching conversation as we explore the profound wisdom Sheila Clemenson brings to the challenging terrain of grief and the hope embedded in her forthcoming book.
Episode Highlights
- Sheila Clemenson
- Transitions Coaching Services
- Grief Wellness
- Certified Career Coach
- HR Consultant
- Over the Rainbow book
- Grief journey
- Loss and healing
- Hope and resilience
- ALS caregiver
- Navigating life transitions
- Personal growth after loss
- Emotional well-being
- Meaningful memories
- Unexpected rainbows
- Wisdom in grief
- Healing from profound pain
- October 19th book release
- Moving forward after loss
More about Shiela Clemenson!
Websites:
www.SheilaClemenson.com
www.TransitionsCoachingServices.com
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Don’t forget to visit Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts Updates and Group Coaching.
Get involve and share your thoughts and experiences in our online community
Tendrils of Grief-Survivor of Loss
To subscribe and review use one links of the links below
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Email @susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Let me hear your thoughts!
Susan, your host, welcomes Angela Gentile. She is a hype woman and a badass unicorn. Angela is a former public school teacher turned social disruptor, entrepreneur, podcaster, speaker, and again, that badass unicorn and, yes, a professional hype woman and MC who uses storytelling to create impactful events, podcasts, and workshops. She has been in the entertainment industry for over a decade and brings her talents and empathy to any event she does so that everyone can feel powerful and connected, and know they are part of something huge, that we deserve to show up in the world as a full whole version of ourselves, has resulted in a strong global community of folks powerfully living their life.
Angela’s mission is to provide a space for people to move through what they are going through and experience being brave and vulnerable so they can identify the value they bring to the world through physical fitness, meditations, workshops, storytelling, and community.
Key Takeaways:
- Angela shares her grief story that started eight years ago when she lost her father, who died suddenly of an aneurysm.
- Angela and Susan have both experienced being silenced and criticized for their energetic and lively spirits, and they both grew to embrace their fire, making that their best ally to express their souls and, as a result, learned to love their authentic selves.
- Angela realized that the greatest gift her father gave her was to teach her how to live. She realized she was not living her life the way she wanted and decided to honor her dad by starting to live life to the fullest.
- Angela confesses her narrative of her own story changed completely with her grief.
- Learn to see every circumstance as an opportunity; life isn’t happening to you, it is happening for you.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate
Meet Angela Gentile
Follow Angela on Instagram
Find The Empowered Millenials on Instagram
Visit The Angela Gentile Website
Susan, your host, welcomes Jane L. Rosen to today’s conversation. Jane is an author, screenwriter, and former Huffington Post contributor. Jane often takes inspiration from real-life stories and interviews to craft her novels. Her first novel, Nine Women, One Dress, was translated into ten languages. Her second novel, Eliza Starts a Rumor, has been optioned by NBC. A Shoe Story and On Fire Island are out now!
She lives with her husband and three daughters in New York City and Fire Island.
Key Takeaways:
- Jane shares her grief story from when she lost her dad in an accident at 11 years old and started a “carousel” of grief until today.
- Jane shares how the Jewish religion deals with death and the traditional way of walking through the grieving path. They make sure no one is left alone after losing a loved one during the first difficult days, and even though Jane confesses it can be overwhelming, she appreciates the role of her community during this time.
- Susan emphasizes the importance of honoring the memory of the ones who passed away.
- Jane shares why her book On Fire Island is about grieving.
- Jane learned about the signs from her loved one who passed and how it is seen from the Jewish perspective and she became more of a believer than ever before.
- A sudden and an expected loss are radically different experiences.
- Jane explains how she wanted to turn her trauma into purpose.
- Jane promises you: You won’t feel like this forever.
- Jane confesses writing her book was therapeutic and cathartic for her; she feels now her relatives walk along life with her.
- In Jewish religion, whenever you visit someone at a cemetery, you help them elevate their soul.
- Jane explains the value of lighting a candle on the anniversary of your loved ones who died.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate
Meet Jane L. Rosen
Visit Jane’s Website
Follow Jane on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Susan, your host, first wants the listeners to know that in this conversation, she’s discussing the topic of suicide, which might be sensitive or upsetting for some of you. Be prepared for a respectful and authentic conversation.
Susan welcomes Alexandra Wyman. Alexandra is an advocate and public speaker for resources in the aftermath of suicide. After she lost her husband to suicide in August 2020, Alexandra found a need to change the language around suicide and decided to write about it. Her memoir, The Suicide Club: What To Do When Someone You Love Chooses Death, is an Amazon best seller. She has spoken at a variety of conferences, including the 2023 Northwest Conference on Childhood Grief and the 2023 Military Social Work & Behavioral Health Conference, and has been accepted to present at the International Association of Suicide Prevention Conference 2023 in Piran, Slovenia. Alexandra is the host of The Widows Club podcast. She practices pediatric occupational therapy and lives in Colorado with her son.
Key Takeaways:
- Alexandra shares her grief story of when she lost her husband to suicide.
- Grief is overwhelming; it comes in waves.
- The individual experience of grief is unique.
- Susan and Alexandra share how impactful it was for them when people took objects that belonged to their loved ones who passed away.
- People tend to think that what happened to you would never happen to them, and in the way of protecting themselves, they end up asking questions that end up shaming and blaming the grieving person.
- Not all people who died to suicide had a diagnosis.
- Alexandra learned to have compassion for her husband, who chose suicide; in her opinion, it takes a lot of courage to decide to end your own life to end an excruciating pain.
- Grief is an inward journey, a path of you learning about yourself and becoming a better version of yourself.
- Practice compassion and love for yourself.
- There are different types of grief.
- Be unapologetic about your boundaries!
- No matter who that person is, if someone is not honoring your grief, set boundaries to protect your healing process.
- You are more than your grief.
- Alexandra talks about The Widows Club.
- Remember, it is possible to get to a place of joy again.
- The grief will be with you for the rest of your life but will change over time.
- YOU CAN DO THIS! You are not alone; seek those moments of joy.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate
Susan, your host, welcomes Sandy Linda to today’s episode. Sandy is a family leader in grief guidance and a life coach. After experiencing multiple losses, she began a journey using her experience to find calm in the chaos to support those mourning multiple losses. Sandy helps her clients move from heartbreaking losses to a place where they can work toward healing and become Fearless Adventure leaders. Sandy’s on a mission to teach women who have experienced devastating loss to move beyond grief and develop a purposeful life.
Sandy’s relaunching her podcast show called Overcoming Grief for women who are tired of feeling isolated and angry in their grief and are looking for a way to heal and move forward with their lives. After losing both her parents and sibling in a very short time, she lost hope, confidence, and all sense of self; she felt desolate in her grief and was desperately searching for support and guidance on how to get through slowly. Sandy learned to embrace vulnerability and navigate her way back into a life filled with joy, love, and worth.
Key Takeaways:
- Sandy highlights the importance of vulnerability.
- Susan addresses the fine line between toxic positivity and toxic negativity. Healthy boundaries are really necessary.
- Sandy shares her grief story.
- When grieving for someone who died, you could realize you also have to grieve friendships and even family members who cannot really show up in your journey as you would want or need.
- We only want to be seen and heard.
- People won’t always understand your grief.
- Sandy shares how she leads people from trauma to resilience.
- You have to go through the process; you can’t pretend just to flip your feelings. Hold your intentions regarding your life; think about who you want in your life and how you want your life to look “after grief.”
- Journaling is the best tool when you have no one to talk to.
- Finding an authentic relationship with yourself is the first step to being able to build an authentic relationship with others.
- Just because someone is not good for you does not mean they are not good.
- Sandy shares the unique aspect of her work as a grief counselor; she guides people in overcoming anger in a healthy way.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate.
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life, by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend
Meet Sandy Linda
Email Sandy at info@sandylinda.com
Visit Sandy’s Website.
Please follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn
Listen to Sandy’s Podcast.
In this raw and vulnerable solo episode, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you who’ve taken the time to share those heartwarming, positive reviews about my show. Today, I would like to share with you my ongoing journey with grief, even after nearly six long years since a profound loss. It’s a journey filled with struggle, one that I’m sure many of you can empathize with. But amidst this journey, two of the most challenging aspects have been betrayals by those I love and the need to convey and justify my grief and sorrow to others. It’s not always easy for people to truly grasp the profound and pervasive nature of this emotional pain.
As I reflect on my personal journey through grief, it’s been a myriad of emotions that have swept me from anger to resentment and back again. There have been moments when these turbulent feelings strained the bonds with those whom I once felt closest to and who I most needed to support me. Even though relationships were lost and I humbly removed some people from my life, what I've come to cherish above all else is the immeasurable value of understanding and compassion from the beautiful souls in our lives as we navigate the unique pathways of our grief. So, my friends, I want to emphasize that grief isn't a fleeting visitor; it's a lifelong companion. It's absolutely okay to still carry the weight of this sorrow many years after the initial loss. In this ongoing journey, self-compassion and the warm embrace of supportive relationships are like beacons in the darkest night, guiding us through the rough waters.
Once again, from the very depths of my heart, thank you for being an integral part of my podcast community and for your unwavering, soul-nourishing support.
Episode Highlights
- Grief journey insights
- Coping with long-term loss
- Emotional healing strategies
- Navigating personal grief
- Understanding the depth of grief
- Supportive relationships in grief
- Compassion during emotional pain
- Self-compassion and forgiveness
- Finding joy in grief
- Personal growth through loss
- Thanking grief supporters
- Gratitude in times of sorrow
- Emotional well-being tips
- Transforming through grief
- Self-love
- Advocacy
- Boundary setting
Did you enjoy today’s episode?
Please subscribe and leave a review. If you have questions, comments, or possible show topics, email susan@tendrilsofgrief.com.
Don’t forget to visit the Tendrils Of Grief website and join for upcoming Webinars, Podcasts, Updates, and Group Coaching.
Get involved and share your thoughts and experiences in our online community.
Tendrils of Grief — Survivors of Loss
To subscribe and review use one links of the links below
Amazon
Apple
Spotify
Audacy
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Tune In
Connect with me
Instagram: @Sue_ways
Facebook: @ susan.ways
Email: @susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Susan, your host, welcomes Monica Morrissey to today’s episode. Monica was a public educator for over thirty years. Her experience teaching others helped her gain the knowledge she would need for the unexpected career change: becoming an author and Spiritual Healer. At the age of fifty, she published her inspiring Dimes from Heaven, How Coins and Coincidences Helped Me Discover My Life as an Empath book to help others understand our connection to loved ones who are in the spirit world and how our thoughts affect our health. Her second book, More Dimes from Heaven, shares her story of being an author — with so many synchronistic events along her journey. Her third book, Once Upon a Dime, Heaven is Talking to Us. Do You Know How to Listen?, explains how to get a sign from a loved one using thoughts and energy balancing. Each of her books gives us the tools to open the door to heaven so we are able to feel the deep love for those no longer with us.
Following her intuition like never before, she began sharing stories about synchronistic events, revealing that our souls never die. As an empath and natural-born teacher, her faith is guiding her to help people experience life and death in a whole new way.
Monica was careful to leave spirituality out of the classroom. Since the tragic death of her nephew in 2008, she secretly began reading and studying about mediums, death, grief, and how our bodies (and lives) are affected by our thoughts. She now has a better knowledge about the afterlife to share with others. Monica is a Reiki Master and Instructor, Spiritual Healer, Intuitive Card Reader, and Past Life Regression Practitioner, and loves to analyze dreams. At her business, Intuitive Wellness, Monica is dedicated to helping clients with soul care.
Through her business, Intuitive Wellness, she helps women reconnect with their souls by using Reiki, Energy healing, Intuitive and Spiritual Card Readings, dream analysis, and Past Life Regression techniques. Monica loves to teach people how to do Reiki so that they are better able to manage their energy. She is passionate about soul care, where true spiritual seekers look to find joy, happiness, and spiritual connection because we are a soul with a body, not a body with a soul.
Key Takeaways:
- Monica shares her grief story.
- In Monica’s family, when somebody died, it was over; there was no discussion about it, no memories, it wasn’t even crying; we had to go on with life.
- Nobody teaches us how to grieve.
- When you find your sign, acknowledge and appreciate it; this way, you permit signs to keep showing up in your life.
- Get your own sign, be specific, and wait patiently; it will present to you.
- Basic steps to connect to signs: Bring your grief to the surface, Feel the love from the person you want to connect with, Think about their legacy, and what they left you, and Decide what your sign is going to be.
- Journaling has a great power: channel your feelings and write them out.
- Monica suggests everyone who feels they are not getting signs to add a “yet” to that statement, “You are not getting signs yet.” That is the right message for the universe.
- Be open and feel the love in your heart, which will help with the connection.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate.
Meet Monica Morrisey
Watch the trailer of Once Upon a Dime.
Once Upon a Dime, Heaven is Talking to Us. Do You Know How to Listen?
Visit Monica’s website
Join Monica’s Facebook Group
Follow Monica on Instagram
Susan, your host, welcomes Maria Belanic to today’s conversation. Maria is a mother grandmother and grief mentor. Like many parents, she never thought about the unimaginable happening until it did. When her oldest son died of leukemia in 2009, it felt like her heart had shattered into pieces leaving her feeling broken and lost. For years it was a roller coaster of emotions that led to isolation and ill health.
Through her experience, she discovered strategies and tools to heal and find inner peace. This is not about getting over it or moving on; her journey made her passionate about helping others feel acknowledged and find ways to heal.
Ultimately, you are the expert on your grief.
Key Takeaways:
- Maria shares her grief story of when her son was diagnosed with cancer and fought it for 11 years.
- Maria’s son was given 48 hours to live but lived for over three months.
- Maria and Susan share their feelings regarding people’s ability to show empathy and compassion for their grief and everything involved in it.
- Grief changes with time and Maria recognizes herself as an unapologetic griever.
- Maria calls the anniversary of her son’s death the death day; she feels “anniversary” is something to celebrate, while his death isn’t.
- The times leading to the events are far worse than the day itself.
- Grievers tend to worry about other people’s feelings; who is worrying about your feelings?
- Some people will judge your feelings. You are grieving, do it your way; some will just not get it.
- Grief can make you work on autopilot; you are functioning, but you are not fully present at the moment. After a while, you must stop pretending; if they can’t take your authentic self, maybe they are not the right people to be with.
- Leaning into your feelings is much better help than running away from them.
- As a griever, you want to share memories about your person.
- It is not a competition; your loss will always be the worst for you.
- Maria shares how she turned trauma into her mission.
- Our unresolved feelings will appear during grief.
- Give yourself compassion; stop pressuring yourself. Grief needs to be witnessed.
- We have been taught to repress our feelings since we were young and that stays with us. Allow your feelings to express themselves, they are not mistaken.
- There is no right or wrong way to grieve; honor your feelings.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate.
Meet Maria Belanic
Follow Maria on Instagram
Visit Maria Belanic’s Website
Gift: 5 Secrets to Unlock Self-Compassion
How to Harness Self-Care for Grievers: A Path to Emotional Healing
Quotes:
“Hope should never be given or taken away from anyone.”
“When you are a caregiver, you put other people’s needs in front of your own.”
“All of our emotions are information to us.”
“Sometimes it is courageous to just wake up in the morning.”
“Turn your trauma into purpose.”
Susan, your host, welcomes Duana Welch to today’s episode. Dr. Duana (pronounced DWAY-nah) is known for writing and dating coaching that relies on science rather than opinion to help men and women find and keep the love of their lives.
A former professor in Florida, California, and Texas for over 20 years, she has contributed to NPR, Psychology Today, and numerous other outlets and podcasts.
Her first book, Love Factually: 10 Proven Steps from I Wish to I Do, is now out globally in five languages; its revised and updated edition released in 2022. Love Factually for Single Parents: [& Those Dating Them] is the second book in the series, specifically geared toward finding the right partner not only for readers but their families.
She is an expert for Paired, the world’s top-rated relationship app for couples. Her client practice is global via Zoom.
Key Takeaways:
- Dr. Duana discusses the cases of people who lost their spouses after a lifetime of dedication to that relationship and the challenge of dating again.
- People are not looking for the same things; not everyone on a dating app wants to find a partner.
- People sometimes act as if they want a relationship, but often, they don’t even know what they are looking for; they might not even realize they are not presenting themselves honestly.
- Actions speak louder than words; check if people behave how they say they feel.
- Remember this question: “What is your end goal for the relationship?” (For yourself and others.)
- Learning how you show up in relationships and your attachment style are great tools to return to the dating field.
- Dr. Duana explains different attachment styles: Secure, Avoidant, Anxious, or Disorganized.
- Once a partner is deceased or there is a living former spouse, there are stakeholders (the children, the spouse, their parents, and friends are stakeholders).
- Most secure attachers can stay married for a lifetime; when their partners did not pass away, the reason for the separation can be their spouse, someone who behaves in a way that makes it impossible for a relationship to last.
- Dr. Duana walks the listeners to her steps when coaching her clients.
- Ask the hard questions first! Starting by having sex and seeing if feelings develop is really a recipe for disaster.
- Dr. Duana helps people navigate the online dating experience, realizing what is important, what to expect, and how not to waste time.
- Find someone who can understand that you will always love your deceased person.
- Dr. Duana leaves the audience with these wise words: If you can find and be someone kind and respectful, your relationship will likely go very well; if you can’t, I promise it won’t.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate
Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find — and Keep — Love, by Amir Levine, and Rachel Heller
Meet Dr. Duana Welch
Love Science Media
Susan, your host, welcomes Danielle McCombs to today’s episode. Danielle believes that everyone is naturally creative, resourceful, and whole. External expectations that are put upon us by society and others can dim the light within us. The world needs everyone to show up as the truest version of themselves. As a coach, Danielle holds space for her clients to explore themselves and how they show up in the world. By following curiosity and intuition, she guides clients to live a life with intention.
Danielle McCombs is a growth-minded individual who is constantly striving to improve herself
and deepen the understanding of the world around her. After a 20-year career in commercial real estate, Danielle decided to pursue her passion of inspiring others to be the best version of themselves. Danielle is a Co-Active Professional Certified Coach and has started her own Life Coaching practice, Danielle McCombs Coaching. Danielle hosts the podcast The Opposite of Small Talk with her friend Kristy Olinger, where they explore topics about personal and professional development, focusing on connection, reflection, and social justice.
Key Takeaways:
- Danielle shares how she realized she needed to change her career path.
- Susan shares the benefits of coaching.
- Coaching and therapy are two resources that are useful for receiving together.
- It takes a long time to let go of the pain and the victim's role to begin changing.
- First, you need to identify where you are stuck at. Then, find out what you have control over.
- Take small steps.
- Journaling is of great help; write down what you achieve every day. Small wins have immense value, and that is how you move forward.
- Be intentional: How do you want to feel by the end of the week?
- Comparison is the worst you can do for yourself.
- If you support someone grieving, don’t take their actions personally and have no expectations.
- Nothing will be the same while you grow; embrace change while you move forward; you are allowed to grieve what is left behind.
- Making choices is never easy, but we can decide the meaning of the events in our lives and how we want to move forward.
- We are all on a journey; different things will happen at other times, some good and some bad. Give yourself grace and try not to worry about what everyone else is thinking; connect to yourself and find how you want to move forward.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate
Meet Danielle McCombs
Visit Danielle McCombs Coaching Website
Email Danielle at mccombs.danielle@gmail.com
Follow Danielle on LinkedIn
Listen to The Opposite of Small Talk
Susan, your host, welcomes Dr. Chris Sopa to today’s episode. Dr. Chris is an Industrial Organizational psychologist, speaker, and researcher who has spent the last 20 years studying human potential and self-awareness. After experiencing several tragic and challenging life events, Dr. Chris became a student of her own life and is compelled by the belief that when self-aware, we can extract the lessons from our life experiences and use them to guide us.
Key Takeaways:
- Dr. Chris shares her experience going through back surgery that later became more complicated; she went through this alone, and it was an event that revolutionized her life.
- Be present to connect with the signs.
- Shift from a victim perspective to an active perspective.
- When you are grieving the loss of someone, no one realizes what you are going through.
- Sometimes, it is hard to ask for help.
- Most of the time, people don’t know what to say or do to help someone grieving.
- “I got tired of living in fear.” We create our reality, so Chris started to develop a new life.
- Our feelings drive our behavior; sometimes, we need to nourish the feelings we want to hold consciously.
- Choose radical acceptance and be present in it.
- We tend to judge others in the same way we judge ourselves.
- Choose consciously how close you will allow people to get to you.
- Boundaries are meant to protect yourself energetically.
- How can you slow your brain down?
- If you could only choose one feeling to feel for the rest of your life, what would that be? (Other than happiness, pick a feeling) Knowing the feeling you value the most it would be easier for you to choose what brings you closer to that state.
- Your best is different every day; give yourself grace.
- Find one small thing every day that brings you joy.
- Don’t look back; you are not going that way. Look forward!
Resources:
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate
The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz
Meet Dr. Chris Sopa
Visit Chris Sopa’s website
Susan, your host, welcomes Pierce Freelon. Pierce is an accomplished musician, producer, and educator from Durham, North Carolina. He is the co-creator of Beat Making Lab, an Emmy Award-winning PBS web series, and is the writer, composer, and co-director of the PBS animated series The History of White People in America, an official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival. His Grammy-nominated children's music has been featured on The Today Show, NPR, and MSNBC, as well as in Rolling Stone.
In today’s episode, Susan and Pierce discuss grief from a different angle, from the gratitude and love implied in being together and caring for someone moving out of this life. Pierce wholeheartedly shares his loving memories with his father and how he experiences life without him by his side.
Key Takeaways:
- Pierce shares his grief journey that started when he lost his father in 2019.
- Pierce talks about how his father’s diagnosis with ALS made them experience a series of losses in its progression.
- Pierce compares the care given to a newborn to the care of a terminal patient; the first is on its way into this life, and the other is moving out of it.
- Grief is the price we pay for love.
- Susan highlights the value of compassion, especially during grief.
- Pierce organized a group where people get to honor their loved ones who passed, telling their stories through their puppets.
- We can connect with the lost people however possible; Susan shares how she asks for signs, and Pierce talks about what “Lasagna” meant for their family.
- Signs come naturally and organically; they will be powerful and moving.
- Pierce talks about his book Daddy & Me: Side By Side.
- Grieve gently and tenderly, hold space for you, and stay compassionate.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate
Meet Pierce Freelon
Pierce’s Website
Pierce’s Instagram
Daddy & Me, Side By Side
Where Our Spirit Resides, a puppet show.
Susan, your host, welcomes David Price to today’s conversation. David is a life coach who got into life coaching because of his own personal transformation. He was able to achieve so much in his own life; for most of his life, he was completely miserable, sad, angry, and frustrated. He felt like a complete failure in every way, but when he began to learn and practice the things he now teaches and trains: personal responsibility, the power of thoughts and words, life design and creation, and goal setting and achievement, his life became joyous abundant, and prosperous. He's been blessed to teach and train hundreds of men and women on how to do the same.
Key Takeaways:
- David shares his grief story that began when his father died when he was a very young age.
- There are thoughts and beliefs we have that just don’t serve us
- David talks about the power of reframing and refocusing.
- Surround yourself with the right people; family isn’t everything. Remember, you chose the energy around you.
- Are you going to live your life according to other people's expectations, or will you design and create the life you want? That is your choice.
- You can learn things the easy way or the hard way.
- You don’t need to know all the ‘hows’, plan, set goals, choose to live an intentional life.
- Don’t pressure yourself; allow yourself to process and not judge your grieving process.
- Most of the time, you don’t have to say anything to grieving people; just sit with them silently, listen if they want to talk, and be there for them.
- We often take more negativity than we realize (TV, music, anything), and choosing positive input can make all the difference.
- If it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it.
- Bad things happen to all of us, and really bad things happen to some of us.
- What do I really want to do with my life?
- Be kind to yourself; it helps more than you think.
- No situation is hopeless; it is worth getting up in the morning and trying it again over and over again.
- Perseverance is the ultimate tool to take you where you want to go.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate
Meet David Price
Take Back Your Life
Susan, your host, welcomes Justine Lette to today’s episode. Justine is an internationally recognized hypnotherapy trainer, owner of Hypnosis New Zealand, and creator of the Golden Thread Trauma Transformation Protocol. Justine is an expert in using hypnotherapy to help clients overcome grief, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. As a Professional Member of The International Association of Counselling and The Australia and New Zealand Mental Health Association, Justine runs a successful clinic in Rotorua and via Zoom, where she specializes in using trauma-informed hypnotherapy to help clients manage anxiety and depression. Justine has helped hundreds of clients overcome these issues and lead happier, more fulfilling lives. Justine’s expertise in trauma-informed hypnotherapy has made her a sought-after speaker and trainer, delivering workshops and seminars internationally. Her passion for helping others improve their lives through hypnotherapy has led her to create the Golden Thread Trauma Transformation Protocol, a unique approach that combines hypnotherapy with cutting-edge neuroscience. With her extensive knowledge and experience in the field, Justine is dedicated to training and mentoring the next generation of trauma-informed hypnotherapists. Her commitment to excellence and passion for her work have made her a leading expert in the field.
Key Takeaways:
- Justine talks about her career journey.
- Justine shares the importance of finding the root cause of symptoms and how she assists people in getting the resolution they did not find and desperately need.
- Stop running away from grief!
- Pain in your body could be a result of emotional suffering.
- Justine talks about how trauma impacts the body.
- How can we avoid falling into returning patterns?
- Ask yourself: Who do you have space for in your life? What are they bringing to your life?
- Justine explains trauma-informed hypnotherapy and leads us on a hypnotherapy activity to reveal the sensations in our bodies.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate
Meet Justine Lette
Visit Justine Lette’s website
Susan, your host, welcomes Emily Grace. Emily started her career as a shy people-pleaser who overworked to prove her worth in the world and relied on others for validation and approval. Now, she is a leading international feminine embodiment coach, living from her authentic, feminine self. She is proof that your sensitivity and femininity can be your greatest superpowers if you learn to embrace them.
Having navigated her own internal struggles (including PTSD, grief, depression & anxiety & addiction), she now helps other women do the same, especially through challenging transitions. She guides women to trust themselves, to honor their value, to process their emotions in a safe environment, and to embody their purpose. The result is an authentic embodiment of self.
Emily saw how so many high-achieving, sensitive women were letting their sensitive, emotional side of themselves hold them back in their lives and careers as they tried to fit themselves into masculine templates for success and leadership. Emily created systems to support women in unsubscribing from these ways of being and instead creating their own lane for success. Through her signature program Reclaim, online courses, books, and retreats, Emily has helped hundreds of women reclaim their true selves, embody their wholeness, embrace their sensitivity and femininity as gifts, and honor their soul’s calling.
She is certified in trauma-sensitive feminine embodiment coaching, integrative wellness life coaching, aromatherapy, and breathwork facilitation.
Emily is also a sought-after speaker, the author of Wholeness Within: Insights from One Woman’s Journey of Creating a Life and Career in Alignment, and the podcast host of Guide to Wholeness.
Key Takeaways:
- Emily shares her grief story that began with the death of her father, with whom she had a complicated relationship.
- Pay attention to your feelings and emotions arising through your grief, identify them, and feel them.
- You can pay it forward in many ways; you don’t have to have a coaching certificate.
- Every grief is different; there is no better or worse grief or death. Grievers often feel they are doing it wrong. Be kind to yourself, give yourself a break, and let your feelings be!
- Healthy boundaries also mean not holding space for certain people and walking away from relationships that are not serving you anymore.
- Susan addresses the different layers of grief and the many losses involved, including some friendships.
- Breathwork helps to feel and clear emotions and also to get you closer to your intuition.
- Forgiveness is crucially important in your healing process, leading you to be more of your authentic self.
- Make space for your grief, and create a ritual around it.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate.
Meet Emily Grace
Visit Grace’s Website, Guide to Wholeness, and her work as a Medium.
Read Wholeness Within: Insights from One Woman’s Journey of Creating a Life and Career in Alignment
Listen to Emily’s Podcast Guide to Wholeness.
Book a complimentary 20-minute discovery session
Susan, your host, welcomes Debbie Weiss to today’s episode.
With over 50 years of experience dealing with some of life’s toughest challenges, Debbie is an expert in chasing your own dreams despite your circumstances. She is the author of the soon-to-be-released memoir, On Second Thought, Maybe I Can. as well as a co-author in the Amazon best-seller collaborative book Heart Whispers. In addition, Debbie is an entrepreneur running both an insurance agency and her online store, A Sprinkle of Hearts, host of the Maybe I Can podcast, inspirational speaker, family caregiver, and mother.
Debbie has overcome her own limiting beliefs and fears, allowing her to begin to live her best life, and her life’s passion is to help and inspire others to do the same. In her spare time, Debbie loves to laugh, dance, read, and stay active.
Key Takeaways:
- Debbie shares her grief story, which began with her husband's death at 63.
- Debbie wrote a memoir.
- Susan addresses the negative impact of toxic positivity.
- Debbie cultivated positivity while grieving, which is a very challenging task.
- Debbie felt she was the victim for many years, which filled her with resentment.
- How you look at things is your choice; there are many things you cannot control, but others you do have control over.
- At some point, you will choose to move forward; you will know when the time comes.
- Hold space for the grievers; listen to them talking about their loss and their memories of their loved ones who passed. It is an honor to be invited to someone's precious memories and story.
- Choose carefully who will surround you when you are grieving.
- Debbie shares how she invested a lot of effort in shifting her mindset; consequently, her perception changed entirely.
- Remember, there is immense power in your thoughts and intentions.
- When you feel that you can’t, remember: “You’ve always had the power, my dear; you just had to learn it for yourself.”
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate
Meet Debbie Weiss
Follow Debbie on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn
Listen to Debbie’s podcast: Maybe I Can
Visit Debbie’s Website
Susan, your host, welcomes Jesse Brisendine to today’s episode. Jesse is an award-winning speaker and best-selling author. Jesse Brisendine is a world-renowned expert who works with individuals and organizations to move beyond their limitations, unlock their greatness, & build their Camelot.
Business leaders, Hollywood celebrities, entrepreneurs, medical professionals, and educators have utilized Jesse's services to reduce stress, increase productivity, improve communication, elevate happiness, experience more daily joy, enhance company culture, build thriving businesses, and live fulfilling lives.
Jesse has helped to mentor over 4,000 people on their healing journeys following the loss of a loved one.
Jesse is a big fan of buffets, professional wrestling, and finding the silver lining in any situation.
Key Takeaways:
- Jesse explains why he firmly believes there is a purpose to pain and that within pain, you can always find purpose.
- Jesse shares how he found purpose through pain in his life.
- Jesse and Susan talk about the lonely feeling when grieving when you want the world to stop and just join how you feel.
- After one year of losing his friend, Jesse also lost his father; he became completely overwhelmed by his grieving and realized he needed to change his life narrative based on resilience and finding the light in the darkest moment of his life.
- Jesse began the one-year 1000 Challenge, one year dedicated to healing.
- Susan reminds us there is no normal way of grieving nor a timeline for grief; grief your own way, let yourself feel!
- Do not identify with your grief. It is not who you are; it is how you feel.
- You don’t have to apologize for how you are grieving.
- Jesse emphasizes the value of compassion and empathy.
- Choose the life you want to live after loss. You can be the living legacy of the people you have lost.
- Life is like legos; you can build something really neat that can easily be knocked down; we can feel it is broken, but it is only displaced.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate
Seed for the Soul: Living as the Source of Who You Are, Chuck Hillig
Meet Jesse Brisendine
Listen to Jesse’s TED TALK
Visit Jesse’s Website
Follow Jesse on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn
Grab your free copy of the Mindset Mastery Blueprint
Susan, your host, welcomes Amanda Kirkland to today’s episode. Amanda is a personal growth coach, and her journey to becoming a personal growth coach started with her own struggles throughout her teenage and adult years; she went through multiple toxic and dysfunctional relationships. Now she’s a self-professed practitioner of self-care! A BABE — Balanced, Authentic, Babe, Extraordinaire. Today her life is like 31 flavors of Baskin Robbins ice cream.
Key Takeaways:
- Amanda shares that losing her mother, whom she wasn’t in contact with for the past ten years, leaves her confused about how she should feel regarding this loss.
- Amanda and Susan talk about dysfunctional relationships and how they set boundaries to protect themselves and their mental health.
- Holding space in your life for someone who has hurt you in the past is possible under certain conditions that avoid falling into old patterns.
- Let people know that you need to be trusted.
- Take time to learn how to set boundaries and care for yourself.
- Feel your emotions, don’t let them sit inside your soul.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
If you find this episode helpful, please donate.
Meet Amanda Kirkland
Visit Amanda’s website
Follow Amanda on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Email Amanda at amanda@amandakirkland.com.
Susan, your host, welcomes Patrick Kucharson to today’s episode. Patrick is a B-gift-giver by nature; he runs Better Gift Coach, a free newsletter that is a weekly 1-minute shortcut to always having awesome gift ideas well in advance. Each week, he enjoys sharing a story of the best gift someone has ever received, analyzing it, and providing guidance on how others can replicate it.
Key Takeaways:
- Sometimes all you want is for people to be present.
- Give people the gifts they want to receive, not what you want to give.
- Patrick talks about gifts given in times of crisis; he highlights one of his episodes called What someone grieving really needs.
- Offer three ways in which you could help a grieving person; this way, they could have choices. Some grievers are not ready to tell what they need.
- When thinking of a gift, offer the most lasting value you can offer them.
- Best gifts are often not the most expensive, but they usually are handmade and personally crafted for the receiver.
- If you really want to make an impact, mark the special day in your calendar so that when the anniversary of the event comes, you can make sure this particular person will receive something special from you.
- Patrick lists several presents that could be really impactful for a grieving person.
- Sometimes “I owe you…” gifts could be the best idea; this way, the griever can choose when to collect his or her gift.
- Patrick shares a particular story from a subscriber.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
After the Shock: Getting You Back On the Road to Resilience When Crisis Hits You Head On, by Becky Sansbury
Meet Patrick Kucharson
Learn more about Better Gift Coach Newsletter: The free Better Gift Coach newsletter is a 1-minute-a-week shortcut to always having awesome gift ideas well in advance. Every week, the free newsletter shares an entertaining story of the best gift someone has ever received, analysis on what made it special, and tips on how you can do your own version of that gift. The newsletter has been featured in the New York Times, Real Simple Magazine, and Yahoo!
Susan, your host, welcomes Vanessa Cardenas to today’s episode. Vanesa is a highly experienced C-Suite Executive, Mentor, Coach, and Speaker. She holds a degree in Industrial & Organizational Psychology from Baruch College in New York. She is also the founder and CEO of Understanding Ear, LLC, where she empowers individuals and groups to heal from a betrayal, amplify their authenticity, and find love and happiness on their terms. If you’re feeling betrayed and could benefit from having a trusted advisor, reach out to Vanessa.
Key Takeaways:
- Vanesa shares how she became a betrayal coach.
- Vanesa realized she was going through betrayal for a purpose.
- There is considerable power in sharing your story.
- There is no expiration date for grief; you keep walking through it.
- Vanesa suggests three different journals: a dumping one, where you can put all your rage in it: one to write your dreams; and then, a beautiful one, where you can pour all your progress into it.
- It is OK not to be OK.
- When you cry, there is an ending. Remember you will heal!
- After betrayal, you need to learn how to trust again.
-
Vanesa shares 10 tips:
-
Acknowledge that you are grateful for people to be there for you. You have to communicate what you need.
- Show up, Be present for those who are grieving (you don’t really have to say anything). It is OK not to know what to do but please don't leave a griever alone.
- Don't compare stories; everybody’s grief is different.
- Ask questions (but not complex ones, a griever’s head is not that sharp sometimes).
- No complaints.
- Do not be a cheerleader; mirror the feelings of the griever.
- Don’t shame the grievers about the past, present, or future.
- Hold space for the griever; answer back!
- Remind the griever that you care about him/her, a griever needs to hear “You can count on me.”
- Be patient, grief is hard.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Donate and support Tendrils of Grief
Meet Vanesa Cardenas
Linktr.ee/VanessaCardenas
Follow Vanessa on Instagram
Read Vanessa’s blog
Dealing with the Devastation of Your Partners' Betrayal: What to Do When Your World Falls Apart, by Vanessa Cardenas
Dealing with the Devastation of Your Partner's Betrayal: How to Talk to Your Kids, Parents, In-Laws, Friends, and Others, by Vanesa Cardenas
Susan, your host, welcomes Meghan Smith Brooks to today’s episode. Meghan is an Ordained Unity Minister and the author of Unraveling Grief: A Mother’s Spiritual Journey of Healing and Discovery, which details her grief experience when she lost her son when he was just 19 years old. Meghan shares how she was able to pull herself out and find a sense of gratitude for this new path she has been set on in this week’s episode.
Key Takeaways:
- Meghan shares her grief story and the murder of her son.
- Meghan spent two months walking around like she wasn’t in her body.
- How did Meghan find gratitude after she found out about her son’s death?
- Meghan is so grateful that she had a spiritual foundation to stand on.
- Pain and loss are part of our human reality.
- Meghan still has moments when she wants to scream.
- Sometimes you have to forgive the people who killed your loved one, not for their sake, but yours.
- You can live in a dark hole when someone you love passes away, but it’s up to you to get past that.
- Susan remembers her arguing with her husband about where to go to eat.
- It’s a choice to be angry at someone.
- Grief is your teacher. It broke Meghan open.
- When Meghan wrote her book, it helped her oldest son cope.
- It becomes an ongoing blessing when you can be vulnerable and create something beautiful out of your pain.
- How does Meghan spiritually help people in grief?
- Every day you get to choose how you will show up and what you do to make a difference.
- Keep breathing; keep moving forward.
Resources:
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Learn more about Meghan Smith Brooks:
Unityawakeningways.org
Meghan on LinkedIn
Unraveling Grief: A Mother’s Spiritual Journey of Healing and Discovery
Susan, your host, welcomes Martha Hunt Handler to today’s episode.
Martha is the award-winning author of Winter of the Wolf, a novel that tells the story of Bean, an empathic and spiritually evolved teenage girl who sets out to discover the truth about the mysterious death of her beloved brother and finds herself on a journey of healing and self-discovery.
The novel is inspired by the death of Martha’s best friend’s 12-year-old son and covers several important themes, including suicide, grief, spirituality, human connection to nature, shamanism, and native Inuit culture. It is an Amazon bestseller and was chosen as a Barnes and Noble Top Indy Pick.
Apart from being a successful author, Martha is an environmentalist and fierce wolf advocate. She serves as the Board President of the Wolf Conservation Center, where 100% of her author proceeds go to support the organization.
Key Takeaways:
- Martha shares her grief story that started when her friend lost her 12-year-old son.
- Martha and Susan talk about signs and how people tend to judge.
- Hospices do the most beautiful job, leading people and their families through their transition out of this life.
- Grievers find it hard to identify what they need and even harder to ask for it.
- Helping a griever sometimes is just showing up. Grievers want to know they are not alone.
- If you don’t know what to say to someone grieving, just don’t.
- If you are grieving, keep “Grace” in your mind, you will need it.
- Martha talks about her next book.
- When you are grieving, the guilt of moving forward to live the life you want is real.
- Susan got closer to her husband in his last year of life.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Dead to Me, a comedy series
Meet Martha Hunt Handler
Visit Martha’s website
Wolf Conservation Center
Winter of the Wolf, by Martha Hunt Handler
Susan, your host, welcomes Tracee Dunblazer. Tracy is a certified grief counselor, a Los Angeles-based empath, a shaman, and a 22-time award-winning author who has spent decades living an alchemical life working with the stone kingdom as a guide. She was born multi-spirited, with a profound innate awareness of the spirit world and deep compassion for all who hurt. Tracee’s down-to-Earth style embraces the humor of reality and has helped thousands to find radical acceptance, empowerment, and joy in their lives, no matter where they begin. Her national and international award-winning GoTracee Publishing creates spiritual tools that have become game-changers for those who suffer. Dunblazier is a charismatic keynote speaker and enjoys podcasting from her CHAT-Cast platform and currently serves as President of the Coalition of Visionary Resources, the trade organization for the Mind-Body-Spirit Industry.
Key Takeaways:
- Tracy shares how she started in the fascinating world of being a psychic.
- Grief makes us who we are.
- Drama equals trauma.
- Grief brings beautiful people into your life and also cuts bonds with people you were close to before.
- The power of forgiveness: releasing yourself from bondage that doesn’t serve you anymore.
- When you remove someone from your life it is not forever; give yourself permission to walk away.
- Protect your power through effective communication and allow yourself to feel and cry as much as needed.
- Being in grief is like running a marathon; nurture yourself and be prepared for a transformative journey.
- Ask for help; it is part of the grieving process to ask for what you need and protect your space.
- Find a way to let people know what they need to do to support you.
- Trust that there is a deeper connection that is coming for you to inform you about your next step, you don’t need to know what is happening next; things are going to change in a way that you could have never imagined.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Tracee Dunblazier
Visit Tracee’s website
Transformative Grief: An Ancient Ritual Healing for Modern Times, by Tracee Dunblazier
Follow Tracee on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
Susan, your host, welcomes Richard John Allen to today’s episode. Richard has a mission of dedicating his life to helping others overcome their struggles and find hope and healing, providing support and guidance for anyone experiencing loss. Whether you're struggling with the death of a loved one or other life changes, Richard wants to help people find peace and healing through his books, podcast, or one-on-one coaching to help others navigate their unique challenges.
Key Takeaways:
- Richard shares his grief story.
- Richard and Susan discuss the power of sharing and being vulnerable when grieving.
- Feel free to choose to believe in whatever suits you and make you feel better.
- Richard recalls the signs he received from his father, who passed away.
- Richard shares how he became an author.
- How can you connect with the signs your departed loved one sends you?
- Richard talks about the power of nature to ease your grieving days.
- Some people can’t live with the memories.
- Grief is complex (Richard believes grief to be the most complex of all emotions); you will need a lot of help from loved ones, professionals, and also from nature that can accompany you in your grief journey.
- Join Richard in a gratitude prayer.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Richard John Allen
Check Richard’s Website
Follow Richard on Instagram and Facebook
Find more about Richard’s books
Susan, your host, welcomes Karen Docherty to today’s episode. Karen is a psychic medium and mentor. Her mission is to use her ability to bring comfort, understanding, and healing. The loss of a loved one brings with it grief, which leads us to ponder questions about the afterlife. It's something we all experience and endure at one time or another. There are many unanswered questions, but one thing is absolutely certain, your loved ones still care for you and want to look after you as they continue their journey in spirit. Karen is blessed to have the ability to connect and communicate the word of a spirit and to teach others to do the same. When you hear what they have to say, you can begin to live a life free of worry.
Key Takeaways:
- Karen shares her grief story and how she became a psychic medium.
- Karen addresses the fear some people feel about psychic mediums.
- When someone is in spirit, what is the number one thing they want to transmit to the person still alive? ‘I am here, I am still with you’.
- You need to move forward; many people get stuck in grief.
- Karen shares some of her emotionally mobilizing psychic experiences connecting with the spirits of the ones who passed.
- Karen talks about the grief those who passed have to experience too.
- There is no normal in grieving; your grief is unique; follow the path that helps you better soothe your soul.
- Karen does in-person and online readings.
- You can connect with the ones who passed through meditation, ask to connect with them, and create that space for your loved ones to connect.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Karen Docherty
Visit Karen’s website
Susan, your host, welcomes Stephanie Sarazin. Stephanie is a writer, researcher, and experiential expert in ambiguous grief. Her work began with her own experience of mid-life trauma, which sparked an ambitious journey — spiritually and around the world — to understand, name, and heal the grief she found within her. Her efforts revealed a first-of-its-kind definition for “ambiguous grief,” whereby grief is onset by the loss of a loved one who is still living and wherein the experience of hope presents as a stage of the grieving process. Stephanie’s work brings new resources to reframe disruptive, activating events as a gateway to discovering your highest self, in turn championing ambiguous grief as nuanced, natural, and navigable. Stephanie is also the founder of Rise Up Rooted, an online resource center for those navigating ambiguous grief, a grief educator, and a TEDx curator in her community. She is a graduate of Michigan State University and earned a Master of Public Policy from The University of Chicago. She is an avid reader, recreational runner, and aspiring camper, and lives in North Carolina, where she is training to trek to Mt. Everest’s Base Camp. Her book, Soulbroken: A Guide for Your Journey Through Ambiguous Grief, is published by Balance, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, and was released in October 2022. It is currently available for order at Barnes & Nobel, Amazon, or your favorite independent bookseller.
Key Takeaways:
- Stephanie shares her grief story that started when she discovered that she was living in a marriage that was not what she thought it was.
- Ambiguous loss: Losing a loved one but not necessarily through death.
- Share your story; someone will benefit from it; you are not alone. It is an honor to share your story and to the listeners to hear it.
- Shame cannot grow when there is empathy.
- When talking to someone grieving, avoid starting sentences with ‘At least…” since you are probably about to give a consolation prize that won’t be appreciated.
- We are not taught how to show up for others. If you don’t know what to say, try: “Thank you for telling me, I am glad you told me.” This is a way of validating someone’s grief.
- Sometimes holding hope can restrict healing and delay acceptance.
- Define what you have control over; focusing on what is possible for you to change will bring you closer to healing.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Stephanie
Learn more about Stephanie
Find her book Soulbroken: A Guidebook For Your Journey Through Ambiguous Grief at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
Susan, your host, welcomes Michelle Pfile to today’s episode. Michelle is a health wellness, business mentor, and podcast host who helps women create positive changes in their lives by elevating them physically, mentally, spiritually, and financially. After struggling with a PCOS diagnosis for much of her life, she made drastic changes to improve her lifestyle that helped her completely transform her health, mind, and body. Speaking on topics such as holistic health, intermittent fasting, mindset shifts, network marketing, and grief, Michelle has a plethora of expertise and speaks about it in a way that just makes sense.
Key Takeaways:
- Michelle shares her grief story.
- Michelle and Susan talk about how it feels to be grieving the memories we won’t have with our loved ones who passed away.
- Michelle shares how her background helped her with her grieving experience: Mindset goes first.
- “I don’t want to feel this way anymore.”
- Michelle talks about how stress and sorrow affect our physical bodies.
- Susan and Michelle talk about how their mindsets shifted as a result of practicing gratitude.
- How to avoid toxic positivity.
- Know where you are and be OK with that.
- Michelle explains how to Stair Step to the next place. (Recognize your small wins and celebrate them.)
- Change your mind and give yourself what you need.
- Meditation is a fantastic way of interrupting a thinking pattern that no longer serves you.
- Grieving is strictly connected to our overall health.
- Someone’s death can be traumatic to you. Deal with the trauma of the loss.
- Susan and Michelle share how they dealt with the pain of grieving initially.
- No matter what you are going through, it will become a precious part of your healing journey and personal growth.
- Death can also become a gift.
- Try a little slice of gratitude, it will make you feel better.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
The Magic, Rhonda Byrne
Meet Michelle Pfile
Check Michelle Pfile’s website
Follow Michelle on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
Listen to Michelle’s podcast: In Total Alignment
Susan, your host, welcomes Donnalynn Riley to today’s episode, Donnalynn has been coaching business people to become masters of their communication, relationships, and success for over a decade. From a career on Broadway to being the CEO of a multimillion-dollar corporation, her journey helped her understand and create strategies for managing emotions and surpassing every goal. Featured on FOX, ABC, NBC, and CBS, Donnalynn is now on a mission to inspire 42 million people to prioritize their joy and emotional well-being so they can show up as the best version of themselves!
Key Takeaways:
- Donnalyn shares her grief story that began many years ago but was recently re-edited with the death of her husband.
- Donnalyn talks about how hard it was for her to function through grief.
- Donnalyn lost her husband and sold her house in less than four months, she shares the ups and downs of an intense and terrible time in her life.
- First, Donnalynn put all her belongings in storage until she found a time when she knew what to do. She speaks of the emotional value of certain objects, and how her relationship with them is not the same; it evolves with her grief process.
- Are you willing to go through emotions rather than sitting in them? Do you feel that your suffering honors someone’s death?
- Climb the emotional scale towards having more joy.
- To Donnalynn it was essential to find something to believe again.
- Give yourself permission to let go of what does not serve you anymore.
- When you have massive changes in your life, your identity shifts with them, and you end up wondering who are you now, leading the path for a new version of yourself.
- Just breathe! Fill your lungs, notice it, and pay attention to the air coming in and going out.
- Donnalynn explains a practice that can help you shift your energy when you feel overwhelmed.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Donnalynn Riley
Follow Donnalynn’s blog
Follow Donnalynn on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Susan, your host, welcomes Stephanie Zito to today’s episode. Stephanie is an Intuitive Soul Purpose Coach who sees right through the stories and blocks that hold clients back from their desired success. Through intuitive insight and channeling their soul guides, she helps clients quantum leap and make the shifts to decide for their freedom and happiness.
Following her Master’s in Conflict Analysis and Resolution, she worked in corporate teambuilding and provided transformative experiences for groups and teams in the wild. As a certified yoga and meditation instructor, Stephanie uses the power of yoga, breathwork, and meditation as transformative tools for her clients. Stephanie is also a transformative speaker, best-selling author, and This Passionate Life podcast host. Her mission is to help her clients find their inner spark and the freedom and healing of following their intuition.
Key Takeaways:
- Stephanie shares her grief story that started when she lost her spiritual/soul guide.
- Stephanie discovered her soul purpose through her journey and guidance from her exceptional mentor, who passed away.
- People can take what they need from psychic readings.
- Stephanie talks about the difference between a psychic medium and just a psychic.
- Grief is an aspect of love; we grieve because we love.
- Stephanie describes the steps people can take on their own to connect with their loved ones who have passed away: Use your senses, connect with something the person owned, connect with your elevated feelings of love, and enunciate your questions to your loved one.
- Stephanie talks about channel writing.
- Susan shares her experience with signs coming from her beloved Paul.
- With patience and time, you will find the connection with those who passed through love and trust.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Stephanie Zito
Visit Stephanie’s Website
Follow Stephanie on Instagram, Insight Timer, and Facebook.
Listen to This Passionate Life Podcast
Access valuable tips to trust your intuition and take aligned action with my Activate your Intuition Workbook ($97 value), available to Tendrils of Grief listeners for free: https://bit.ly/theintuitionguide
Susan, your host, welcomes Catherine McNulty to today’s episode, this time not as a guest but as a coach specializing in grief. In this episode, Susan and Catherine answer listeners’ questions on grief as fellow grievers and share their insights and tips on navigating particular aspects of the grief journey.
Key Takeaways:
- Testimony: Losing a 16-year-old daughter to suicide and dealing with people’s questions can be retraumatizing. Her mother finds herself avoiding talking about her daughter to prevent these saddening and disruptive questions. Feedback: - Guilt and shame are triggered by these comments, making the grieving process much harder. Sometimes people ask questions just to feel it won’t happen to them. - Speak your truth! There is nothing impolite about educating people about what hurts you, setting boundaries, and guarding them. - You can always walk away from an uncomfortable conversation, and protect your energy. - Show the world who your daughter really was, and be inspired by your grief to honor the person you love! - Find your community and connect with more people.
- Testimony: A widow who has lost her husband to cancer is having problems communicating with his family that, while he was alive were disengaged, but as soon he received the diagnosis, got close and overly involved, disrupting the time between her and her husband. Now that he has passed, they want his things, that his widow wants for their children, who were always there for their father, in health and in sickness. She wishes to maintain the relationship because these are his children’s grandparents. Feedback: - Do not feel bad for the way you feel! You are angry and resentful, you are entitled; it is your husband and the father of your children who passed away, don’t give away anything that is going to hurt your heart. - Release your anger and resentment to them as a gift of love to yourself (not to them). - Set boundaries, grieve on your terms, following your timing; this is your story and no one can tell you what or how to be and do you! - It is OK to be distant from the parents of your husband, you can allow them to be part of the children’s lives (depending on their age) without having to be involved in situations that are not good for you (it is also an opportunity to model healthy boundary setting to your children.) - Do what feels good to you!
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Catherine McNulty
After losing her infant son in 2011, Catherine embarked on a journey to do more than survive grief. The loss forever changed the trajectory of her life and sent her looking for meaning and purpose in the life she was given. She channeled the love for her son into her own healing, self-growth, and personal empowerment. Today, she has created a framework for grief that disrupts conventional ways of looking at loss. She challenges her clients to step outside of a victim mindset and regain control of how they navigate grief. She teaches how to grow through grief and encourages speaking openly about grief to break down the walls of silence around grief. Catherine lives in San Diego with her family where she speaks, writes, and offers coaching to those who want to do more than just survive grief. She is a board member of Empty Cradle and volunteers at Miracle Babies and the Ronald McDonald House. Her business, Grief INSPIRED supports those who are grieving and guides them to create a new normal that honors the ones they’ve lost.
Visit Open to Hope
Visit Grief Inspired on YouTube
Susan, your host, welcomes Trish Springsteen to today’s episode. Trish is a Creative Marketing Consultant, a multi-national award-winning mentor, speaker, award-winning international bestselling author, and WebTV host, specializing in creative solutions to Get Known and Be Seen, making it easy for your clients to find you.
Founder of the Purple Unicorn® Marketing Academy, Trish works with people to find the gold nuggets in your business to promote and market themselves. The best person to speak about your business is YOU!
Trish believes in her clients until they believe in themselves. From her personal journey, Trish knows how powerful confidence and self-belief can be. Trish is the author, co-author, and contributing author of 19 books, including Forever Changed By Suicide.
Key Takeaways:
- Trish shares her grief story which began on a particular day that started as a normal day and turned into tragedy when she lost her son, Craig, to suicide.
- Trish talks about the healing power of crying and the consequences of restraining crying.
- There are no accurate timelines.
- Repressing your emotions is causing your dis-ease.
- For people to remember her son’s name was very important to Trish, she wanted his memory to stay alive.
- Grandparents not only lost their grandson by suicide but were also left to support their daughter in a situation that totally exceeded them.
- Trish lost Craig and, with him, the possibility of having grandchildren.
- Trish shares the tradition she started on Christmas, which involves setting up a small memory tree instead of a Christmas tree, where she hangs stars with the names of those she has lost, honoring their memories.
- Trish talks about her book, Forever Changed by Suicide, a compilation of testimonies of people sharing their memories and grief processes.
- Trish acknowledges that there is a pain that lives with her and will never leave her side.
- “I feel for you” sometimes are the only right words you can tell someone who has lost someone to suicide.
- Everybody’s journey is different, keep that in mind, it is OK to feel how you feel; it is OK to grieve.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Trish Springsteen
Visit Trish’s website
Follow Trish on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn
Schedule a Complimentary Conversation with Trish
Susan, your host, welcomes Geri Reid Suster to today’s episode. Geri has 30 years of experience in business and management, specializing in acquisitions and creating operational excellence. This experience was gained by starting in an entry-level position at a directory publishing company and working her way up to Chief Operating Officer in the same field during a period of great consolidation in the industry. Known for building an outstanding work culture, Geri now consults with business owners seeking to do the same.
Personally, Geri has been living a nomad lifestyle since 2017, first in a 33' RV named Wallace and more recently, in a self-converted Sprinter Van dubbed Wufgang. She is the proud mom of two adult sons and spends much of her time in the Pacific Northwest among the trees. Geri is the author of Graceful Exits: Making the Case for Getting Good at Goodbye, where she explores a variety of exits, both personal and professional, from her own life and others to reveal what methods fail us and what methods allow us to flourish.
Key Takeaways:
- Geri shares her grief story by speaking about the loss of her parents, one sudden and the other anticipated.
- Geri talks about how to increase your chances of having a graceful exit.
- When accompanying a grieving person, you really just need to open up and hold space for his/her suffering.
- You can lead and show up however you want, but you can’t control what others do.
- To protect the last precious moments of someone’s life, boundaries need to be set with some family members. This is a beautiful way of honoring the person that is leaving.
- Geri dives deep into the concept of boundary-setting.
- You don’t have to enact “Performative grief.”
- How do you show up to a widow? Don’t ask them how they are doing (that’s an impossible question, if they are having a good day, they feel guilty about it, and if they have a bad day, they might not want to go through that) Try: “I am thinking about you”, “I have this memory that I wanted to share with you.”
- Ask yourself, “What would he/she tell?” when you need that special someone who is no longer there with you.
- You can do whatever you want, as long as it is authentic and comes from the right reasons.
- Remember: Grief is personal, and no one grieves the same way. There are resources, you don’t have to do it alone. There is so much beauty in going through the experience of passing from living to dying.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Geri Reid Suster
Graceful Exits: Making the Case for Getting Good at Goodbye
Visit Graceful Life
Follow Geri on Instagram
Email Geri at geri@gracefullife.com
Susan, your host, welcomes Michelle Ann Collins to today’s episode. Michelle is the founder of Inhabit Joy, where she partners with individuals who have suffered grief, injury, or other types of loss as they recover, reclaim their wholeness, and build resilience for life’s inevitable challenges.
After a series of losses, including the death of her mother, her husband’s suicide, and continued estrangements from primary family members, Michelle combined the tools she had collected as a yoga therapist and wellness coach and studies in positive psychology, neuroscience, meditation and mindfulness, and spirituality to turn post-traumatic stress disorder into post-traumatic growth and resilience. With the addition of a certification in grief education and several bestselling books in which she shares her story, Michelle is helping others transform from barely surviving to joyful thriving.
Key Takeaways:
- Michelle shares her grief story when the love of her life died by suicide.
- Losing someone to suicide is a completely different grief.
- Guilt is involved in every death, even more in one that resulted from suicide.
- Thinking “If only” gives you absolutely nothing, you can’t change what happened.
- Suffering happens in the space between where you are and where you want to be.
- Demystifying through the obituary, starting to talk openly about suicide.
- There are parts of society that believe that suicide is a sin.
- Change the term “committed” suicide to died by suicide.
- Let’s talk about death more, we need to be better educated about it.
- Let go of the why.
- Michelle talks about her books and her mission as a Joy Spreader.
- Train for grief so that when you are faced with it, you will be ready.
- Michelle advises: You don’t have to do everything all at once. Take care of yourself, and be your best friend. Get help!
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Michelle Ann Collins
Visit Inhabit Joy
Surviving Spouse or Partner Suicide Loss: A Mindful Guide for Your Journey Through Grief, by Michelle Ann Collins
Supporting a Survivor of Spouse or Partner Suicide Loss: A Mindful Guide for Co-journeying Through Grief, by Michelle Ann Collins
Susan, your host, welcomes Kevin O’Connor to today’s episode. Kevin published Two Floors Above Grief in 2022; his prior writings include personal letters, dissertations, articles, and anthologies, and he provides training at universities and professional settings. Kevin resides in Fort Lauderdale with his husband, Leon, and their family includes five sons and seven granddaughters.
Key Takeaways:
- Kevin shares his grief story, which started when he lost his father.
- Kevin’s family worked as an undertaker at a funeral home, but that didn’t make it any easier to process his father’s death (even in some way might have made it harder).
- Kevin shares the last conversation he had with his father.
- People often have conversations with those who have passed.
- You figure out your life without the one you lost; it’s like losing a limb in an accident, you will never forget about it, and you will learn to live differently.
- There is always a choice (even when it feels there isn’t any).
- Kevin advises embracing each feeling and making space for the following.
- Kevin shares what motivated him to write Two Floors Above Grief.
- The value of communication today is certainly different from 50 years ago.
- Life and death go on simultaneously.
- Share your stories, there are treasures in them; you don’t have to be an author to transmit them.
- Remember that sometimes what seems like the end is also a beginning.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet
Two Floors Above Grief: A Memoir of Two Families in the Unique Place We Called Home, by Kevin O’Connor
Visit Kevin’s Website
Check Kevin’s more recent newsletter
Marv Weidner lives in the beautiful, mountainous Gunnison Valley of Western Colorado and volunteers with Living Journeys, a local not-for-profit organization providing services and support to cancer patients and their families and caregivers. He is a proud father and grandfather to his and Marty’s children.
Marv’s book, When the Rocks Sing, places the voice of a man who lost his beloved wife to cancer side-by-side with the perspective of the grief counselor who walked the road of rebuilding and resiliency with him. It addresses a variety of topics, such as harnessing resiliency, facing grief head-on, embracing loss as an integral part of life, staying present in the midst of trauma, listening in healthy ways, reaffirming or discovering a new sense of purpose, and much more.
Key Takeaways:
- Marv shares his grief story that began when he lost his beloved wife.
- Susan and Marv talk about how much they took advantage of the time they had with their partners before they passed away, their relationships got deeper and more intimate as a result of sharing this final stage of life on Earth.
- Ask yourself: Who do you want to be when you get to the other side of grief?
- Resilience: The ability to come back after a hard strike from life.
- Marv’s purpose in life is to live with an open heart.
- Marv allows the feelings of sadness to show since he realized that when he tries to suppress the emotion, this sadness stayed longer with him.
- Remember, you always have a choice (even when it doesn’t look like it).
- Marv realized he needed to get back into the world, he decided to travel, and he called this trip his “Resiliency Tour.”
- Our loved ones are part of us at a cellular level, which is why it is not uncommon to feel pain at a physical level when we lose those we love the most.
- Marv talks about his book: When Rocks Sing.
- Marv wishes that grieving people can benefit from his story, feeling that they are not alone and receiving a different way of thinking about resiliency as a main aspect of grieving.
- Prepare your Grievers toolbox, including as many things that make you feel better and propel you forward in any possible way (even if it is small).
- Believe in yourself! You can repurpose and redefine your life.
- Marv realizes he became a better human being after being loved by his wife and also as a result of grieving her.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Marv Weidner
You can find When the Rocks Sing at Ballast Books and Barnes and Noble
Susan, your host, is joined by Barbara Kenyon in today’s episode. Barbara knows what it is like to be widowed twice. The first time was after nine years of marriage when her firstborn child was only two months old, Barbara’s beautiful husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and he died eight weeks later. Barbara’s world came crashing down. She had to face the fact that her new life together with her husband and her son would never come to be, Through counseling and with the support of family, friends, and other widows, Barbara learned how to navigate the enormous challenges of widowhood, she learned how to take really good care of herself, she gained great clarity about what she wanted for her life, ultimately she courageously took the leap into dating again, and five years later she married Allan Kenyon, who at that time was the love of her life. For the following 30 years, with a solid background and counseling and coaching, Barbara had been helping widows, and widowers find joy and purpose in their lives. Suddenly and unexpectedly, her sweet Allan passed away in July, and Barbara was widowed once more. This time, she faced widowhood with the experience and maturity she didn’t have the first time. In today’s episode, Barbara shares some of her best tips for navigating widowhood and living your best life and references the motivational book Barbara and Allan wrote together, Fire Up Your Life Now: 25 Secrets for Creating the Life You Really Want.
Key Takeaways:
- Susan shares an important message for listeners.
- Barbara shares her grief story.
- Dating as a widow is fundamentally different from dating at another moment.
- Barbara talks about how common it is for widows to place their spouses who passed on a high pedestal; if they don’t accept them as they were, grieving and dating again will be tougher.
- Step 1 when you are dating, proceed with caution with any divorced man, make sure he has found peace with that relationship.
- Three aspects can shift your dating energy: Be authentically you, know what you are open to, and ask for what you need.
- Barbara tells the story of how she met Allan.
- Susan talks about her dating experience and how she recently met someone special.
- Barbara describes the seven-step process for widows to start dating again and find what they want.
- Barbara talks about the biggest challenges that widows and widowers have entering the dating world.
- It takes perseverance to find the right person.
- Don’t settle for anything; if you sense something is wrong, listen to your intuition. The little things now become the big ones later.
- When a relationship is right, it is easy!
- Barbara shares the reason why she is dedicated to helping widows and widowers date again.
- Barbara emphasizes the importance of focusing on the present moment.
- You grieve the way you live.
- Trust your gut and remember you can become the best version of yourself.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Barabara Kenyon
Fire Up Your Life Now: 25 Secrets for Creating the Life You Really Want, by Allan and Barbara Kenyon
After Widowhood: The Secret to Finding True Love Again, by Barbara Kenyon
Widows Dating Coach
Susan, your host, is joined by Kara Bowman in today’s episode. Kara is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has advanced certifications in Grief Counseling, Trauma Therapy, and Thanatology, which is the study of death and dying. She also volunteers with Hospice of Santa Cruz County and trains others to work with those in grief. She has written a book called Heartbreak to Hope: Poems of Support for Grief and Loss.
Key Takeaways:
- Kara shares her grief story.
- We need to honor each loss differently.
- We live in a culture that encourages people to hide negative emotions and overvalues positive feelings.
- People don’t like to see us grieving.
- Kara shares a short poem she wrote:
Love
Take good care of your precious pain
Wrap your strong arms around it
hold it against your warm chest
Rock it gently, telling it softly that it is loved,
it is needed, it is important,
it makes perfect sense,
and love it, just as it is, in all of its agonizing beauty.
- Intensity creates posttraumatic growth.
- Grief never goes away, it just shifts shapes.
- Kara talks about her role as a counselor.
- Susan lost her father when she was a child, and grief was never addressed.
- Kara talks about how developmental trauma unfolds.
- You can ask a grieving person: What is it like for you right now?
- Kara talks about her inspiration to write her book of poems.
Your Life
What are you going to do with your house?
Now that the foundation has crumbled
Are you going to let it decay while time and weather carry it toward the grave?
or are you going to rebuild more magnificently a palace that wouldn't have been possible without the footprint of the one that came before?
- There is nothing wrong about grieving, nothing to fix; it is another aspect of love. Just sit there with grief.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Kara Bowman
Hope: Poems of Support for Grief and Loss, Kara Bowman.
Grief Poetry griefpoetry.com
Learn more about Kara
Susan, your host, welcomes Sarah Miller to today’s episode. Sarah is a Royal Air Force veteran, turned Physical Therapist Assistant, turned Well-being Coach. She is currently in the process of setting up her own business, specifically coaching people who have unexpectedly lost a loved one and have been part of a traumatic experience. With a fierce passion, she states that her mission is to help people transform alongside adversity.
Through her own experience and interaction with many others in support groups, Sarah has seen first-hand the devastating effect adversity has on a person’s way of being, including their health. Whether during the initial crisis or many years beyond, she has repeatedly heard stories from people 10, 20, and 30 years beyond their adversity who continue to live in the shadow of their heart-breaking circumstances. This motivated Sarah to help them through their grief journey.
Key Takeaways:
- Sarah shares her grief story that began when her daughter drowned.
- One day you wake up living your everyday life and end your day in a nightmare, we really don’t know what comes next, there is no balance or “justice” that is granted.
- Making peace with your grief is the only effective way to move forward.
- Sarah shares how it was to live with self-blame and guilt.
- Sarah highlights the value of recognizing suffering and accepting that vulnerability is part of the human experience.
- Grief redefines your identity.
- Sarah talks about how her coaching role developed and became what it is today.
- Grief impacts all your body systems. It is so easy to neglect yourself when you are grieving.
- Stop and ask yourself: What do I need right now?
- Follow four criteria to give feedback: Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it necessary? (and the fourth: is it kind?)
- Being authentic with yourself is the first step to honoring your needs and accepting your grieving and all the feelings involved in the process.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are, by Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell
Meet Sarah Miller
Well Shine Coaching
Susan, your host, is accompanied by Francine Ivey in today’s episode. Francine’s heart and mission are to inspire and encourage the church, to bring those far from God into a passionate walk with Him, and to show the world through her testimony that Jesus is real and has a purpose and plan for each life. She desires for people to know that we can live beyond our circumstances, withstand the storms that come our way, and conquer the giants that taunt us! Many struggle with questions like, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” And “How can a loving God allow so much pain?” Francine tackles these questions while using her own heartbreak in a real and down-to-earth conversation.
Key Takeaways:
- Francine shares her grief story that started on what looked like a really good day.
- Everything changed after receiving the notice that her husband was dead. Time split for her into before and after that moment in time.
- There is a belief system about God favoring good people, which is why people always wonder why bad things happen to good people.
- “Why” and ‘“What ifs” are questions that stayed on repeat in Francine’s mind.
- As a religious person, it was odd for Francine to respond to grief as she did.
- Reframe your “What ifs” into positive possibilities for the future: “What if I am going to be OK on the other side of this?” “What if I find my purpose and was able to go out and help people?”
- Francine and her children dislike the idea of “moving on” and prefer better “What now?” Finding a new purpose doesn’t mean forgetting her husband and the father of her children.
- Susan shares how she resented God since she and her husband had built a lovely family. They have worked for it and were so grateful for it; it was just not fair for Paul to die when he did.
- Francine talks about her frustration seeing everyone living normally when her whole life was torn apart.
- Francine talks about her work helping people on their grief journeys.
- Francine shares a special moment where she realized there was no way to replace her husband, that God was the one that had sent him to her life, and His love was always there.
- Many people will feel uncomfortable with your grief but remember: It is OK not to feel OK.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Francine Ivey
Visit Consumed by the Call
Follow Francine on Facebook
Susan, your host, welcomes Jen Thomas, Intuitive Business Coach, and Healer, to today’s episode.
Jen is a leader and advocate of working with emotions in business. She was invited to give her TEDx talk, “Putting Emotion Back in Business,” inspiring others to lead with love, kindness, and compassion. Jen is an intuitive coach and spiritual mentor who helps business owners to access their inner wisdom by working with their emotions to clear blocks and create crystal-clear strategies for success.
After receiving guidance in 2019 to take her business online, Jen took the leap of faith required and tripled her business in 2020.
Key Takeaways:
- Jen shares her grief story.
- Jen experienced a whole level of grief she did not know existed.
- Grieving her father gave Jen a different perspective on herself as a person, how she valued her self-worth, and who she truly was (and even her place in the world).
- No one prepares us for grief.
- When we are ready, going through grief can be an enlightening experience.
- Susan shares the darkest part of her grief and the beginning of her healing once she imposed on herself the task of writing a gratitude journal (that only made her angrier when she started).
- Jen confesses she wasn’t expecting to grieve all over again years later.
- Jen talks about the healing power of nature and how it helps us to be more present.
- Jen’s core value in her business and world is love.
- Susan and Jen discuss the recurrent question: “What is the purpose?”
- Jen advises practicing conscious breathing, being in your body, and feeling that breath of life.
- Connect with nature, stay outside, and slow down; nature will find you.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Jen Thomas
Work with Jen: Free group for soul-led business people on Facebook, Instagram.
Nature's Wisdom: The Story of the River & the Rock on Never Giving Up, by Jen Thomas
Listen to Jen’s TEDx Talk: “Putting Emotions Back in Business”
Ruth is the mother of the late Dan Markel, a noted law professor who was murdered in Tallahassee, Florida, in 2014.
Ruth is the author of The Unveiling: A Mother’s Reflection on Murder, Grief, and Trial Life, where she describes her experiences since the day of Dan’s death from several distinct perspectives.
As a devastated mother with the unique human perspective of becoming a homicide survivor and victim. As a woman whose attempts to achieve normalcy and live a healthy life are continually interrupted by painful reminders, a rollercoaster of hearings, frequently changing trial dates, verdicts, and appeals. As an engaged citizen, using what she has learned to help other victims of homicide and violent crimes recover from trauma and begin an optimistic outlook on life. As an insider who shows how our collective network of family, friends, and experts — including a murder coach — have helped her family remain involved, motivated, and hopeful. As a grandmother who had not been allowed to see her grandchildren in many years, she used advocacy to inspire the Florida State Legislature to pass a grandparent visitation bill. And as an experienced author of nine books using the written word to address the shift from grief to promise effectively.
Key Takeaways:
- Ruth shares her grief story.
- Ruth explains the concept of the Unveiling that finds its roots in Jewish tradition.
- Ruth talks about their grief experience, one that is never going to end.
- Susan talks about the “sneaky pockets of grief.”
- Ruth talks about the characteristics of going through complicated grief.
- Ruth speaks of her book The Unveiling: A Mother's Reflection on Murder, Grief, and Trial Life.
- Ruth talks about the motive for her son’s murder.
- Ruth talks about her suffering as a grandmother who wasn’t allowed to see her grandchildren.
- You have to pay attention to the gifts you receive in life.
- Ruth shares how she advocated for grandparents’ visitation right and reached “The Markel Act.”
- Ruth advises those who have lost someone due to a traumatic death: What is going on in your inner mind has to be edited sometimes.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Ruth Markel
The murder of Dan Markel has attracted a great deal of media coverage — 20/20 and Dateline have covered the story and Wondery’s podcast on the case Over My Dead Body, had over 10 million downloads.
Susan, your host, is joined by Dean McMurray in today’s episode. Dean — “The Military Medium” — is an internationally acclaimed psychic, medium, healer, dowser, and ordained minister. His story, so powerful and so authentic, is unlike any other psychic medium out there, and it’s why people from all across the globe are drawn to him for readings and personal Guidance.
Dean spent most of his childhood in northern Minnesota; he developed a deep love for nature and his country. That love of country inspired him to enlist and serve 24 years in the United States Armed Forces. Dean’s service brought him overseas on several occasions, the last of
which awakened his psychic abilities and set him on a new path in life, a new mission with new marching orders.
After returning from his last overseas tour, Dean’s deceased grandmother paid him a visit. She had a message for him: you are a medium, Dean, and it’s time to get to work. There were no words. No sound. But the message was as clear as any he’d ever heard. It came straight from his grandmother’s immortal heart to his own.
Dean retired from the Army and enlisted in a new service — he devoted his life to developing these newfound psychic abilities in service to others. Today, Dean conducts readings for clients
throughout the world, teaches mediumship classes, presents at regional symposiums, conferences, and workshops, and is currently working on his first book.
Key Takeaways:
- Dean talks about his story.
- Dean shares how he found out he was a medium.
- “How can I serve today?” this is how Dean describes his mission.
- Dean knew his father was dying one year before he passed away.
- Dean explains why he believes we are all vessels.
- Dean thought there was no way he would be a full-time psychic medium.
- Dean talks about grieving his identity as a soldier.
- Dean shares what most people who passed away want their loved ones to know.
- Dean insists everyone can be a medium.
- Dean wants everyone to remember: Love never dies.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Dean McMurray
Visit The Military Medium
Follow Dean on his YouTube Channel
Susan, your host, is joined by Marie Scott in today’s episode. Marie is the Creator and Founder of Happy and Healthy After Widowhood. After losing her beloved Dave of almost 30 years, and her mom the same year, she went back to school to learn more about the link between food and cancer. After becoming a certified health coach, Marie now coaches widows and widowers using her 7 Steps to Healing After Loss, a unique roadmap to finding a new purpose after a devastating loss. After her health transformation and getting off all meds, losing 20 pounds, reversing pre-diabetes, and through her life transformation of becoming an author of three published books, an international speaker, and a wellness coach, she has many testimonials and is now happily married again to the second great love of her life, Jeff.
Key Takeaways:
- Sugar feeds cancer.
- Marie talks about her loss and grief as well as remembers the wonderful times she got to spend with him.
- Everyone has the right to choose to die with dignity, to choose quality over quantity of life.
- Susan talks about how Paul didn’t want treatment and did it for everyone else.
- Marie shares how her husband worried about her having a life again.
- The first thing that goes missing with grief is laughter; once you reencounter your laughter, healing begins.
- When you do something for 30 days in a row, it becomes a habit.
- Writing a book is a labor of love! Marie shares how she wrote her first book.
- Marie shares how she met the second love of her life.
- Widows have an incredible amount of love left to give.
- Marie shares how she started a career as a coach.
- Marie talks about the 7 Steps of Healing.
- Marie talks about her next book named Cooking with a Side of Kleenex.
- “Find a sense of community” is Marie’s advice for anyone grieving.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Marie Scott
Happy and Healthy After Widowhood
Marie Scott Wellness
“7 Steps to Healing After Loss”
Susan, your host, welcomes Cat O’Brien to today’s episode. Cat is a 45-year-old single mum to a thirteen-year-old with additional needs. In November 2020, Cat’s partner Jon died suddenly and unexpectedly of a stroke. Cat struggled in her early grief and shrank back from both society and her usual life-loving self. After three months Cat returned to work, where she founded the Rail Industry Bereavement Support Group (UK) and began working with bereaved people on living with grief. Cat believes that as a society, we don’t talk about grief enough. She also believes in the power of sharing one’s personal story as a means to break down the barriers that prevent people from learning how to be a good ally to someone who is grieving.
Key Takeaways:
- Cat shares her grief story that began when her soul mate passed away.
- Cat remembers the moment she got to hold her beloved partner’s body after he passed away.
- Cat realized there was no getting back to normal.
- We are not OK with the fact that we are all going to die, and as a result, we don’t talk enough about grief.
- We don’t know the end of the stories we tell ourselves.
- Respecting other people’s grief is sometimes difficult since different people can have different grief stories and perspectives over the one who passed away.
- Cat suffered from the fact that she had no place in her partner’s family grief story.
- Cat talks about goal setting and gratitude.
- Susan and Cat talk about dating and sex while grieving.
- Grieving people need significant support; they can just go back to work three days after their life is turned upside down.
- Remember the power of storytelling that can work as an element of preparation for someone at any given time.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Cat O’Brien
Follow Cat on LinkedIn
Susan, your host, welcomes Natalie Olson to today’s episode. Natalie is a Life and Wellness Coach who focuses on the importance of daily routines, habits, and patterns and how they play a much bigger role in our lives than we think. She specializes in helping bereaved men and women establish a “new normal” after loss that includes balance, happiness, and healing.
Natalie tells us her story of how she tragically lost her best friend at a young age, how her coping impacted her life (both negatively and positively), and how she got to where she is today.
Natalie is the founder and owner of Waves of Change Coaching, and it is her mission to help those who feel trapped in their current season of life step into the life they truly desire. There is so much we cannot control in life, especially death, but by changing the focus to what can be controlled, like our daily thoughts and habits, we reclaim our personal power. It is never too late to change your habits, and change your life.
Key Takeaways:
- Natalie shares her grief story of when she lost her best friend.
- Natalie realized that after the loss of her friend she was falling into different unhealthy habits in order to escape her reality, she was not enjoying anything.
- Sometimes there are no right answers that will help your grief process.
- Coaching saved Natalie, she learned to identify her emotions and expand her toolkit in order to deal with her feelings in a better way.
- Helping others is a great way to help yourself during the darkest moments.
- Susan and Natalie talk about how to deal with holiday parties when grieving.
- Learn to ask for help.
- There is no pressure; no right and wrong for navigating grief.
- Death is completely out of our control, and losing control feels very scary and hopeless; remember you have the choice to do one thing today that helps you heal, and honor what your body and soul are telling you.
- It is OK to be selfish, especially when you are grieving.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Natalie Olson
Visit Waves of Change
Follow Natatlie on Instagram & TikTok
Email Natalie at natalie@wavesofchangecoach.com
Susan, your host, welcomes Wendy Lichtenthal to today’s episode. Wendy Lichtenthal, Ph.D., FT is the Director of the Bereavement Clinic and a clinical psychologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. After experiencing loss at an early age, Wendy found herself driven to address the suffering of grieving individuals. As a licensed clinical psychologist, her practice focuses on helping cancer patient helping cancer patients and their families cope with loss and adversity. Over the last two decades, Wendy’s federally-funded research has focused on understanding how bereaved individuals find, or struggle to find, meaning in their lives and their loss. This has led to the development of Meaning-Centered Grief Therapy (MCGT), a manualized therapy that aims to enhance bereaved individuals’ sense of meaning so that they can learn to co-exist with their grief. MCGT helps grievers recognize their ability to choose their attitude in the face of suffering, to choose how they construct narratives related to their loss, and to choose how they maintain a sense of connection to the person who died. It also assists them with finding their lighthouses in the sea of grief, that is, their “whys” for continuing on, despite their pain.
Key Takeaways:
- Wendy shares her grief story that began during her childhood being “superstitious” and having recurrent thoughts about death.
- Wendy learned to embrace that there is no control over whether you lose someone.
- Things are happening to us all the time, we have the ability to be the narrator of the story and to find the meaning we want these events to have for us.
- No answer will satisfy the question: “Why did this happen to me?” or “What could have I done to prevent it?”
- Find your reasons to move forward.
- You don’t need to ask permission to lean on to your story, you own your narrative.
- You can grieve in your own way, it needs to be meaningful to you.
- Susan talks about how grief changed who she was.
- Ask yourself: Who am I now? What matters to me? What did this loss mean to you at this moment? Who was this person to you?
- Wendy talks about how she helps people who are grieving by assisting them in finding and making meaning in their lives using Meaning-Centered Grief Therapy.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Wendy Lichtenthal
Follow Wendy on LinkedIn
Susan, your host, is joined by Liza Spiridon in today’s episode. Liza Spiridon is an empathic numerologist, having studied Numerology for over 25 years. She has been using Numerology to help herself and her clients create ease, joy, and abundance even when life is not always a “high vibe.”
She also has a deep love for animals and worked in the veterinary field as a veterinary nurse (RVT) for over 10 years, specializing in canine rehab.
She continues to assist her clients by utilizing their strengths and talents. Through Numerology her clients have a deeper understanding of themselves as well as others. Numbers are not just in a person's chart, but in our businesses, home addresses, street names, and much more! Numbers are the window to our true essence!
Key Takeaways:
- Liza shares her most recent grief story when her mother was diagnosed with cancer.
- Liza didn’t have the time to really grieve as she needed.
- Liza shares how numerology works on a collective and personal level.
- Susan talks about how each year of her life had a sort of theme, a topic that kept appearing in different forms throughout the year.
- Liza analyzes Susan’s numbers.
- Susan remembers when her husband Paul, started to see the numbers 9-11 recurrently and felt it was a bad sign.
- Liza’s intention with numerology is to create ease.
- Grief stays with you, it just changes.
- Liza explains how numerology can help people with their grief.
- Liza shares the methodology of her practice as a Numerologist.
- Liza suggests you honor yourself and where you are at any given moment.
- You are not alone in your grief.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Liza Spiridon
Follow Liza on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Susan, your host, welcomes Kate J. Meyer to today’s episode. Kate is an author, a public speaker, a professional counselor, and an ordained minister. Kate is the author of The Red Couch, a novel just out in the summer of 2021 about missed expectations and seeing how the past doesn’t define but informs you. Kate’s book: Faith Doesn’t Erase Grief is a get-help-now manual on loss and grief at the intersections of faith and psychology, helping spiritual readers see loss more clearly. A fan of NaNoRiMo writing goals, she lives in western Michigan with her husband and two chocolate labs, Rocky and Duke.
Key Takeaways:
- Kate shares her grief story
- We never know when we are going to need to know about grief and how to navigate it.
- People need permission to grieve in their own particular way.
- Kate and Susan talk about how society imposes ridiculous time periods for grieving.
- Our grief experiments with different changes as life go on.
- Susan shares her experience this fall, being the first one alone after her husband died and now that her daughter went to college.
- In most situations in life avoiding pain is ok, but not with grief. While grieving, we have to walk through our pain to be able to release it.
- Susan confesses she was angry at God.
- We are allowed to question and express our anger.
- God created our emotions, He won’t be surprised by them.
- Things just are - we assign value to them.
- Grief is a whole being experience.
- Kate shares her inspiration and hopes in her book: Faith Doesn’t Erase Grief.
- Faith and grief can coexist; you can be angry at God and still keep your faith.
- Doubt is an essential part of faith.
- Kate shares her advice for those who feel they have lost their faith: Hope is a cushion, it doesn’t fix the problem, but it helps in sustaining and supporting us.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Kate J. Meyer
Find more about Kate on Instagram and Facebook
Visit katejmeyer.com
Faith Doesn't Erase Grief: Embracing the Experience and Finding Hope, Kate J. Meyer
Susan welcomes Nicola Mercer to today’s episode. Nicola is a transformational health coach, supporting women in business to transform their health into wealth by building confidence and self-worth using her successful framework of mindset, movement, nutrition, sleep, and stress. Her vision is to help normalize a healthy lifestyle for families, so kids grow up having healthy habits modeled to them, value themselves, and live with health and happiness.
Having been made redundant from the corporate world in 2021, Nicola made a big decision to pivot her career and enter the entrepreneurial world, launching Life Now Coaching. Nicola is a certified health coach and qualified personal trainer with over twenty years of expertise in one of the world's largest sports brands leading successful projects and teams. She combines her corporate leadership experience with her journey of living with mental and physical health challenges to support other women to build healthy, happy, and strong lives.
Nicola has learned through the power of moving her body daily and putting sustainable habits in place the positive difference this can make to how you feel, think, and live. She advocates that living a great life and achieving the success you desire results from how you take care of your mind, body, and soul.
Key Takeaways:
- Nicola shares her grief story.
- Waiting for someone to die is just horrible, losing that special someone also means that his or her suffering has finished.
- After someone who was suffering passes away, the first feeling is relief, and consequently comes immense suffering.
- PTSD is a common diagnosis for caregivers of terminal patients.
- Grief doesn’t go away, it becomes a part of who you are.
- Nicola talks about how to help someone grieving by sharing techniques and valuable advice.
- Susan shares how she focuses on the beautiful story that comes with her grief, it was the end of a loving relationship filled with great memories.
- Death is another stage of life, instead of funerals we should do a celebration of life.
- You can choose how to transit your grief, you can decide what is the possible healthiest way to process your loss.
- How do you want to feel at the end of your life? What would equal a happy life for you?
- So many of us live in the past or the future, forgetting our present moment.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, by Bronnie Ware
Meet Nicola Mercer
Follow Nicola on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Life Now Coaching
Find more about Nicola’s free challenge to build your self-worth and know why you should take care of yourself for a strong and healthy life.
Susan, your host, welcomes Gwenda Lambert to today’s episode. Long before becoming an Advanced Grief Recovery Method Specialist, Gwenda was drawn to helping people navigate loss. She had experienced 17 deaths by the time she was 21 as well as being the daughter of a Gerontology nurse.
Her greatest loss came in 2012, a loss of health. She experienced a Post Traumatic Stress diagnosis that completely sidelined her. She was unable to focus or hold a thought. She was unable to sleep or actually even feel safe enough to leave her home most days. Even in all the chaos, she knew she had to find out what was going on. Basically, all those traumas and emotional losses including deaths and loss of trust that were locked in a room burst out. While she is well versed in the death and dying part, grief and embracing all those messy emotions still needed work. She had tried many different modalities from Yoga and somatic work to talk therapy yet it wasn’t until she found the Grief Recovery Method, a simple, yet not easy, four-step process that allows you to get a lay of the land of your own emotional landscape, that she was able to embrace her incomplete relationships and trauma that held her back in ways she wasn’t aware of. Now she wants to share that emotional freedom with you.
Key Takeaways:
- Anger, loneliness, and confusion are all part of grief too.
- Gwenda talks about the brain after experiencing trauma.
- Grief not only comes from death.
- Laughing and crying are both expressions; if you are not comfortable around tears you need to ask yourself what is wrong with you with this emotion.
- Gwenda explains how she ended up with post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Everyone grieves differently.
- Self-care is never selfish.
- It is hard to be supportive sometimes, we need to learn how to support people.
- Allow yourself to feel how you feel because if you don’t, it will come out in an unexpected way.
- Grieving is not necessarily being strong but it is courageous and brave to do what you can each day.
- If you got through the first year after losing someone and you are still standing, prize yourself, it is not easy to grieve.
- Practice self-attention, pay attention to yourself, and learn to treat yourself with compassion and respect.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Gwenda Lambert
Learn more about Gwenda
Email Gwenda at gwenda@lifestartsnow.com
Today, Susan, your host, welcomes you to another episode of Tendrils of Grief Podcast. In this episode, she shares her thoughts about going through the upcoming holidays while grieving. You would say that holidays are tough enough when someone is grieving but unfortunately, there are a lot of pressures that add to the pain of grieving during this particular time of the year (parties, gifts, celebrations…). Susan shares the best tips she has compiled over the years of grief and podcasting.
Key Takeaways:
- Susan acknowledges the suffering of going through the holidays while grieving.
- Tip no. 1: Be clear about how you want your holiday experience to look and feel.
- Tip no. 2: Communicate your wishes to others. (They don’t know how you feel.)
-
Tip no. 3: Set limits when visiting.
-
Tip no. 4: Don't be afraid to say “No.”
-
Tip no. 5: Surround yourself with the right people.
- Tip no. 6: Make self-care a priority.
- Tip no. 7: Ask for help!
- Tip no. 8: Be kind to yourself! (This is the most important tip, and not only during holidays.)
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Susan welcomes Marie Scott to today’s episode. Marie is the Creator and Founder of Happy and Healthy After Widowhood. After losing her beloved Dave of almost 30 years, and her mom the same year, she went back to school to learn more about the link between food and cancer. After becoming a certified health coach, Marie now coaches widows and widowers using her 7 Steps to Healing After Loss, a unique roadmap to finding a new purpose after a devastating loss. After her health transformation and getting off all meds, losing 20 pounds, reversing pre-diabetes, and through her life transformation of becoming an author of three published books, an international speaker, and a wellness coach, she has many testimonials and is now happily married again to the second great love of her life.
Key Takeaways:
- Sugar feeds cancer.
- Marie talks about Dave and their amazing relationship.
- Dave didn’t want chemotherapy, he choose quality of life, not quantity.
- Marie talks about her life after losing Dave. He was concerned about Marie living her life after his death.
- Marie decided to become a life coach and learn more about nutrition.
- There is no guidebook for grief.
- Dating after 50 years old is hard.
- Marie talks about how food can become your medicine.
- Marie speaks of the 7 Steps to Healing After Loss.
- Who dates a widow and a widower needs to hold space for the spouse who passed away.
- Find a sense of community; you will need it to ease the path after loss.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Learn more about Magic Mind at https://www.magicmind.co/grief and take advantage of the special discount for The Tendrils of Grief’s listeners: GIREF20
.
Meet Marie Scott
Visit Marie’s website
Join Marie’s Facebook community
Connect with Marie on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube
Susan, your host, welcomes Page Park to today’s episode. Page has her own grief story; she helps people navigate grief through yoga, meditation, breath, and connection within themselves. At Tulsi Rose Yoga, she creates a space where clients can get in touch with their inner voice and listen to their bodies to tune in to personal needs, and desires. Teaching for 24 years as a classroom teacher, Page explored ways to reach students and studied yoga completing her registered yoga teacher 500-hour program, 95-hour registered children’s yoga teacher, and 100-hour yin training. In addition to teaching yoga and meditation, Page also writes poetry, about yoga, meditation, and how to connect with people.
Key Takeaways:
- Page shares her grief story.
- Grief also includes a “business part” that can bring anger and sadness and even resentment and frustration for having to deal with so much.
- Practicing meditation is an incredible help, even one minute makes wonders.
- Find grief interrupters.
- Self-care is not being selfish.
- Susan shares her passion for yin yoga.
- Page talks about grief yoga and its special features.
- Yoga and self-care practices are so important when you are grieving because they have the power to take you out of your head and into your body.
- Where do you store your pain in your body?
- When you move your body, you are moving the flow of energy through it.
- Soaking sunshine can be a great help to boost your mood.
- Ask yourself: What is it that I need right now? Learn to listen to your body.
- If you keep searching for answers, they will come to you.
- You are not alone! There are people out there who will understand how you feel.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Check Susan’s blog
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel van der Kolk M.D.
Meet Page Park
Tulsi Rose Yoga
Follow Tulsi Rose Yoga on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
Susan, your host, welcomes Geralyn Ritter to today’s episode. Geralyn is a recognized expert in healthcare policy and an executive vice president at Organon & Co., a new Fortune 500 healthcare company dedicated to the health of women. She was formerly senior vice president at Merck & Co., Inc., one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. She has spearheaded global government affairs and policy, led initiatives on corporate governance and corporate responsibility, created and launched a widely acclaimed half-billion-dollar philanthropic initiative to end preventable maternal deaths around the globe, and has served as President of the Merck Foundation. In 2020, on behalf of Merck, Geralyn accepted the Disability Employer of the Year award. She is now the author of a memoir about her recovery from the 2015 Amtrak derailment titled: Bone by Bone: A Memoir of Trauma and Healing.
Key Takeaways:
- Geralyn shares her story as a survivor of the 2015 Amtrak derailment.
- Geralyn talks about the confusion that took over her when she woke up after the derailment: “It seemed too unreal to be true.”
- Susan shares her thoughts about the day her life turned upside down; she remembers thinking: “This can’t be happening to me.”
- Geralyn talks about first feeling grateful for being alive and then, realizing how life-changing the derailment was going to be, she really started to crash.
- Geralyn couldn’t accept that somehow she deserved to survive.
- Geralyn came to the realization that she did have the right to grieve even though she had survived.
- Geralyn talks about the difficult task of accepting the lack of control.
- Keep your hope; you can’t control the time frame, remember that grieving has no schedule and that you will get better.
- Life has unlimited opportunities; you will find joy, and grief will be less searing.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Geralyn Ritter
Learn more about Geralyn
Bone by Bone: A Memoir of Trauma and Healing.
Susan, your host, welcomes Coleen Ellis to today’s episode. Coleen faced the death of her pet in 1998 and that moment changed her forever. It was the beginning of her vision of how to best meet the needs of pet parents in their desire to mourn, memorialize, and pay tribute to their beloved pets when they die. In 2003, the experience of the death of her dog, Mico, guided her in starting the nation’s first stand-alone pets-only funeral home, Pet Angel Memorial Center. In 2009, Coleen founded Two Hearts Pet Loss Center, to guide people who wish to provide meaningful pet death care services in their communities, as well as to be an educational resource in the pet grief discipline. In 2009, she received the first Death and Grief Studies Certification specializing in Pet Loss Companioning by Dr. Alan Wolfelt as well as releasing her first book, Pet Parents: A Journey Through Unconditional Love and Grief. Her second book co-authored with colleague Dr. Mary Gardner, Forever Friend, released in 2022. She is Certified in Thanatology and is a Certified Pet Loss Professional.
By 2014, Coleen was ready to take her vision to a new level. She was a co-founder of The Pet Loss Center and assisted the company in opening pet loss operations across the United States, with this operation being acquired by a national acquisition company in 2020.
Coleen is an internationally sought-after speaker on the topics of pet loss and grief. Through her delivery style, pet care professionals learn a variety of techniques immediately applicable to implement on how to companion families in their grief journey. Furthermore, her talks to pet parents give them the permission they need to not only grieve but mourn the loss of their beloved pet.
Key Takeaways:
- Coleen talks about how pets are considered family members for most of their owners and as a result, the grieving process is as profound and painful as it is when we lose a relative.
- Coleen advises people to choose wisely who they will be surrounded by when they are grieving, some people just don’t get it.
- Coleen talks about the anticipatory feeling of loss when a pet owner has to take the tough decision of ending their pet’s life.
- Coleen explains how hospice for pets works.
- Please remember to be kind to yourself.
- Wherever you are right now is exactly where you should be.
- Honor the journey you shared with your pet every day.
- Ask your pet for a sign.
- You are not losing your mind, allow yourself to receive the signs as you notice them.
- Every grieving process is different.
- Mourning is the active part of grieving; you have to do something with your grief and honor the time you spent with your pet.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet
Learn more about Coleen Ellis
Two Hearts Pet Loss Center,
Pet Parents: A Journey Through Unconditional Love and Grief, Coleen Ellis
Forever Friend, Coleen Ellis
Foreverfriend.pet
Susan, your host, welcomes Maria Verdeschi to today’s episode. She is an acclaimed Psychic Medium, Speaker, Best-Selling Author, Teacher, and Coach with clients all over the world. Her extraordinary ability to communicate with spirit began at the age of four while living on Long Island. Now with over a decade of experience, Maria is well known for her accuracy and delivery of evidential messages from departed loved ones. Her kindness and compassion are unmatched. She has a genuine interest in each client that provides for a relaxed and down-to-earth reading.
Maria is the host of the spiritual podcast Hello From The Other Side and is a co-host of the Blog Talk Radio show Reading The Signs. Her best-selling book There Is No Death, Only Life, with a foreword written by Celebrity Medium Thomas John, has provided support to readers while healing from grief, and she is a contributing author in the best-selling book The Last Breath.
Her successful coaching and mentorship program features classes on Mediumship, Connecting with Your Loved Ones in Spirit, Meditation, and Manifesting. In addition, she is a Master Reiki Practitioner proficient in Pranic Healing. Her ability to connect with teachers, students, clients, guides, and departed loved ones is nothing short of astonishing. Most important to Maria is that people understand the simple truth that, “there is no death — only life.”
Key Takeaways:
- Maria shares how she discovered she had psychic abilities at the age of four and decided to keep that to herself for a long time.
- Maria believes everyone can have a psychic ability to a certain degree.
- The more that you acknowledge the signs, the more they will come in.
- Our loved ones want us to know that they love us, they want us to save time and money and move forward and be happy.
- Can our deceased loved ones have an influence over our lives? Maria affirms they can.
- Maria explains how to tell the difference between a message from the other side and what we want to hear.
- Maria suggests stopping second-guessing yourself when you think you have received a message from the other side, quieting your logical mind.
- How can you prepare yourself to hear messages?
- Gratitude is a practice that will help you connect with your loved ones from the other side.
- Maria talks about the most common ways people receive messages from the other side.
- Maria gives advice on sharpening your senses to be able to connect with your loved one who passed away.
- If you think it is not happening to you, that you cannot receive any signs, stop and breathe, since your frustration brings your energy down, keep a higher vibration in order to hear the messages from the other side.
- When is the right time to visit a psychic medium and when isn’t?
- Maria talks about what someone can expect from seeing a psychic medium: Closure, comfort, clarity, and peace.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Maria Verdeschi
Visit Maria Verdeschi’s website
Follow Maria on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok
Susan, your host, welcomes a lifelong friend to today’s episode, Geri King. They met in high school and married men who were really good friends.
In this show, Geri shares her son’s struggles with depression and alcoholism, the hardships he needed to face, and how these all lead to his death. Geri openly talks about her grief, her pain, and her current work on her mental health.
Key Takeaways:
- Geri shares her journey after the death of her son.
- Geri knew that something was wrong with her son.
- Addiction got a hold of her son, he was in total denial of his problem with alcohol since he was a functional alcoholic.
- Geri’s son confessed to her that he didn’t want to “be here anymore.”
- Geri woke up the day her son died knowing something was terribly wrong.
- Geri shares her pain facing the indescribable feeling of losing a child.
- Geri invests her time in helping people be more aware of the signs of addictive behavior.
- Geri gives advice to people who know someone close to them who is struggling with depression and/or substance abuse: You are not alone; talk to someone you trust.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Susan, your host, welcomes Dean Lambert to today’s episode. Dean has worked with funeral professionals for nearly 30 years to help them connect and serve the families facing one of the most challenging moments of their lives: the loss of a loved one. As a father who has experienced the loss of a child, he knows firsthand the grief that clouds the vision needed to honor a well-lived life. Dean is leading The Love Always Project with a team of experienced subject matter experts and people committed to its purpose: encouraging people to think more positively and proactively about end-of-life issues and funeral prearrangement.
Key Takeaways:
- Dean shares his grief story that started when he lost his son seven years ago.
- Dean talks about funeral planning.
- Dean talks about the epidemic of veteran suicide, he explains how death looks to them as a way out of pain.
- Dean explains what anticipatory grief is about.
- Is anticipatory grief a blessing or a curse?
- PTSD is a common diagnosis among caregivers.
- There are ways to talk about dying without talking about death with someone with a terminal illness.
- While people are living is the time to talk about life and living, not at funerals.
- Dean talks about the Love Always Project and its mission.
- Dean encourages everyone to be consumers of information about something that is hard; death is difficult.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are, by Byron Katie
Meet Dean Lambert
The Love Always Project
Find The Love Always Project on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Susan, your host, welcomes Reid Peterson to today’s episode.
Reid, the founder of Grief Refuge, provides its community of users with a source of solace when they’re in pain and discomfort from grief. The app is a hub that fulfills grievers’ emotional needs. Support for people going through the grief journey is imperative for both the griever and their loved ones. When people are facing grief and go without support it ends up hurting more than it helps.
Grief Refuge content is created by Reid, MA. Reid achieved a Masters's Degree in Transpersonal Psychology (Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, 2007) and is certified in Death & Grief Studies by the Center for Loss & Life Transition. After losing his biological father to suicide in 2006 and his stepfather to cancer in 2016, Reid felt a calling to help the grieving find peace and purpose after loss.
Key Takeaways:
- Reid shares his own grief experience that started when his biological father committed suicide.
- Susan and Reid talk about the “gut feeling” both have about the death of their loved ones.
- Reid also lost his stepfather and he shares how he processed this loss.
- Reid talks about his sensitivity.
- Reid talks about The Grief Refuge, an app that provides daily grief support for people who have lost a loved one.
- Grief is not a mental health issue.
- No one prepares you for losing a loved one; someone has been taken away from you.
- There is no one way of grieving, everyone uses their own resources to navigate this difficult process.
- There is magic in the connection that grievers can have with each other.
- Suicidal ideation is unfortunately common among grievers.
- When you support someone who is grieving, what you say matters.
- Reid talks about purpose and how it can change in different moments in one person’s life.
- It is hard to keep your faith when grief is consuming your energy.
- Reid suggests grievers keep on looking for more resources to help them in their grieving process; don’t give up!
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Reid Peterson
The Grief Refuge app.
Susan welcomes Rev. Amirah Hall to today’s episode.
Rev. Amirah M.Msc. blends “sacred with spirituality” and has been on a four-decade journey of exploring secrets to manifesting and healing. She is a gifted clairvoyant, spirit medium, channel, and quantum healing pioneer. Amirah’s spiritual awakening was triggered after her father’s divorce, life-threatening autoimmune disease, and death, all within a six-month period. It was further amplified with a near-death experience while traveling in Egypt when her gifts of psychic vision, channeling, and mediumship opened up. Amirah has a reputation for being a world-class psychic, mystic, and mentor with the honor of working with an international client list including Dubai Royals. She’s the author of six books, including Manifesting Miracles 101, LOVE UP Your Life, and The Essential Guide To Spiritual Awakening.
Key Takeaways:
- Rev. Amirah talks about what she calls “living a life of grief.”
- Rev. Amirah received a terrible diagnosis, where no hope was given to her by doctors which forced her into a journey seeking alternative solutions.
- Rev Amirah realized something was missing in her life that triggered the beginning of her spiritual path.
- Rev Amirah wanted to understand grief from an energetic point of view.
- Susan and Rev. Amirah talked about their experiences accompanying loved ones about to pass away.
- Rev. Amirah shares her near-death experience in Egypt.
- Your emotions are the only ones you need to learn how to manage and master. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
- You can get comfortable with your dysfunction; awakening requires connecting with your emotions and learning to release them.
- Rev. Amirah talks about how she found her purpose in helping others but mainly in being in alignment with herself.
- Rev. Amirah provides tools for people to find their answers: First, learn how to ground and let go of what you are holding on to.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Rev. Amirah Hall
Visit Amirahhall.com
Follow Amirah on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
Susan, your host, is joined by her daughter, Madison, in today’s episode. It has almost been five years since they lost Paul, her dad and Susan’s husband. In the past years, Madison has gone through a lot of changes and she is sharing what it felt like going through this life-altering experience while finishing high school.
She will be attending The New School in New York City to study political science. From there, she plans to go to law school to get a degree in Criminal Justice, and ultimately she intends to run for Congress.
Key Takeaways:
- Madison talks about how her grief feels today.
- Madison explains what it means to her to be in an acceptance stage.
- Madison shares her most significant changes during her high school years.
- Madison speaks about how she felt conquering big milestones without her father.
- The hardest part for Madison has been not having her father by her side to celebrate with him her accomplishments.
- Madison is about to go to college, she shares her excitement and how much she wishes her dad was there to go through this significant stage with her.
- Madison lost some friends since the death of her father, but she is optimistic about the future.
- Humor helps with trauma. Madison found that joking about her grief was helpful.
- Madison shares what excites her the most about this next chapter of her life.
- As a result of Paul dying, Madison’s hometown turned out to be attached to sad moments that remind her of her pain; that is why going to college presents the possibility of beginning from a fresh start, meeting new people, and the opportunity to create memories that won't carry the weight of her grief.
- Madison shares her advice to anyone grieving: It gets worse before it gets better. It does get better and you will reach that point at some time.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Susan welcomes Sara Ottoboni to today’s episode. She is a psychic consultant and spiritual teacher.
As a medium, she helps alleviate your grief. During the intuitive consultation, she has an important goal: communicate with your loved one who passed away in order to resolve your grief and confusion, and instill in you a sense of the meaning behind death. Speaking to your loved one will help you move on with your lives and gain — above all — a sense of peace.
As a mom, wife, and podcaster she defines herself as a “citizen of the world.” She lived on two continents, in four countries, and in six cities. She speaks three languages: Italian, French, and English.
Key Takeaways:
- Sara shares what inspired her to dedicate her psychic consultation for grieving people.
- Sara explains how our loved ones who have passed are waiting for us to join them after life.
- Everyone can listen to the ones that are not with us anymore, it is a skill that anyone can develop. Belief, time, and effort are required to tap into this skill.
- Sara shares the most common messages from the ones who passed away: “Everything is OK”, “I am here with you.”
- Sara talks about the opportunity that is created during a consultation to say what was pendent to someone who passed away. This is very helpful to let go of the guilt.
- Sara talks to those who are very curious about a psychic consultation but are afraid they will receive bad news.
- Human beings think differently than people who passed away, they have another vibration and interests.
- Some people are hesitant about the seriousness of these kinds of consultations, but Susan talks about how the credibility with Sara was natural and immediate.
- You can choose what you don’t want to discuss in a consultation, you are in control all the time.
- Sara talks about a dream she had that she connected with Susan and her podcast, it might even be related to one person from the audience.
- Sara speaks about her motivation to contribute to people’s lives with her gift, she emphasizes that she cannot help everybody but her intentions are to assist those that she can. Do your research when looking for a psychic, since as in all fields, there are serious people and others who are not.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Sara Ottoboni
Learn more about Sara
Follow Sara on Instagram
Susan welcomes Francine Russo to today’s episode. She is the author of Love after 50 and They’re Your Parents, Too! Armed with a Ph.D. in English literature, she became a journalist focusing on psychology, relationships, and social trends. And she’s made her mark. Having cut her teeth at the late, lamented Village Voice, she’s gone on to write for virtually every publication from The Atlantic to The New York Times. She covered the Boomer beat at Time magazine for over a decade, and her cover stories have appeared in Parade, Scientific American, and New York Magazine. A dynamic and polished presenter, she is in great demand as a keynote speaker
Francine has two grown children, three adult stepchildren, and six amazing grandkids (with twins on the way!) She has experienced first-hand the tremendous potential we all have to grow and transform ourselves with the people we love. She lives in New York with her partner.
Key Takeaways:
- Francine talks about her book Love After 50 and the influence that being a widow twice had on it.
- Francine shares how she started dating before being ready.
- Francine tells how her second husband was a widower and because of that, they had a special connection.
- Losing your person to death is a different experience than divorcing someone.
- Francine talks about her online dating experience as a widow.
- Francine recommends not to take a late response to your messages as a rejection.
- Your mindset has an incredible influence on your ability to find someone.
- Meet the person and talk; if you want to keep talking with that person there is a potential relationship there.
- Francine talks about the insecurities implied in dating after 50 years old.
- Intimacy after 50 doesn’t necessarily mean intercourse (and for many women is actually better!).
- Trust, communication, and vulnerability are the main foundations of a relationship.
- Francine gives her suggestion for widows and widowers wanting to start online dating.
- You are much stronger than you think, take dating with perspective, be hopeful but also be realistic.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Francine Russo
Love After 50: How to Find It, Enjoy It, and Keep It, by Francine Russo
They're Your Parents, Too!: How Siblings Can Survive Their Parents’ Aging Without Driving Each Other Crazy, by Francine Russo
Follow Francine on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Susan, your host, welcomes Aleema Noormohamed to today’s episode. Aleema strongly believes in the healing power of the outdoors. She is a Neuro Linguistics Programming Master Practitioner, Trainer, Mindfulness Teacher, Edupreneur, and a Nemophile, dedicated to reactivating the human spirit’s connection to nature. She pushes us to go deep within ourselves and awaken our consciousness, making us realize that in everything we do, we have a choice. It is her belief that if we spend more time in the present moment, we can reclaim our power back from our subconscious and create a more conscious society. This is deeply intertwined with her belief that the heartbeat of nature and our own heartbeat are one and the same.
After the loss of her father in a tragic plane crash, Aleema discovered the potential and power of mindfulness practices. As she committed to these, she began to release the pain following this loss and began to live in wisdom. It gave her the opportunity to be completely present with her young daughter, and to begin her work as a life coach to teach, inspire and guide others to find their peace and freedom.
Key Takeaways:
- Aleema shares her grief story that started on the day her father died in a tragic plane crash.
- Aleema confesses that her gut feeling is the one guided through her grief.
- Aleema found peace and could start connecting with her present life and investing in the relationship with her daughter.
- Susan speaks about how she found mindfulness through gratitude.
- Susan and Aleena talk about the value of finding signs as a healing exercise you can do with yourself.
- Aleema shares how she coaches people to realize there’s always a choice; you can decide which story you tell to yourself about the situation you are in.
- Remember that you are grieving because you loved someone.
- Grieving can be seen as a growth opportunity, as the chance of becoming a brave person.
- You are grieving in your own unique way.
- Talking about your grief is a way to break through the shame.
- Choose the tools that work for you; grief is not the same for everyone.
- Aleema encourages grievers to allow themselves to feel whatever they are feeling, and let them out.
- Be patient, give yourself time and stillness to find clarity.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Aleema Noormohamed
Learn more about D.T.E. Consultancy on Linkedin
Susan, your host, welcomes Radiance Mack to today’s episode. Radiance Mack, 26, is the daughter of Sandi and Sherman Mack. She has four siblings: Steven, De’Angela, Danieka, Sherman Jr., De’Angela, and Steven. A current third-year law student and is pursuing her MBA degree. Since her mother's passing, she assists her father in the daily operations of her mother's foundation, SmacKares. The focus is to assist homeless women and children on the journey to a better life.
Key Takeaways:
- Radiance shares how she found out her mother was sick and what unfolded afterward.
- Radiance talks about how she and her family supported her mother during her illness as well as she shares the efforts they made to take care of their health in the process.
- Radiance talks about the foundation they initiated to honor her mother’s wish.
- Radiance highlights that everything is done through SmacKares comes from her mom.
- Radiance talks about what she believed motivated people to follow her Instagram account and support her cause.
- Radiance speaks to the people who are supporting someone grieving and also to people experiencing grief themselves: Be kind to yourself and others, people really don’t understand what you are going through.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Radiance Mack
You can visit the SmacKares website at www.smackares.com where you can find out more about Sandi Mack and donate to her cause.
Follow Radiance on Instagram
Susan, your host, welcomes G. Scott Graham to today’s episode. He is an author, a career coach, and a business coach in Boston, Massachusetts.
Scott is driven to help clients follow their “true azimuth,” which is different from “true north.” It means coaching clients to identify the true focus of their life — something that speaks individually to them. It means recognizing the forces that push our lives off course and adjusting to them so you get where you want to go. It means that when you are 90 years old and look back on your life you have a sense of pride, accomplishment, and meaning — with no regrets.
Scott shares today his words of wisdom and his grief story, which began when his husband died in a horrific car accident.
Key Takeaways:
- Scott shares his grief story which began right at the start of COVID-19 when he lost his husband in a terrible car accident.
- Empathy and compassion are needed to accompany someone who is grieving.
- When adversity strikes, the loss is felt intensively again.
- People who are grieving don’t pass it but instead, persevere in the face of adversity.
- Scott shares how he got to the point where he can be grateful for the grief he has.
- Susan shares the power of connecting and telling your story.
- Scott speaks about why is important for people who love a grieving person to ask about how they are doing with their grief.
- Listen and honor yourself by honoring your grief.
- Scott talks about his book about meditation and how it can give you a break from your grief.
- Scott talks about a meditation practice that allows you to become aware of your sensations non-judgmentally.
- Practice love and kindness to yourself and the world.
- Grief is chaotic but meditation can bring peace and relief.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Scott Graham
Learn more about Scott
True Azimuth Coaching
Check Scott’s books
Scott can also be found at GoodBooks
Learn about Scott on Medium
Follow Scott on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter
Come as you are: Meditation and Grief, by Scott Graham
Check out Sharon Salzberg’s meditations
Susan, your host, welcomes Jenny Lisk to today’s episode. Jenny is a widowed parent of two grieving kids. After interviewing over 100 experts on the topic of widowed parenting for the Widowed Parent Podcast, she learned that there are some key principles and tips about parenting grieving kids that newly widowed parents probably don’t know about.
Jenny is the author of an award-winning book named Future Widow (which has endorsements from many prominent children’s grief experts). Her family’s story is told as a memoir where she has explicitly worked in themes about parenting grieving kids. This amazing book is about more than children’s grief, it’s about rebuilding a life after loss.
Key Takeaways:
- Jenny shares her grief story.
- Susan and Jenny talk about that day that changes life forever, and how that moment gave them the perspective and intention to be present and try to enjoy every moment.
- Jenny talks about the moment she decided she was going to help other parents with grieving children (while she and her children were dealing with the tsunami of pain that grief imposed on them).
- Jenny found that she could host a podcast and be the one who asks questions to the experts, representing other grieving people who transited similar journeys to hers.
- Jenny speaks about how walking is a meditative activity for her.
- Jenny talks about the roles of instrumental and intuitive grievers.
- Jenny talks about her book Future Widow.
- Jenny shares her struggle figuring out how to end the book.
- Sometimes two opposite things can be true, you don’t have to reconcile them.
- Jenny talks to grieving parents: It is important to be honest with kids, especially about difficult topics, it nurtures a strong bond of trust between the child and the surviving parent.
- If you are supporting a grieving parent, keep in mind that you cannot solve the underlying problem, but you can contribute to their everyday life, help them with meals or drive their kids to school; it will show them you care.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Grieving Beyond Gender: Understanding the Ways Men and Women Mourn, by Kenneth J. Doka and Terry L. Martin
Meet Jenny Lisk
Learn more about Jenny
Future Widow
The Widowed Parent Podcast
Susan, your host, welcomes Sherrie Barch to today’s episode. Sherry is the CEO of two Forbes-ranked top executive search firms and a leadership consulting company.
Sherrie is married with three sons. As a mom, she describes herself as a part-time pancreas for her two youngest sons who were both diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes within the same year. Playing this role for the last 12 years, she is relentlessly creating open and honest communication with her family and friends about this chronic and life-threatening condition.
Sherrie’s passion for storytelling was a strong motivation for her to publish her preteen children’s book Heaven’s Bell. One of her goals for Heaven’s Bell is to create and inspire a safe space for families to have serious and sometimes “heavy” conversations about death and dying in a natural and productive way.
Key Takeaways:
- Sherrie shares the motivation behind her book Heaven’s Bell.
- Sherrie talks about the structure and message of the book.
- Peace and grief can be experienced together.
- Susan talks about what is necessary in order to process negative emotions.
- Children and adults grieve differently.
- Everyone grieves in their own way.
- Give permission to yourself to ask questions and create the space for others to start conversations about loved ones who passed away.
- Sherrie shares the pain of losing her father figure.
- Susan talks about how her daughter’s school failed her terribly when she was grieving the loss of her father.
- Sherrie speaks about remote goodbyes.
- Celebrating the memory of someone you lost is not always easy, be present, be curious, and hold space to just listen to what someone grieving is going through.
- Grieve and, when you can, try to recall the one (or ones) you lost in your happy memories together, try to lean into those stories and feel a different connection with them.
- Sherrie is publishing a Grief Journal for families to capture memories, you can find it at Ring to Remember.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Sherrie Barch
Email Sherrie at sherrie@heavensbell.com
Follow Sherrie on Facebook and Instagram
Learn more about Heaven’s Bell.
Susan welcomes Carol Fitzgerald to today’s episode. Carol is a vibrant, passionate, fun-loving, young-spirited woman. Through coaching, searching, group settings, and the death of her husband, she learned three very important life lessons late in the game. She has longevity in her family background and since learning these lessons, she wants to live life to its absolute fullest with no regrets and offers ideas in her sixth book Living a Vibrant Life At Any Age: Creating Love, Joy, & Connections in Everyday Moments, including shifting a mindset where everything is neutral and being okay when things don’t work out as planned.
Key Takeaways:
- Carol shares her grief story that began when she lost her husband who had battled with his health for over three years, which included going through 16 surgeries.
- Carol explains how she lost her husband before actually losing him.
- Carol shares how she struggled to take care of her husband’s business.
- Carol shares how she redefined herself after her husband and mother died.
- Carol expresses how happy and accomplished she felt when she first invested in gold and silver by herself, and a whole new learning curve in her life began.
- Carol shares how she got herself out of the deepest place of grief to figure out her life.
- Carol shares how much she needed some time away when her husband was ill and how her friends were amazing support in helping her have those moments for herself.
- Allow yourself to grieve in the way that is right for you.
- Carol talks about her book Living a Vibrant Life at Any Age.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Carol Fitzgerald
Follow Carol on her YouTube Channel
Check Carol’s books.
Susan, your host, welcomes a recurring guest to today’s episode, Allison Perkins. Allison lives in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband and two sons. She is a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP), currently working with children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders), and has also worked with adults in Skilled Nursing Facilities. Though professionally she is an SLP, she has always been passionate about writing. She has her own personal blog, HeartSoulStomach, which was created after her mother died in 2013. The blog began as a way for Allison to replicate her mom’s recipes and talk about the entire process, though it has evolved into more than just food — namely, her struggles (and victories) with Endometriosis, grieving her parents, and life, in general.
Key Takeaways:
- Allison shares how her grief about the loss of her parents was re-edited when her second son was born; grief has no due date.
- Allison shares how the death of her parents was “the elephant in the room.”
- Allison talks about the huge milestones of her grief journey.
- Allison realized one day that she no longer had a mom who could help her be a mom.
- “Sundays at Grandma’s” is a book that Allison and her family used to write every Sunday when the family got together. Allison had lost track of that book for four years and “miraculously” found it on Mother’s Day.
- Allison shares the precious moment when her 2-year-old son asked about his grandparents’ pictures that had always been exposed in the same area of the house, Allison realized she had never talked to her son about them, and the conversation turned out to be heartwarming and emotionally impacting.
- Allison expresses how much would she love to have her mom close to her to be part of their children’s childhood.
- Susan and Allison talk about how they wish their loved ones who passed were there to share the everyday struggles that were often underappreciated when they were alive.
- Allison talks about how she honors her mother and dad.
- Allison shares her learned lessons in her grief journey:
-
- Grief does not go away but how you approach it changes.
- Your feelings are always OK.
- It is OK to ask others for help.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Allison Perkins
Check Allison’s blog HeartSoulStomach
Susan, your host, welcomes Shirley Thiessen to today’s episode. Shirley states that grief is our common human experience, and yet, we live in a death-denying, grief-avoidant society. Most people don’t know what is helpful to say or do in support of someone who is grieving, often, it feels awkward.
Shirley was one of those people who felt uncertain about how to express empathy to people suffering a devastating loss. Then abruptly, grief ambushed Shirley’s family.
Twelve days after her son’s wedding, Shirley was thrown into the unimaginable task of planning his funeral. Grief threatened to destroy her. Hope and resiliency gradually emerged with the caring support of courageous friends.
Inspired by the kindness of others, Shirley wrote, The Little Black Funeral Dress – Five Things I Wish I Had Known About Grief to pay it forward.
Shirley and her husband, founded a non-profit grief ministry, CornerBend. Shirley coaches with simple concepts to fuel connection, build trust, and lend hope by expressing empathy to the bereaved. No one should grieve alone.
Key Takeaways:
- Shirley shares her grief story which began in 2012.
- There is a fog about grief that slowly lifts as the weeks and the months go by.
- Shirley speaks about how at the beginning she was fixated on everything she lost, that she couldn’t see anything positive. Sadness clouded everything.
- Your feelings are inevitable but how you respond to them can become a choice.
- When grieving, you need those people who you can be totally vulnerable with.
- Shirley shares how she wants to help build “hope heroes”; people who can express empathy and can be by the side of a grieving friend.
- There is no timeline for grieving.
- Shirley shares tips about how to show up for someone who is grieving.
- Shirley speaks about the course she gives to form hope heroes.
- Message to grievers: You can recycle your pain for good purpose.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Shirley Thiessen
Visit Shirley’s Website
Learn more about Corner Bend
Join Corner Bend on Facebook
Susan, your host, decided to receive a special guest for today’s episode, Avery Thatcher, who is the CEO and founder of the Inner Stillness Outer Chaos Podcast and the Flow State Membership. When she started her career as a Registered Nurse working in the ICU, she noticed that the majority of the reasons people found themselves in the ICU were because of illnesses and diseases that could be linked to chronic stress. She decided to get out of the reactive side of medicine and now helps highly sensitive high achievers prevent burnout and reverse the negative health effects of stress.
After experiencing a significant change in health in 2018, Avery had to learn to redefine her identity and grieve the loss of who she used to be. Now she shares her story openly to help others realize that they are not alone in their struggles and talk about the strategies that helped her heal along the way.
Key Takeaways:
- Avery shares how a health problem transformed her life and led her to grieve the life she used to have.
- Avery shares how she got to the point of releasing who she used to be and accepting who she had become.
- What do you no longer identify with?
- Your grieving path is unique; there is no normal way of grieving.
- Avery explains what “What if” affirmations are and how they help to hold space for yourself.
- Seeing emotions as information rather than positive or negative can be really impactful.
- Grief is the last form of love you can give to the person you lost.
- Avery shares the steps she took in her transformational process.
- Avery shares how the self-compassion script works.
- As a society, we reward high achievement but Avery redefines the concept.
- It is OK to voice your feelings.
- Slow down until you can hear your thoughts and the wisdom of your body and feelings.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Avery Thatcher
Visit Avery’s Website: Becoming Avery
Follow Avery on Instagram
Susan, your host, welcomes Veronica Bratcher to today’s episode. Veronica is a licensed mental health therapist and transformation coach, specializing in grief and trauma. She helps parents and professionals facing anxiety and mending broken hearts understand their own experience of loss so that they can find healing and deeper, fulfilling relationships with themselves and others in their life. She demystifies the healing process of bringing body and mind together through individual work as well as releasing an upcoming Grief support book titled Missing Pieces Matter set to be released on May 27, 2022. She also serves as a clinical director and treatment creator for an upcoming residential treatment program for teen girls with a personalized approach to addressing attachment, loss, and trauma.
In this episode, Veronica shares her grief story that started when her 15-year-old adoptive daughter was murdered. She openly talks about the shame, fear, and guilt as well as the strength that kept her seeking healing until one day after she decided to begin helping others in their grief journeys.
Key Takeaways:
- Veronica shares her grief story that began 10 years ago when her older daughter was found dead.
- Veronica shares how it has been to grieve her daughter after she was murdered.
- As an adoptive mom, Veronica felt the shame and guilt of failing to keep her daughter safe.
- Veronica realized through hypnotherapy that she felt stuck as a result of thinking she needed to be a perfect mom after her daughter was murdered.
- Veronica was not willing to lose anything else; her stubbornness kept her strong.
- Veronica reached a point when she needed to identify what was under her control for the sake of her mental health.
- Being vulnerable and open to the grieving process is crucial.
- Veronica shares how she moved from grieving to helping others in their grieving process.
- Feel your feelings, give yourself permission to feel.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Everything Is Here to Help You: A Loving Guide to Your Soul's Evolution, Matt Kahn
Missing Pieces Matter, by Veronica Bratcher
Meet Veronica Bratcher
Visit Veronica Bratcher’s website
Susan, your host, welcomes you to another episode of The Tendrils of Grief Podcast, this time she is accompanied by Yolanda Copes-Stepney who is a founder, development producer, anti-racism and EDI educator, and podcaster. After gaining her degree in journalism, she went on to become a PR, events, and digital content specialist working for national and global brands.
In 2016 she founded Speak&Do, representing influencers, talent, and speakers. Yolanda considers herself an anti-racism activist and mental health advocate who strives to break down barriers and passionately challenges the status quo in the quest for equality and equity.
Today, Yolanda shares her grief story that started after she lost her grandmother and best friend, someone she “could not possibly love any more.” Yolanda openly talks about a series of losses that changed her life completely and how she managed to allow herself to grieve and heal.
Key Takeaways:
- Yolanda shares her grief story that started in 2016 when her grandmother passed away.
- Yolanda shares the devastation she felt when she was gone.
- Nine people in Yolanda’s family died within 20 months; every time she was processing a loss, another one happened.
- Yolanda and Susan talk about the several losses resulting from someone you love passing away.
- Susan shares about her prayer journal and how she had to teach herself to be more specific with her requests since they tend to manifest exactly how she framed them.
- Everything happens and it’s up to us to find the meaning of it.
- Yolanda gained resilience as a consequence of all the work she did to heal and process all the losses in her family.
- Be aware of what you think and say, intentions are powerful.
- Life is going to keep moving whether you like it or not!
- Grief is like a scribble, messy and ugly, Yolanda shares an explanation of grief she once heard from a psychologist that exemplifies how grief is experienced.
- Many people think they are grieving incorrectly, but whatever you are doing is OK, don’t force yourself to grieve in a specific way.
-
When you are grieving, you lose friends but also gain others.
-
There will be a day when it is going to hurt a little bit less, and that will be a great day! Keep this in mind: You will feel better.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Yolanda Copes-Stepney
Follow Yolanda on Instagram and LinkedIn
Susan is accompanied by Kathryn E. Nuñez in today’s episode. Kathryn is the founder of The Social Selling Agency. She is a LinkedIn Marketing Expert and a Top Visibility Thought leader. She is an authority on sales and, has built a rapid-growing following of over 30,000 professionals.
Kathryn has a long grief story, that began when she was only 14 years old and is made of eight devastating losses. Kathryn learned to live and thrive while healing, and today she shares the tools that have helped her in this journey.
Key Takeaways:
- Kathryn shares her grief story made up of eight losses.
- The tools of mindset, meditation, journaling, self-love, and grace have kept Kathryn safe through her grief.
- Kathryn shares her words with people struggling with “Why me?” thoughts.
- Kathryn talks about how hypnosis has helped her in her healing process.
- Stop overdoing, healing often comes in quiet and restful moments.
- Pretending something didn’t happen doesn’t make it go away, numbness is not a solution.
- Kathryn shares how she embraced grace.
- The victim mentality doesn’t help anyone; life needs to be celebrated.
- Be ready to redefine yourself and meet a newer version of yourself after loss.
- Kathryn encourages everyone grieving to redefine their stories and change that narrative in order to allow themselves to experience joy.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Kathryn E. Nuñez
Learn more about Kathryn E. Nuñez
25 Myths to Avoid on LinkedIn
Email Kathryn@kathrynevans.net
Find Kathryn on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
Susan is accompanied to today’s episode by the award-winning coach and speaker, Jane Duncan Rogers who says “I was devastated when my husband died – this was not in our plans! My greatest fear had come true, my life had completely changed, I was on my own again at age 54, too young to be an old widow, but too old to be a young one. However, little did I know that three years on I would be publishing a book called Gifted By Grief. How could I be gifted by this terrible loss? And yet I was – and that has led me directly to what I do now”
Jane’s background of 25 years in the psychotherapeutic and training field has been perfect for the not-for-profit she now runs, Before I Go Solutions. Together with her team of trained End of Life Planning Facilitators, she offers products and programs to help people complete their end-of-life plans, something 90% say is essential. Still, only 14% actually do anything formal about it.
She lives in the north of Scotland, got married again in between lockdowns, and she and her new husband are building not only a new life but a new eco-house together.
Key Takeaways:
- Jane shares her grief story.
- Jane and her husband, diagnosed with terminal cancer, reached a point where they were grateful for the disease and the closeness in their relationship they achieved as a result.
- Jane describes how difficult, but also helpful, it was to answer a list of questions with her husband about certain decisions to be taken after his death.
- Jane shares how she found gifts in grieving which motivated her to write her book: Gifted by Grief: A True Story of Cancer, Loss, and Rebirth.
- Jane talks about end-of-life planning and what are the most important things people should know.
- Jane points out the importance of taking care of secrets in advance and making a conscious choice about how you want your loved ones to find out about them after you passed.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Jane Duncan Rogers
Jane Duncan Rogers on Facebook
Jane Duncan Rogers on LinkedIn
Before I Go Solutions on Facebook and Twitter
Gifted By Grief: A True Story of Cancer, Loss, and Rebirth, by Jane Duncan Rogers
Susan, your host, welcomes Michael J. Florio to today’s episode. Michael is an American independent comic book editor and writer working out of Biloxi, Mississippi. He graduated from Full Sail University with his bachelor’s and master’s in creative writing for entertainment. Currently, he works as a copy editor and writer for Inked Studios, a small crowdfunding think tank that helps comics creators, new and old, market their books. His work can be found in various independent comics such as Thirst, by Limitless Comics, The Killing Machine, by SHP Productions, and six issues of Shadows Daughter by Serious Sam Comics published by Markosia Publishing. Michael is releasing his first creator-owned comic series this year titled Wild Oni.
Today, Michael shares his very difficult upbringing and how he was impacted by the sudden death of his mother; their relationship was not ideal and that translates into a lot of guilt on his side.
Key Takeaways:
- Michael shares his grief story.
- Michael recently lost his mother; he shares the guilt he experiences now for not prioritizing the relationship with her in the past.
- Michael shares his feeling of anger toward the way his mother died, feeling that it could have been preventable.
- Michael talks about his creative talent and how he started to develop his gift.
- Michael wanted to give a voice to all of those who are not heard.
- Surviving was what dominated the most part of his childhood, now being safe is a new experience and he shares how he is learning not to love in survival mode anymore.
- Susan and Michael discuss trauma bonds.
- Michael suggests the audience to listen and stay open to opportunities; don’t settle!
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Michael J. Florio
Listen to Super Serious Comics
Inked Pub
Morgan Quaid
Silke Herwald is the Grief Specialist and inventor of the “Grief to Love” blueprint. Over the past 12 years, Silke has assisted hundreds of grieving clients online, in person, and with her “Grief To Love” courses.
Silke supports bereaved women and teaches grief counselors, Hypnotherapists, and Psychologists her groundbreaking “Grief To Love” blueprint. She is an international speaker and grief awareness advocate.
Silke understands the many misconceptions about grief and that there is a lot of unhelpful and even harmful grief advice. There is a lot more to grief than just five stages… Silke developed the unique and proven “Grief To Love” framework from her experience of supporting bereaved women and presented it at the 2019 AHA world conference to an international audience of Psychotherapists, Counselors, Psychologists, and Hypnotherapists.
Four years ago, Silke developed an even deeper understanding of grief when she lost her only sister to cancer and supported her parents and brother-in-law through that loss. After not having seen her parents due to COVID-19 travel restrictions for two years, Silke got the 4 a.m. phone call no one wants to get… To get on the flight nobody wants to be on. Only ten days after her therapy dog passed, Silke’s dad had suddenly died.
Silke truly knows what grief feels like and what bereaved siblings, parents, and widows go through. Silke has mastered the fine art of talking about grief in a deeply insightful yet lighthearted way.
Key Takeaways:
- Silke shares her grief story.
- Silke and Susan share their experience receiving unsolicited grief advice.
- No one has taught us how to grieve or support someone who is grieving.
- People tend to think that as long as they are grieving they still have that connection to their loved one who passed away.
- Silke explains why she is not a fan of the five stages of grief.
- Be prepared, because your circle of friends will change in big ways.
- People respond from their own experiences and their logical/rational minds, but the unconscious forces lying underneath need to be addressed in order to heal.
- Silke shares what makes her work with grievers different.
- Silke and Susan share how feeling shame for our thoughts and feelings only gets us stuck and disconnected from others.
- Give yourself permission to transit the messy road of grief.
- “Everything happens for a reason” is a statement that is simply not helpful, instead try: “Everything happens and it is up to you how you take it,” which encourages you to take an active role in your grieving journey.
- Silke shares her advice: Acknowledge every feeling, acknowledge the grief, because it is your heart that is broken, not your head, you can’t grieve with your logical mind.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Silke Herwald
Find out where you are in your grief journey by visiting “Grief To Love”.
Grief to Love on Instagram and Facebook
Susan, your host, welcomes you to another episode of The Tendrils of Grief Podcast. Today, she is accompanied by Jonathan Wess, CEO and Founder of TimeCapsule Family Connections, LLC, a company that is helping people everywhere to leave a legacy for their families after they’re gone. Jonathan founded the company in 2018. He graduated in Political Science, Entrepreneurship, and Human Resources from Canisius College, Class of 2021. He has more than 10 years of experience in business and management.
Jonathan is devoted to making sure that every story is heard, and every opinion is listened to. He wants to make sure that no child has to grow up without a parents’ advice or getting to see how much they have grown.
Key Takeaways:
- Jonathan shares his grief story that started when he was five years old and his father passed away.
- There is no “getting over grief,” it is just moving forward and learning how to live with it.
- Jonathan started his own business motivated by his wanting to learn more about his dad. His business is called TimeCapsule Family Connections and it is a legacy-building service that asks you questions for a more in-depth and truthful legacy.
- Susan tells about a video her husband made for her daughter, which they cherish and became a beautiful reminder of his love and wishes for her daughter.
- Jonathan intends to make TimeCapsule available for everyone, especially for those who have a certain diagnosis and want to start building a legacy for the ones they love.
- TimeCapsule offers a non-disclosure agreement to ensure the privacy of every video is secured.
- Susan and her husband wrote cards to their daughter for all the future milestones she will conquer after he passed away, so she would know that he thought of her and is accompanying her even when not at her side.
- TimeCapsule is a great gift to give.
- Jonathan recommends everyone ask themselves the questions: What will your verse be? Who do you want to become?
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Jonathan Wess
TimeCapsule — Your Story Deserves To Be Told! We help you bring it out and preserve your legacy. (timecapsulellc.com)
Susan, your host, welcomes Dr. Michele Pfannenstiel to today’s episode. Dr. Pfannenstiel is a veteran veterinarian turned business coach and food safety strategist. The products Michele has created have been transformative, generating millions of dollars in revenue for her clients in just a few years. Dr. Pfannenstiel is known in her industry for being an innovator, and she is on a mission to transform the lives of veterinarians across the country.
Dr. Michele Pfannenstiel is sharing today her grief story which includes her father and her soul pet. She explains how to evaluate if it is the right time to let your pet go, and speaks words of love and wisdom referring to the sadness and emptiness left when our beloved pets pass away.
Key Takeaways:
- Through the grief of our pets, we grieve other losses.
- Dr. Pfannenstiel shares the grief journey when she lost her soul pet three months after losing her father.
- Dr. Pfannenstiel tells how she always considers the grieving owners when she puts animals down.
- Dr. Pfannenstiel needed to grieve her dad and dog, and also share the grief of her community after a shooting in her hometown.
- Dr. Pfannenstiel shares a poem called Rainbow Bridge.
- Dr. Pfannenstiel talks about the controversial topic of euthanizing pets and how to evaluate the lifestyle of your pet when it is getting older.
- The hardest thing for Veterinarians is seeing people who wait too long to let their pets go.
- Dr. Pfannenstiel talks about the very difficult situation when owners don’t have the monetary resources to care for their pets.
- Dr. Pfannenstiel talks about memorial services for pets and a Pet Grief Hotline that was created in Michigan ten years ago.
- There are many ways to honor the human-animal bond; Dr. Pfannenstiel shares some of them.
- Learn to recognize the anticipatory grief you feel while you look at your elder pet.
- Do not shame or humiliate yourself for your grieving; listen to your body, and allow the sadness to happen. Leave space for the grief.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
“7 Things Your Deceased Pet Would Want Your to Know,” by Dina Fantegrossi
Pet Loss Hotlines
Meet Dr. Michele Pfannenstiel
Dirigo Food Safety
Marci Glidden Savage is the CEO of a family-owned packaging supply company. After experiencing the catastrophic impact of suicide twice, Marci emerges as a fierce proponent for eliminating the social stigma attached to mental illness which keeps many individuals battling depression and anxiety from seeking help.
Marci is the author of And No One Saw It Coming, a book that she wrote with the intention of bringing more awareness to suicide, its prevalence in the U.S.A., how it impacts families, and most of all with the purpose of opening the space for people suffering from mental illnesses to be able to ask and receive the help they need.
Key Takeaways:
- Marci describes her couple of horrific grief stories.
- Marci shares how she had a very open and intimate relationship with her husband, there was honesty except for a deep area inside of him that he couldn’t talk about or admit, as a result of the stigma around men and their mental health.
- Marci has her two parents alive and they couldn’t understand her grief.
- People ask a lot of questions, trying to make sense of what happened and intending to feel safe from a death like the one they are seeing, but in the process, they hurt the grieving by installing shame and guilt in them.
- Every grieving person just wants one more conversation.
- Marci met Michael and again fell in love but with a completely different man.
- Michael knew the pain that Marci and her family went through with grieving.
- Michael overdosed after leaving notes to every member of the family, this left everyone with the feeling that he knew exactly what he was about to do.
- Marci talked about her anger and the anger from everyone around her.
- After her second loss, Marci decided to write a book.
- Susan shares an experience in her community where a hate crime was committed and how it impacted her daughter.
- Marci talks about her book And No One Saw It Coming.
- If you are supporting someone grieving, remember there is nothing you can say, so be there, love them, and hold their hand in silence (it is better than saying something that could end up being hurtful).
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Marci Glidden Savage
You can connect with Marci and learn more about her memoir, And No One Saw It Coming, at marcisavage.com.
Christina Wooten is a Certified Psychic Medium who helps heart-centered women access the wisdom and support of the Spirit World to elevate their life. She enjoys teaching others to access their intuition and discover their own connection with the other side. She is also the host of Modern Life and Spirit Podcast where she shares topics such as intuitive living and integrating spiritual philosophy into everyday life.
Christina shares in today’s episode how we can all learn to ask, recognize, and read signs, and how to open our intuitive channels to listen to the messages that our loved ones who passed want us to receive.
Key Takeaways:
- Christina shares her grief story.
- Christina talks about her gift as a Psychic.
- Christina talks about her experience helping people connect with their loved ones on the other side.
- Susan shares how she can connect with Paul, her husband who passed away, through meditation.
- Christina shares tools for people to connect with their loved ones who are no longer alive, and also how not to block this channel of communication.
- What do spirits want to tell us? Mainly “I love you” and also “live your life according to your true values.”
- Christina explains how to recognize, read, and ask for signs.
- When you stop seeking validation, you open channels.
- Our loved ones who passed can’t fix our lives, but they can guide us and accompany us.
- Christina explains how she teaches people to listen in a new way and devote themselves to intentional connection.
- Say to yourself: “I am ready for this.”
- When you take a moment to reset and be mindful, you will start to open up to receive the messages from the Spirit world.
- Christina talks about “the full-body manifestation” Susan was hoping she received from her husband.
- The connection with the other side is possible for you, believe it! Continue to expand into new possibilities and ways to connect.
- We are spiritual beings having a physical experience.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Christina Wooten
SedonaMedium
Find Christina on Facebook and Instagram
Listen to Modern Life and Spirit Podcast
Reverend Mark Sowersby has been married to his wonderful wife Jennifer for 17 years and is the father of four children. Mark has been an ordained minister with Assembly of God for over 25 years and is currently the Pastor of Calvary Community Church in Dudley, MA. Pastor Mark holds a BA in theology from Zion Bible College/Northpoint Bible College.
In 2019, Pastor Mark went through a time of great healing. He began speaking about the experiences of his past and God’s grace and the transformational work of forgiveness in his life. He now speaks about his story through his ministry and book, Forgiving The Nightmare.
Reverend Mark shares his story of grief, a difficult one since he needed to heal, forgive, and grieve. Reverend Mark encourages everyone to be compassionate with their grief journey and remember that each individual grieves in a unique way.
Key Takeaways:
- Reverend Mark shares his grief story.
- Reverend Mark talks about the loss of her mother.
- What do you really lose when a loved one passes away?
- You can understand and forgive the ones who passed.
- Accept your loved one for who they were in order to heal and free yourself from pain.
- Grief is a part of being human, but don’t let it become your identity.
- No one can tell you how to grieve.
- Faith is super important in your grief journey.
- Welcome anyone that offers to pray for you!
- Two totally conflicted emotions can coexist: Hope and despair, love and hate, can all live in the same space.
- Reverend Mark talks about what motivated him to write his book Forgiving the Nightmare.
- No one can live a perfect life, but we can live a forgiving life and one with purpose.
- The honest answer to the question “How are you?” often is “I don’t know.”
- Grief is truel there is no right way of grieving but your own.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Reverend Mark Sowersby
Visit Reverend Mark’s website Forgiving The Nightmare
Forgiving the Nightmare, Mark Sowersby
Susan, your host, welcomes Sandy Weiner to today’s episode. Sandy Weiner, is the founder of Last First Date and The Woman of Value, she is an internationally known TEDx
speaker, dating and relationship coach, women’s empowerment coach, NLP certified coach, author, and podcast host. She believes a woman of value gets the respect she deserves in life and love.
Sandy is the author of Becoming a Woman of Value: How to Thrive in Life and Love. Her work has been published in Mind Body Green, The Huffington Post, Psychology Today, The Good Men Project, the Chicago Tribune, and more. She’s also the host of two podcasts, Last First Date Radio and The Woman of Value Podcast. Sandy believes it’s never too late to have the life and love you want!
In today’s episode, Sandy talks to widows and widowers, giving great advice about dating, explaining how and when to date, and also when it is OK not to date.
Key Takeaways:
- Sandy shares how she started helping people approach dating after/during grieving.
- When is the right time to start dating after losing your loved one?
- How does a widow or a widower communicate to a new partner that space needs to be created to honor the late spouse?
- You can love more than one person at the same time.
- How we talk about what happens to us is how people perceive it.
- Be open to something new happening to you.
- It is OK to be vulnerable and tell the person you are dating how awkward and hard it feels to be dating again.
- Susan and Sandy talk about how to explain to children the fact that their parents are dating again.
- What happens when someone is ready to date but does not know how?
- Online dating: Sandy explains how to approach it and stay safe in the process.
- Stay away from trauma bonds.
- Dating can be an opportunity to redefine yourself.
- Dating is also an opportunity to grow and evolve.
- Sandy shares her “morning pages” journaling activity as a way of practicing self-care.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron
Meet Sandy Weiner
Visit Last First Date
Follow Sandy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube
Email Sandy at sandy@lastfirstdate.com
Susan, your host, is accompanied by Shannon MacFarlane to today’s episode. Shannon is a compassionate human and grief enthusiast who creates art around big emotions (and teaches self-professed non-artists how to do the same). She started her first photography business in 2009 and decided in 2013 that end-of-life and medical stories were the ones that called to her, so she did what people told her she couldn't and became a grief photographer and memorial artist.
Today, Shannon shares her grief story that started when her pregnancy was at serious risk and she had to face a circumstance she wished she never had to confront. Shannon decided she will help others in their grief journeys by providing them with healing memories contained in photographs.
Key Takeaways:
- Shannon shares her grief story.
- Shannon faced the disappointment of meeting people that could not support her.
- Shannon shares how she became a grief photographer and memorial artist.
- People can be really judgemental when they get uncomfortable, but the truth is that nobody knows how they would react if they were in a particular situation until they are actually in it.
- Shannon shares how she helps people explore their feelings.
- Shannon finds her motivation to keep going in knowing that there are people who feel unsupported and unseen, giving them her time, tools, and accompanying them in their grieving journeys.
- Shannon talks about her company: Slobbered Lens
- Shannon shares the power of pictures to help process difficult times.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Shannon MacFarlane
Join Shannon on Facebook
Visit Slobbered Lens
Permission to Feel: 60 Prompts to Creatively Explore Your Grief
Susan, your host, is accompanied by Sherrie Dunlevy to today’s episode. Former NBC News Anchor Sherrie Dunlevy served the Wheeling, WV area for nearly 30 years, both on television and radio. Today, she is a best-selling author, inspirational speaker, and the Founder of the Graduating Grief Academy and online support community, host of the Graduating Grief podcast and is also an Aging Awesomely Coach.
Her Number one best-selling book How Can I Help?: Your Go-to Guide For Helping Loved Ones Through Life's Difficulties was written to help people know exactly what to say and do when the people they love and care about are hurting. As a self-proclaimed #Inspirationista, Sherrie's passion lies in inspiring and encouraging women to step beyond the pain of their past, so they can step fully into living with purpose, passion, and JOY.
Key Takeaways:
- Sherrie shares her grief story.
- Sherrie shares how she dealt with the grief of her younger son while also struggling to still be present for her older son.
- Sherrie went from living her life in black and white to living in color again, not just surviving but thriving.
- Sherrie and Susan talk about the myths around grieving.
- Grief is a sneaky monster but is one that won’t kill you.
- You can let your story define you, or you can let it refine you.
- You have to take action; your grief can’t be fixed and you can’t be rescued from it.
- Susan shares her experience starting a Gratitude Journal.
- Focus on the years of joy you had with your lost one and really reach gratitude for those wonderful moments you got the chance to live.
- Don’t take what you have for granted, there are other people wanting what you have and what you are dismissing.
- Sherrie talks about her book How Can I Help?: Your Go-to Guide For Helping Loved Ones Through Life's Difficulties
- People often don’t know what to do with others’ pain and suffering.
- Sherrie talks about how she started interviewing people who have gone through the worst things in life and asked about what their friends and families did that was most helpful and not so helpful.
- Just be there for someone who is grieving.
- Sherrie advises grieving people to connect with the intention behind the words coming from the people trying to help you; if the intention comes with love, just stay with that intention and not necessarily with the content of their message.
- Sherrie shares her message to grieving people: You will be OK if you choose it, so choose it!
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Sherrie Dunlevy
Reach out to Sherrie on Linktree
Reach out to Sherrie on LinkedIn
Visit Sherrie Dunlevy’s website
Graduating Grief Academy
Take the Quiz to find at which point of your grieving journey you are.
Susan, your host, welcomes Peg Conway to today’s episode. Peg writes and practices healing touch therapy in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she also volunteers at The Children’s Grief Center. Her essays about early mother loss and long-term grieving have appeared at The Manifestation, The Cincinnati Enquirer, and The Mighty. After earning a Master’s in Journalism and working in Corporate Communications, she became a certified Childbirth Educator and Doula.
Peg is the author of The Art of Reassembly: A Memoir of Early Mother Loss and Aftergrief a memoir about early mother loss.
Key Takeaways:
- Peg shares her grief journey.
- Children grieve in different ways; their emotions can manifest through behaviors.
- Children’s grief reoccurs in different stages of their life.
- Peg talks about the steps that she took in the process of reassembling herself.
- Susan shares the most challenging parts of her own grief journey.
- It can be confusing but during grief the clashing of emotions is real; you can host two conflicting feelings at the same time.
- People get uncomfortable in front of a grieving person; some just don’t know what to say and others simply tend to be avoidant.
- As human beings with have the gift of renewal, we can reassemble ourselves in many aspects.
- Peg talks about Energy Healing and the benefits of being grounded and present in our bodies.
- Grief takes as long as it takes, it is a long and non-linear road.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Peg Conway
Visit Peg’s Website
Follow Peg on Facebook and Instagram
The Art of Reassembly: A Memoir of Early Mother Loss and Aftergrief, by Peg Conway
Susan is accompanied to today’s episode by Alyse Oram. Alyse’s grief journey started in 2016 with the loss of a childhood friend, then her younger brother six months later. While processing her loss, she became aware of the limited resources available to sibling loss specifically and the discomfort she witnessed from others when discussing the topic. Alyse and her family created a local summer camp scholarship fund in honor of her late brother as a way of creating positivity from tragedy. While not an expert, Alyse hopes that by sharing her story of loss and grief, she can provide hope and support to others in similar situations. Alyse is in the development of her own podcast: Alyse Makes It Awkward, where she discusses uncomfortable topics with her own personal spin. Alyse Makes It Awkward will premiere in early 2022. Alyse lives in Maine with her boyfriend and their fur babies, Stella and Harlow.
Key Takeaways:
- Alyse shares her grief story.
- There is no right way to grief, whatever is a way to cope with your grief and loss it’s OK.
- Surround yourself with the people who matter.
- Time numbs the pain a little bit.
- Alyse shares how grateful she was for spending the last days with her brother who passed away, even though a series of negative personal experiences took her there.
- People who are about to die somewhat know it.
- Alyse talks about how, along with her family, they started a summer camp scholarship fund in honor of her late brother, Nick.
- Find the way to honor the person you lost.
- If you want to feel better try doing something for someone else.
- Alyse shares her advice to people who are grieving: Be gentle with yourself, give yourself time.
Resources:
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Alyse Oram
The Nicholas Daniel Oram Scholarship on Facebook
NDO Scholarship on Instagram
Listen to Alyse Makes It Awkward Podcast
Laah Wallace is a writer and dreamer, a recovering social worker turned mushroom farmer and business consultant. Her personal and professional lives have been steeped in grief, each loss cumulative and heavy and left her floating and untethered after the loss of both parents and a sibling. As with the dynamism of loss and life, the grief waxes and wanes but is ever-present, now a welcome reminder of the collection of loves gained and loves transformed and the longing for a reconnection.
Laah is wildly passionate about earth offerings as a way to connect to our ancestors, our families, and each other. Childhood in a small, company town made an indelible splodge on the unfolding of her life, often peppered with periods of protest, hibernation, and nomadism. Her affair with the rise and lull of words began early, most assuredly bolstered by the condition of aphantasia--the inability to voluntarily make mental images. She enjoys turns of phrase, the blues, and lives for a gripping mystery.
Key Takeaways:
- Laah shares her grief story.
- In society we tend to praise people that hide their emotions, considering them as “strong”.
- Usually, people don’t know how to be empathetic with a grieving person.
- Laah and Susan talk about how different people grieve in different ways.
- Fear of mortality is often the cause for people denying the suffering involved in grieving.
- Death is inevitable but yet we don’t teach people how to do it.
- Engage in relationships where grief and pain are topics of discussion.
- Groups are a great place to open up and hear yourself talking about your suffering, it has profound healing power.
- Don’t compare yourself to another person grieving, each grieving journey is different.
- It is important to exercise our own self-control around other people’s grief because it can come when we are not ready. We need to create our internal and external boundaries and hold our own boundaries. We need to be stable if we are going to support someone in his or her grieving journey.
- What is grief policing? Disagreeing about how someone is processing and experiencing grief.
- There is no normal in grieving, you can grieve in any way that feels good to you.
- We tend to idealize the “moving on” while grief always stays with us and becomes a part of who we are, there is no way of moving on from it.
- Grief is cumulative, each death sums up to the one that came before.
- Grieving can create an identity crisis, where you can doubt where your place in the world really is.
- Laah talks about mushroom micro and macro dosage and how it is revolutionizing the world of mental health. Experimenting with mushrooms and psychedelics can help to let go and let in, to connect, and to open the doors to spirituality.
- Lash recommends grieving people to be courageous and let their hearts break open and seek connection. Feel it, embrace it! Grief prepares us for our own deaths.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Laah Wallace
Connect with Laah on Linkedin
Email Laah at laahwallace@gmail.com
Michele Benyo is a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist®, parent mentor, and founder of Good Grief Parenting, whose purpose is to support parents who are raising young bereaved siblings after child loss. Her mission is to be a voice for the youngest of grievers and to help parents nurture and understand the unique needs of children who have lost a sibling in early childhood.
When Michele’s six-year-old son died of cancer, her daughter said, "Mommy, half of me is gone." She was just 3 1/2 years old. Even though Michele was teaching early childhood parenting classes and had a Master's in early childhood education, she didn’t know how best to help her daughter. This inspired her to become the support she had needed most during that time so that parents like her wouldn’t have to go it alone.
Michele has spent more than 20 years learning all she can about early childhood sibling loss, its lifelong impact on the surviving sibling, and how parents can help their bereaved child grow up whole and happy. Michele equips parents with tools to help their family heal after child loss, foster hope, and build resilience.
Key Takeaways:
- Michele shares her personal grief story.
- Michele talks about how she grieved a loved one and parented a child, all at the same time.
- Self-care is a priority, don’t deny your own heartache and grief. Allow your children to see your grief.
- Our instinct as parents is to protect our children from pain, only to then realize that we cannot do it, but we can teach them how to walk through it. Foster conversations with your children about their feelings and to walk towards hope.
- Two conflicting emotions can live in the same space: Despair and hope, anger and love.
- We don’t teach people about grief, that’s the reason why many people do not know what to do with a grieving person, they simply don’t have the tools.
- As a griever, you get to advocate for the fact that your reality as a family is different.
- Michele shares what Good Grief Parenting is about.
- Grief is a series of continuing bonds towards healing.
- People can also show up for grieving loved ones in beautiful ways.
- What are your own beliefs about grief? Lean towards the healthier ways to deal with grief.
- You can’t have the perfect answer, just show up and care, ask: “Do you need something? Is there anything I could do for you right now?”, give them a hug, and talk about the big elephant in the room: someone they love is no longer here.
- Michele shares tips to approach a child who is grieving: Use the words “died” and “death” when talking about the lost one. Ask them if they want to talk about them and share your feelings with them.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Michele Benyo
Get your free copy of the Good Grief Guide at Good Grief Parenting
Follow Michele Benyo on Linkedin
Susan welcomes Elizabeth Kipp to today’s episode. Elizabeth is a Chronic Pain Specialist, Yoga-Informed Addiction Recovery Coach, Ancestral Clearing® Practitioner, Yoga and Meditation Teacher, and international best-selling author of The Way Through Chronic Pain: Tools to Reclaim Your Healing Power. She focuses on helping people realize the power of their inherent healing.
Elizabeth healed from over 40 years of chronic pain, including anxiety, panic attacks, and 32 years of addiction to prescribed medication. She now works to help others achieve the same healing that she experienced directly from the work she teaches. In addition, Elizabeth offers one-on-one and group sessions on stress and chronic pain management and addiction recovery, Ancestral Clearing®, trauma-informed yoga, and meditation. Find out more about Elizabeth on her website.
Key Takeaways:
- Elizabeth shares her grief story which is linked to her history of chronic pain.
- Elizabeth shares valuable information about how chronic pain affects our population.
- Learn not to judge your experiences.
- Elizabeth suffered several losses and she had no place for closure until all those pending matters came back for her to properly process.
- Every time we think and talk about the people we lost, they are back with us.
- Who you are is the staff that can never be taken away from you.
- Elizabeth shares pieces that she wrote about her grief experience.
- Let grief pass through you, change, mold you, and prove how love is embedded in you.
- Not one grief is like another.
- Getting perspective is so important, detaching from the physical plane and connecting to the spiritual one gives a different point of view.
- Elizabeth explains why her approach to grief and chronic pain is unique.
- Elizabeth shares three takeaways around grief: - Grief is Love, - It takes time to readjust, and - In the end, grief is a profound exaltation of our capacity for love.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Conquer Chronic Pain: An Innovative Mind-Body Approach, Dr. Peter Przekop
Meet Elizabeth Kipp
Reach out to Elizabeth on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Susan, your host, welcomes Caroline Nadine Helsing to today’s episode. She is an alumna of The University of Hawaii. She currently lives in Newport Beach, California with her husband and their dog, Daisy.
Unapologetic: Tales of the Original Party Crasher is her debut book and is the heartfelt story of a daughter processing the loss of her mother while she examines and celebrates her mother’s story through clues and memories left behind, she weaves an entertaining account of a complicated, enigmatic woman who was equal parts, Holly Golightly, Auntie Mame, Mrs. Maisel, and dare we say, Moira Rose from Schitt's Creek. This funny and poignant memoir-biography follows the author’s mother through life from crashing parties and hobnobbing with celebrities in NYC, to the crashing waves of Hawaii, and back full circle to the city she loved. Including all of the characters she met in between and the lessons she taught her daughter along the way, the book is a portrait of a life lived truly and unapologetically.
Key Takeaways:
- Caroline shares her grief story.
- To relive your experiences with loved ones who passed is a way of celebrating their lives.
- Caroline talks about how she started to write Unapologetic and how she felt the company of her mother all the time she was writing.
- It is all about faith, and if you believe in something, then that is your truth.
- Find an interruption to your grief, having distractions often ease the grief journey.
- Asking for signs and being open to receiving them is a way of staying present and focused on your surroundings.
- Everyone grieves differently.
- It is ok to not be ok, really feeling the feelings you are experiencing is how you are going to heal.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Caroline Nadine Helsing
Before delving into writing, Caroline began her varied career path as an international model and actress. Her work took her from Europe to Asia and all throughout the United States, where she appeared on countless covers and in over 60 commercials. Before she turned 30, she founded an internationally renowned pet products manufacturing company. After selling the company in 2013, she parlayed what she learned in front of the camera to her work behind the lens. Her photography credits are varied. Caroline was chosen by leading philanthropic organizations such as Doc in a Box 360 and Ayuda International to document their medical missions through her photography while traveling to remote areas of Mexico, Peru, as well as deep within the Amazon jungle. She was chosen as the photographer for the Newport Beach Host Town Committee for the 2015 Special Olympics, working with athletes, press, and city officials. Caroline has photographed Newport Beach business leaders and local political figures for the 2016 and 2017 campaigns. She’s also worked as a freelance writer for the Orange County Register and the Newport Beach Independent. Caroline is an active member of the community and a former Rotarian with the Newport Beach Sunrise Rotary Club. Through her endeavors, she’s received the Volunteer Leadership Award for 2016. Other Honors include 2012 Orange County Business Journal's Women in Business Nomination 2011 Orange County Business Journal's Excellence in Entrepreneurship Nomination.
Unapologetic: Tales of the Original Party Crasher (If you are a Kindle Unlimited member you can read the entire book for free!)
Visit Caroline’s website at www.CarolineNadineHelsing.com
Follow Caroline Nadine Helsing on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok: @CarolineNadineHelsing
Amanda Farrat is the founder of Value Yourself Counseling, a certified emotional wellness counselor, Advanced EFT Practitioner, and professional speaker. Amanda has a prolonged history of education and experience in the mental health and wellness field and social services. She received her undergraduate degree in Family Science from Montana State University and later pursued a Master of Social Work. Amanda left the program to attend to her own needs after facing numerous difficult losses in a short span of time. Although her healing journey has not been easy, Amanda has gained the confidence and resilience to meet challenges head-on with compassion and curiosity. She uses her education, experience, skills, intuition, and passion to help other women make peace with their past, fall in love with their present, and get excited about their future.
Key Takeaways:
- Amanda shares her story of loss.
- Amanda went through a series of losses without having the proper time to grieve until her body said “no” and her health started to deteriorate.
- It is important to return to “life” after a loss but it is crucial to have a space of grace, peace, and forgiveness allowing people to have emotional and psychological safety for them to re-acclimate to the world.
- Pulling back from the world can be a reality when you are grieving.
- When grieving, doing something outside of yourself and for others can be liberating.
- Amanda shares how she learned to hold space for people who are grieving.
- Loss can become an opportunity to rebuild and reinvent.
- We are storytellers and when we have a loss our personal stories need to be rewritten.
- Have some grace and compassion with yourself, find your support system.
- Do nothing and let your higher power show you what you have to do next.
- Amanda teaches a quick trip when you feel tears coming out and you are somewhere when you don’t want to be seen crying.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Amanda Ferrat
Value Yourself Counseling
Follow Value Yourself Counseling on Instagram and join the Facebook group
Dr. Kevin J. Payne joins Susan in today's episode. He is a scientist, entrepreneur, and author. He's spent 15 years as a professor and a decade as a startup founder and consulting data scientist. He had the life he loved shredded by decades battling multiple sclerosis. When he lost everything he cared about, he decided to rebuild his life by facing the fear of his uncooperative body in the air and becoming a skydiver. 600 jumps later (and counting), he is at home in the sky.
Born from a decade of research, Your Life Lived Well is his labor of love: a book, a podcast, a curriculum of classes, organizational services, and technology — they all support those whose lives have been touched by chronic illness: diagnosed, loved ones and caregivers, and medical, health & wellness, professionals. There's no one answer to living well, but Dr. Payne is committed to showing you the practical tools you can use to build the life you want. We may be sick, but we can still live well.
Key Takeaways:
- Tragedy in life teaches you how to appreciate life more profoundly.
- Dr. Payne shares his experience on grief living with multiple sclerosis.
- Our grief is always unique and it is about a loss and that forces us to rewrite our stories and identities.
- Dr. Payne compares grief to free falling.
- Dr. Payne shares how he reinvented himself after losing his “tribe”.
- There is shame in a grieving person to recognize that at times they just want to die.
- Dr. Payne went back to sky diving, a real challenge that saved himself every time he jumped.
- Do what makes you feel alive.
- Dr. Payne carried his journey, shared it with others with the intention of easing theirs.
- Dr. Payne and Susan talk about the power of meditation.
- Show yourself some grace!
- You have to build a good and positive relationship with yourself.
- The identity we build is a big lie that we put over ourselves, we are not a unitary self!
- Dr. Payne shares tips to make a grieving person feel a little better.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Dr. Kevin J. Payne
Visit Your Life Lived Well and grab your free 100-page book preview, podcast links, webinars, and more.
Follow Dr. Payne on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Susan is joined in today’s episode by Carmen De La Russe who is a self-independent writer who decided to embrace her mother’s passing by writing poetry.
Carmen is 28 years young, one year ago her mother passed away from complications of COVID and she is still learning to cope with this huge loss day by day. Carmen decided to write away all her pain and published her very first poetry book Poesia en Los Labios which is dedicated to her dear mother, Aurora. This book contains poems about depression, anxiety, and love written in English and also in Spanish.
Key Takeaways:
- Carmen shares her loss story.
- Carmen’s gut feeling kept pointing her in the direction that something was going to happen.
- How do people who have lost someone due to COVID feel about vaccination?
- Signs are a survival mechanism, but how do you know when something is a sign?
- Carmen talks about unusual ways in which she receives heart signs.
- Carmen shares her inspiration to write her poetry book and how she got it published.
- How did the death of Carmen’s mother change her life?
- Grieving can turn you into a more compassionate person.
- Carmen shares a poem with the audience and suggests: Believe, have faith, ask for the sign you need and you will receive it!
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe, Laura Lynne Jackson
Meet Carmen De La Russe
Follow Carmen on her YouTube Channel
Susan welcomes you to a special New Year’s episode of Tendrils of Grief Podcast. This is a solo episode, where Susan shares the tools that can help you make it through each day at this particular time of the year. Remember that it is ok not to be ok, and in your grief journey, there will be good and bad days. Listen to this episode and learn how to interrupt that deep grief for a moment, focus on something different, and find moments of peace in your life.
Key Takeaways:
- How do you show the world you are grieving? Just because you pull yourself together from the outside. does not mean that internally you are fine, life goes on, even when you are grieving.
Grief is always there, waiting under the surface. Susan shares ways in which you can interrupt grief:
- Find a quick diversion (call a friend, stand under the sun for a few minutes, get a drink of water).
- Breathwork (long deep breaths; inhale to the count of four, hold your breath the same time and then exhale, repeat 5 consecutive times)
- Take a shower, listen to music, or a podcast.
- Create a mantra for yourself (“I am safe”, “I am going to be ok.”, “I am loved”)
- Spend time in nature.
- Start a gratitude journal.
- Acknowledge your emotions, give yourself permission to feel.
- Selfcare is crucial, do something that gives you joy.
- Refrain from negativity of any kind.
- Learn to set boundaries.
- Journaling is getting something out of your head and onto paper.
- Susan talks about her experience using a manifestation journal.
- “Rage on the page” followed by meditation practice.
- Prayer can be a form of meditation.
- Meditation is about being focused, present, and clearing space in your mind.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Susan welcomes Heather Dempsey to today’s episode. She is an emotional health coach and Mentor for life and business. Heather is a cat-loving foodie, personal development coach and self-care enthusiast who has helped hundreds of anxious and overwhelmed individuals and service-based entrepreneurs create radical emotional and mindset transformations so that they thrive. She supports her clients — from feeling hopeless, unhappy, and stressed, as if life would never going to be any different from what it has been — to actually feeling optimistic, like anything is possible, energized, and confident they are capable of having everything they desire as they've never experienced in their entire life or business before.
Key Takeaways:
- Heather talks about the loss of her brother and how grief was experienced in the family.
- Grief is also about losing something you were fond of.
- There can be shame in grieving.
- Grieving people do not want a consolation prize, please do not use the words ‘At least…”.
- Sometimes there is no fixing a situation and “fixing” sometimes might just mean feeling sad.
- Our emotions and feelings have to come through to be complete.
- Susan talks about how families sometimes mismanaged information.
- Show up for the people that you love.
- Heather explains how to turn guilt into gratefulness.
- Heather shares how she works with her clients about the concept of reinvention.
- Make meaning out of your loss.
- Heather shares a beautiful experience of the connection she has with her father that recently passed away.
- Heather suggests everyone struggling with grief to connect with their bodies, it can be as simple as taking a walk, starting with one humble step.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Heather Dempsey
Visit Heather’s website
Follow Heather on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
Learn more about Heather’s Course Live Without Limitations.
Susan welcomes Samantha Ruth to today’s episode. Samantha is a Psychologist, Speaker, Best Selling Author, and the Proud Founder of Griefhab: a 24/7 support community open to anyone who has experienced a loss. She helps people around the world turn their pain into their power by guiding them to be their true selves not who they think they need to be, by embracing their differences, and by living life on their own terms.
Samantha's mission is to change the way the world views both grief and mental health, so people can speak about whatever issues they have and get the help they not only need but deserve without fear of judgment, labels, and repercussions.
In her free time, you can find Samantha with her pups on one of their outdoor adventures. Music fuels Samantha's soul, family means everything to her, and honoring her late husband, Jim, and making him proud gives her life daily purpose.
Key Takeaways:
- Samantha shares her grief story.
- Trauma forced Samantha to take care of herself.
- Meeting new people became a huge help for Samantha because there was no expectation there.
- Samantha became more intentional and stopped seeing people that were not resonating with her anymore.
- Listen to your own intuition, despite everyone’s opinions.
- Your job is really to heal. Trust yourself.
- Find your tribe.
- Start doing whatever feels good to you, no reasons, no explanations, find your joy.
- Samantha shares how she managed her own grief while supporting other people who are grieving.
- It is ok to grieve and be uncomfortable.
- People who judge do not really understand the grieving that you are going through.
- Learn your strengths, weaknesses, and when to ask for help.
- Samantha shares a piece of advice: Get through this minute, this is your path, and remember one tool that you have with you always is breathing.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Samantha Ruth:
You can work with Samantha individually, in one of her exclusive groups, or you can have her speak at your event or organization. Contact Samantha to determine what's best for you at sam@samantharuth.com.
Visit Samantha’s Website
Connect with Samantha on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and on ClubHouse
Take part in Samantha’s Facebook Group
Listen to the To Be Ruthless Show
Katherine Barner is a Grief & Trauma Expert, Award-Winning Author, and Licensed Psychotherapist. Katherine specializes in equipping Black women survivors of childhood sexual abuse as well as individuals recovering from significant loss with the skills to pursue and achieve, mental, emotional, and spiritual health leading to more productive and peaceful lives. Her ultimate goal is for survivors to know they do not have to live in the shadows of abuse.
In today’s episode, Susan and Katherine talk about how every grieving person transits a unique path, how self-compassion and grace need to be practiced every day, granting space, understanding that it will take time to heal and that it is ok to just feel.
Key Takeaways:
- Katherine shares her grief story.
- People grieve in different ways.
- Grief is about loss, not only about death.
- Everyone grieves differently, it is not a linear process and depends directly on who died, how that person died, when it happened, and what the relationship with that person looked like.
- Give yourself grace while you are grieving, don’t compare yourself with other people’s grieving process.
- The fact that I am smiling doesn’t mean that I am ok or happy.
- Grieving is also finding how the new normal will look like, and letting yourself enjoy life even when you are still hurting.
- There are some days that you will miss the person you lost more than others.
- Susan and Katherine talk about bravery and courage to deal with grief, not really about being or getting stronger.
- Katherine shares the ministry of presence: sometimes someone grieving just needs you to be there, in silence.
- You are still living and have a life to live.
- You don’t have to feel bad about feeling bad!
- Not everyone can handle the weight of your grief and story, identify who can be there for you in this part of your journey.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Katherine Barner
Katherine is the founder of Sisters SpeakUp Society, a membership community for abuse survivors designed to provide inspiration, encouragement, support, and accountability for their journey toward healing and living the life they desire and deserve. Katherine earned her BA in Psychology from Spelman College, M.Ed. in Counseling from the University of North Texas. She is a certified ICISF crisis responder, Clinical Trauma Specialist, and trained EMDR practitioner. Katherine is the author of God Help Me, I’m Grieving: Finding Healing After Loss which won a 2018 Christian Literary Award, and is also a contributor to Today’s Purpose Woman magazine.
Katherine and her husband reside in Texas and are proud parents of 4 adult children.
Connect with Katherine on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Visit her Website
Maria Price accompanies Susan to today’s episode. Maria is a teacher, a wife, and a mom. She is also the author of Love You Still, a memoir that chronicles Julia’s unexpected stillbirth at term, and the beginnings of the grief journey, complete with depression, a crisis of faith, and an unplanned pregnancy that followed.
As Maria learns how to navigate life without her daughter and its impacts on her relationships and personal well-being, she has become passionate about breaking the silence surrounding infant and pregnancy loss. She tells her story and supports the telling of other parents’ stories of their own much-loved babies in support groups, social media, and in quiet, local coffee shops.
Love You Still is her debut book and memoir. Maria and her family make their home in Iowa.
Key Takeaways:
- Maria shares her story.
- People often misunderstand and underestimate the loss of an unborn son or daughter.
- Maria shares how she started writing her book Love You Still.
- Maria works with families that went through the loss of a child from an unexpected stillbirth.
- People who are grieving need to talk about their lost loved ones.
- Susan and Maria talk about the healing power of remembering.
- Maria talks about what was helpful for her during her grieving process.
- Maria talks about how her faith struggled after losing Julia.
- Maria talks about the unexpected pregnancy that came after Julia.
- Maria extends her advice to those who are grieving and also to those who are supporting someone who is grieving.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
A Thousand Names for Joy: How to Live in Harmony with the Way Things Are, Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell
Meet Maria Price
Follow Maria on Facebook and Instagram
Maria’s website is coming soon! www.MariaPriceAuthor.com
Love You Still is available on Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com and Bookshop.org
Heidi Dunstan is a certified grief educator and best-selling author. Her passion to help others, learn more about grief, and how to support others who are grieving came after losing her husband unexpectedly almost three years ago. Her experience with friends and loved ones saying the wrong thing or completely disappearing gave her first-hand knowledge that many people have never learned how to grieve which often leaves grievers to grieve in isolation.
Key Takeaways:
- Heidi shares her grieving story and how it led her to her current work.
- Susan shares the moment when her life was changed forever.
- Sometimes people just don’t know how to deal with their own grief.
- Loss and grief cannot be compared.
- You don’t need to know how somebody died, they are not coming back. You don’t want to put people through that trauma again.
- Some people will just leave you when you need them the most and some others will hold space for you.
- People have no idea of what you are going through.
- It is not just death that you are dealing with but the disruption of your entire life.
- Heidi highlights the difference between being a single parent and being a solo parent.
- You still love the person you lost, and that is why time is not always on your side.
- Choosing the people to surround yourself with is critical when you are grieving.
- Some friends will just sit there, witness, let you feel, and grieve the way you can.
- If you don’t know what to do for someone who is grieving, just ask, and offer only the things that you know you can deliver.
- Sharing stories not only brings memories back but for some people has healing power. Ask the person who is grieving how he or she feels about bringing memories of the lost loved one back.
- Heidi shares how to support someone who is grieving: love them where they are at.
- Heidi speaks about how to find comfort when you are grieving.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Heidi Dunstan
Visit Heidi’s website
Email Heidi at heidi@heididunstan.ca
Follow Heidi on Instagram and Facebook
Susan welcomes Ria Ray, who is an artist, a creator, and a spiritual teacher. Her life took a defining turn when she was in her late twenties and a horrible accident took the life of her immediate family. Her need to make sense of this tragedy propelled her to look within and try to make sense of the world and understand the meaning of life. Walking through her grief, she found a determination to embrace life and love, which at the time seemed rather irrational.
Ria is fully committed to continuing to push her own boundaries, past her internal limits, so she can feel and experience more of herself. Her drive strengthens her ability to serve the consciousness of humanity in the most expansive way possible and it is contagious to be uplifted by this energy. From workshops where she guides people to learn to be fearless and embrace uncertainty, she moves people to own the beacon that shines within, to bypass the judgment and pain on their road to discovery.
Key Takeaways:
- Ria shares how a terrible tragedy changed her life and became a defining moment.
- You don’t know how other people are going to react to death.
- Ria was sued by her own extended family.
- Ria met a powerful inner strength that she had no idea that she had.
- Ria talks about how grieving became a glue that brought together past trauma and her experiences in a dysfunctional family, and how she learned to see through all those layers to progress personally and emotionally.
- Ria talks about how she experienced survival guilt and kept on blaming herself for not being there.
- The tragedy awakened a missing part of Ria, and that missing part was her soul.
- Ria speaks about the first time her heart opened.
- Painting allowed Ria to free her soul.
- Ria found her purpose in giving, sharing, and helping, she didn’t want anyone to feel as desperate and lonely as she did.
- Little steps are the only way to heal.
- Ria explains how she teaches other people to accept their vulnerability and connect to their souls.
- Ria found that she could be anything that she wanted.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Ria Ray:
Learn more about Ria Ray
Susan welcomes Dr. Elizabeth Collins to today’s episode. She is the owner and director of The East West Company, an integrative wellness practice specializing in burnout recovery coaching, functional medicine, acupuncture, and more. She uses her combined backgrounds in both Eastern and biomedicines, along with her training in hypnosis to approach healing from a perspective that seeks to fully integrate the mind, body, and spirit. After experiencing and recovering from burnout, she made it her mission to help others identify their values, explore boundaries and bring a sense of balance to both their body and brain.
Key Takeaways:
- Dr. Elizabeth explains how she uses Tarot in her practice, shuffles the cards, and one is chosen for this episode.
- Dr. Elizabeth shares her grief and burnout stories which are very much intertwined.
- Grief is cumulative.
- Dr. Elizabeth shares how to process and feel Little G and Big G of grief.
- You can be grateful and disappointed at the same time, give yourself permission to feel your feelings.
- Take the word “but” out of your language and replace it with “and”.
- Boundaries and resentment are two huge parts of burnout recovery.
- In Chinese medicine, no emotions should go unprocessed: joy, worry, grief, fear, and anger.
- Journaling is a great way to start processing your emotions and elevate your mood.
- Nothing is off-limits, your experiences and feelings are ok.
- Susan talks about faith and hope.
- You can have faith in yourself or in anything you want (you don’t need anyone’s permission for it.)
- Dr. Elizabeth gives her advice: Do not forget the connection you have to yourself, to life, and sometimes even to grief, just breathe!
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Meet Dr. Elizabeth Collins:
Learn more about Dr. Elizabeth Collins
The East West Company
Follow Elizabeth on Instagram and Facebook
Elizabeth Collins is the owner and director of The East West Company, an integrative wellness practice specializing in burnout recovery coaching, functional medicine, acupuncture, and more. She uses her combined backgrounds in both Eastern and biomedicines, as well as her training in hypnosis, to approach healing from a perspective that seeks to fully integrate the mind, body, and spirit. After experiencing and recovering from burnout, she made it her mission to help others identify their values, explore their boundaries, and bring a sense of balance to both their body and brain. When she’s not working with clients, she’s voraciously consuming all forms of music, reading, sharpening her tarot card skills, and crafting custom cocktails from random ingredients in her pantry.
Susan is accompanied by Leigh White, who is a Transformational Coach and Energy Healer based in Sydney Australia. Leigh has over two decades of experience in management and mentoring in the creative, publishing, entertainment, and community sectors, but her life was changed completely the day she received the news about the death of her brother who had committed suicide. She didn’t know what to do with her grief. Leigh reached out for the information and support needed to begin her healing process, became part of a community and went on to co-found a registered harm prevention charity called Wings of Hope. Later, she started seeing an Energy Healer which had a great impact on her, so she decided to pursue this as a career to help others on their healing journeys as well.
In this episode, Leigh and Susan talk about loss, grief, respecting feelings and processes, and how giving back can be a great healing resource.
Key Takeaways:
- Leigh shares her story and the details of the last call she had with her brother.
- Leigh talks about the shock of finding out that her brother had committed suicide.
- She realized she needed to seek help and joined a group.
- It doesn’t feel that we are going to be ok, even when we know it.
- What is not helpful to hear: “Time is your friend”, “They are in a better place”, “Hang in there”, “God called them back for a reason”.
- What is actually helpful: “I am going to be by your side”, “We’ll figure this out together”, “You are going to be ok, I promise you that”.
- Don’t feel rushed about grieving.
- Leigh and a group of people she met began a charity called Wings of Hope.
- Susan shares how she resented the fact that people wanted her to be strong and resilient while grieving.
- Therapy and medication do not work for everyone.
- Leigh talks about her transformation journey and how she started to turn grief into something more powerful.
- Sometimes doing less, staying in your grief, and being quiet is what works the best.
- Leigh shares the creation of the book Red Chocolate Elephant for children and families bereaved by suicide.
- You don’t have to do great things if you want to transform your grief, sometimes the smallest things can create a great impact.
- Leigh talks about the shame and guilt that are often felt by family members that lost a loved one by suicide.
- All your feelings are valid, owning them is the only way to go through them.
- Leigh shares her first visit with an energy healer — without knowing that later she would become a transformational coach and energy healer herself.
- Susan explains what energy work can look like.
- Leigh shares her suggestion for people coping with grief: Understand what is happening to your body, tell somebody how you feel, and remember that you will get through this and you will be different (but not in a bad way).
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Learn more about Leigh White:
Visit Leigh White’s website
Leigh White is a Transformational Coach and Master Energy Healer based in Sydney Australia. Leigh began her career in marketing in the book and high-tech publishing sectors, working with famous authors and many athletes and performers including actor Jack Thompson, surfers Layne Beachley, Kelly Slater, and Tom Carroll, and skater Tony Hawk. On the outside she appeared to have it all, married with two children and a great career as a media advisor, until a pivotal moment when Leigh lost her brother by suicide, on September 11th, 2006. Leigh’s world stopped overnight. Fortunately, she was able to get the support she needed and went on to author a book chapter, co-found a registered harm prevention charity, and pivot into being a Transformational Coach and Healer to others.
Leigh met four wonderful women who had also experienced loss and together co-founded a registered harm prevention charity, which still continues today. wings of hope.org.au W.I.N.G.S is an acronym for "We Inspire New Growth After Suicide Loss"
Leigh created a tool kit that is breaking the rules of what you believe is possible. Using Leigh’s proven process to TURN A BAD DAY AROUND so YOU HAVE CALM AND CLARITY. Please download this two-part kit, by clicking here: https://soultopia.activehosted.com/f/3
Download for free: Have You Ever Wondered How to Turn a Bad Day Around?
Susan is accompanied to today’s episode by Kori Clausen, author of the book Paddle Out: Death Is Life-Changing. Kori does not consider herself a writer but instead claims that her husband Clint, who passed away, was the one writing it through her. Kori shares today about her grief journey and how she found peace in being present, allowing herself to feel, lowering the mean voices in her head, and experiencing gratitude for all the gifts life has granted her.
Key Takeaways:
- Kori shares about her husband Clint and the amazing 15 years she was married to him.
- Kori and Susan talk about psychic intuition, stopping the constant motion to listen to the voice within, whispering the thing to do next.
- Kori found that she could write when she stopped thinking about writing and started feeling it.
- Kori realized the amazing value of being present and avoiding listening to that voice in her head.
- Kori thinks that Clint knew he was going to die, because of the decisions he took during the two last months of his life.
- Be careful about what you tell yourself because if you sustain the same message long enough you will create it.
- Honor your feelings all the time, accepting them is the only way of processing those feelings, and being able to come to a different place with them.
- Give yourself permission to grief in a way that is cathartic and healing for YOU, your way of grieving won’t follow a script, let it be, and love yourself in the process.
- Knowing that she wasn’t alone was the greatest comfort for Kori.
- As humans, we tend to attach ourselves to anything, but really nothing is really even ours.
- Kori talks about her book Paddle Out.
- Kori shares her advice to start the journey of self-love and reinvention: Slow down, take a big breath, experience what it really looks like to be present, live instead of worrying all the time.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Paddle Out: Death Is Life-Changing, Kori Clausen
Meet Kori Clausen:
Kori Clausen has never considered herself a writer. She still doesn’t. While she has accomplished a series of amazing things in her life, including an international dance career, running a restaurant, working as a renowned yoga instructor, organizing charity events and raising her four amazing daughters, she never thought “author” would be on that list. She blames her husband Clint, who passed a few years ago. In fact, she’s more than a little convinced that Clint is actually the one writing this book and she’s just serving as his vessel. And she’s okay with that; he always enjoyed the limelight a little more than she did. Just as with the years she got to spend married to him, she’s simply happy to be a part of the journey.
Reverend Anne Presuel, a recurrent guest on the podcast, joins Susan in today’s episode. Both Reverend Anne and Susan are connected in their spiritual paths, a relationship that started as a coaching-client relationship to experiencing loss and turning that around into a spiritual friendship.
Key Takeaways:
- Reverend Anne shares her grief story and how her life pivoted unexpectedly as a result of it.
- The same day Anne published her book A Divine Intuitive Awakening she got a call from Luisa, her assistant and right hand at her business, telling her she contracted COVID; five days later she passed away, leaving Anne in terrible sorrow.
- Anne has been through trauma, she knew this grief wouldn’t last forever, and that she needed to honor the process.
- Anne kept on asking herself what was next after Luisa died, and she granted herself the time to process and feel until she was ready.
- Sometimes what people think will be good for you is not what resonates with your grieving process.
- Sometimes you just need to “clear the deck” when you try to move forward and realize that there are some things in your life that are no longer working for you.
- Anne started asking herself if she should stop all the work she had been doing for ten years, was it time to let that business go because Luisa was not there?
- Anne came to the conclusion that she could allow herself the freedom to stop trying to make her business work the way it did, and instead thinking of something different, new, and even possibly fun.
- Anne found treasures in Thrift Shops and found pleasure and fun in finding this stuff a new home.
- How did Anne realize this really was the right way to go? A sacred contract was laid between Luisa and Anne, the whole journey was actually completed and it had reached its ending. Anne needed to trust her intuition even though she was not sure about the reasons why things happened the way they did.
- Following the energy of the light is a very important piece especially when you are at your darkest times.
- Practicing gratitude lets you be present in this moment where you are.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Listen to Allow Yourself to Let Life and Hope Back In with Reverend Anne Presuel
A Divinely Intuitive Awakening: How Divine Connection Healed Unspeakable Trauma and Created a Life of Love, Magic and Miracles, Anne Presuel
In today’s episode, Susan is joined by Myree Morsi, a soul guide and transformational therapist who since 1999 has supported people who are navigating their awakening, healing, soul alignment, and spiritual journeys. After successfully healing her own PTSD from childhood abuse, Myree is dedicated to helping others heal their trauma, claim their spiritual gifts, elevate as soulful leaders, stabilize, and befriend their awakening experiences in the midst of modern pressurized lives. She has walked a deep and transformative journey with grief from the tragic and horrific death of her younger brother in 2013. The Path of grief led her to access priceless joy and it has remained with her ever since.
Key Takeaways:
- Myree shares how she grieved her brother, who was her best friend.
- Myree’ss first experience of grief was when her father died when she was 7 years old.
- Myree shares the details of her brother’s exhausting mental illness journey.
- Healing is about integrating the science of healing and the spiritual aspect of it.
- After her brother died, Myree experienced fearlessness, she stopped being afraid of pain and experienced freedom.
- Myree imagined how it would feel to die in the way her brother did and that led her to explore her personal history, which led her to a spiritual liberation.
- Myree experienced being able to let go, surrender and reach the root of pain (which is not recommended if you are not properly supported).
- Therapy works as a result of the relationship that is established with the practitioner.
- Myree talks about her therapeutic approach with her clients.
- You can be your own healer.
- What is the difference between a spiritual and a therapeutic approach to healing?
- Miracles can just be a shift in perception.
- People tend to avoid their feelings, but in order to heal you need to face your feelings and deal with them.
- Gratitude can be a life savior.
- Susan shares a journaling technique that she loves and is called Rage on the Page.
- Myree explains what a seer is.
- Myree shares actionable suggestions for listeners who are grieving heavily to start to feel better.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Learn more about Myree Morsi
Dan and Nancy lost their daughter in a car crash and had to make the tough decision to take her off life support. Today, they help grievers get unstuck in their grief and help them with better coping mechanisms that refine the definition of what it is to be in grief. Learn about Dan and Nancy’s story on this week’s episode.
Key Takeaways:
- A little bit about Dan and Nancy’s grief story with losing their daughter.
- Dan saw a little sparrow and he realized it was a sign that it was time to say goodbye to his daughter, who was on life support at the time.
- We think that what happens to us doesn’t happen to anybody else, but it’s a small world and we all have shared similar experiences.
- We aren’t taught at all how to grieve. However, there are ways to make grief a beautiful experience.
- Friends and family members often can’t handle pure accidents that lead to tragedy, and by trying to reason with it, they often put blame on the person who has passed.
- People asked Dan and Nancy if she was distracted while driving, and if that was the reason why she had her accident. That’s pretty insensitive.
- People have avoided the couple in public after they lost their daughter. It’s hard to be around uncomfortableness.
- Couples often split up when a child dies, but Dan and Nancy have managed to stay together.
- Dan had to put on a brave face and get back to work after his daughter died.
- If you stuff your grief down, it’ll eventually come out in unexpected ways to ‘deal with you’.
- Dan shares why he is fond of the Grief Recovery Method and why he uses this framework with his client.
- Have a map with a destination in mind, but don’t look at the end goal, just take one step at a time, and you’ll get there.
- How does Nancy help her clients?
- So many of Susan’s guests have created meaning out of tragedy.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Beingwithgrief.com
Michelle Clare is a Certified Medium, Angel Intuitive, Spiritual Coach, and Energy Healer. Michelle is in a unique position. She has survived three near-death experiences and each time she came out of this state, they’ve been profound. In this episode, she describes what these experiences are like, how she helps her clients reach her loved ones, and so much more!
Key Takeaways:
- Michelle shares a little bit about herself and some of her near-death experiences.
- Michelle came back with such a vivid and profound memory of a world beyond peace.
- The next near-death experience that Michelle experienced was shortly after giving birth to her third child.
- Michelle remembers running with her dog, who had passed away, on a beach. That’s when she realized she was in ‘multiple’ places.
- The third near-death experience was from a traumatic brain injury. Michelle could see her angels ask if she wanted to stay or go.
- Michelle was raised catholic, but has she always been spiritual and believed in angels?
- Did Michelle become a medium after she had her brain injury?
- Everything circles back to love. Love doesn’t separate us from those that have already transitioned.
- Our loved ones are always around us.
- Remember, no one lives this life alone. We are surrounded by our loved ones, our spirits, angels, and life guides! There’s an entire team behind you.
- None of us truly die alone. It might look like tht on the outside, but that’s not true.
- When Michelle’s head hit the counter, she didn’t feel pain.
- Michelle’s tip? Go to your quiet place and imagine your loved one, and then try to experience pure love with that person.
- For a lot of widows or people in grief, the present is a confusing space because they’re mourning the past and they’re afraid of the future.
- We can’t change what happens to us, but we have the option to choose how to respond to it.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Michelleclare.net
Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe by Laura Lynne Jackson
Michelle Chalfant is the Founder of The Adult Chair, Therapist, and a Holistic Life Coach. Michelle is also a podcast host, which dives into topics like psychology, getting unstuck, and how to work through your grief. Michelle’s work has deeply helped Susan on her grief journey and in this week’s episode, Michelle talks about learning how to work with your emotions (something we were never taught to do) in order for us to be emotionally healthy adults.
Key Takeaways:
- Susan felt a lot of comfort after listening to Michelle’s podcast when she was on her grief journey.
- A little bit about Michelle and her work in self-love, healing, and psychology.
- How do we get out of codependency? How do we heal our grief?
- We’re all looking for the same thing; to be whole and complete.
- There are so many ways humans grieve and it’s not talked about at all.
- Why are you having these emotions? Sometimes it’s powerful to just stop to think about ‘why’.
- The best way to work through our emotions is to feel them.
- We will do anything to numb the emotions because they’re often uncomfortable! We might drink too much, eat too much, work too much, do anything but feel them.
- We project onto others what we think they need. Instead, we just need to ask, ‘what do you need?’
- We have to move out of the old stories that we tell ourselves. If we don’t, we remain stuck in our grief.
- Michelle is a big fan of journaling. It helps you get out all the emotions.
- How can someone get unstuck?
- It sounds weird, but taking the time to intentionally breathe is very powerful. It helps keep you grounded.
- When we’re in a state of grief, we don’t breathe very well.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Theadultchair.com
Theadultchair.com/30days
Frank King is a Suicide Prevention and Postvention Public Speaker and Trainer. He is also a Corporate Comedian and was a writer for The Tonight Show for 20 years. Frank shares his battle with depression and suicidal thoughts on this week’s episode, and why it’s so important to seek help when you seem to be spiralling down.
Key Takeaways:
- A little bit about Frank and how he got into suicide prevention.
- Suicide runs in Frank’s family. He and his mother found one of his family members that way.
- After Frank started speaking openly about it, it gave a lot of people comfort that they weren’t alone in these thoughts.
- Have suicidal thoughts in California? Frank shares how this state might end up punishing you.
- Suicide is a three-legged stool; You isolate from friends and family, you believe you can actually kill yourself, and you feel like you’re a burden on people.
- How did Frank get into speaking about suicide prevention?
- It’s Frank’s mission to destigmatize what suicide/depression looks and feels like.
- Everyone has a suicide story, but these stories all live in secret.
- What was it like doing a TedTalk about suicide?
- Suicide doesn’t have a gothic/emo look. It’s often much more silent than that.
- Without the good, you need to have some of the bad to compare it to.
- When Frank was at a low point in his career, he played ‘the grateful’ game everyday, where he listed what he was grateful for. It really helped him.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Frank on LinkedIn
Mentalhealthfirstaid.org
Kristyn Lohoff lost her father when she was just seven years old. Growing up without a father and seeing her friends go on “dad trips” always made her jealous, so when her husband passed, she felt such sadness in seeing her four daughters grow up without a dad as well. With the loss of seven family members in her life within a short timeframe, people around her didn’t know how to support her in her grief. Kristen shares her grief story and how she worked on honoring her husband after he passed.
Key Takeaways:
- Kristyn is no stranger to grief, having lost seven family members, including her husband & mother, within two years.
- Kristyn’s father died when she was seven. She remembers feeling very jealous that her friends had fathers.
- Kristyn became a caregiver to her mother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She visually saw the person she knew disappear completely. She experienced two forms of grief, the person disappearing, and the actual physical death.
- After her mother passed, more family members were to follow. It was an impossibly painful time.
- What was Kristyn’s path forward? How did she get out of the pain of her grief?
- When Kristyn’s husband died, it came as a surprise. He had stage four cancer, but he wasn’t supposed to go when he did.
- Kristyn felt so guilty when she felt moments of happiness, especially when her husband wasn’t there.
- When Susan’s father died, counselors at school thought she was going to them frequently just to get out of school, but it was because she was in grief! Susan felt very unsupported during that time.
- After Susan’s husband passed away, she made it a point to support her daughter during this tough time.
- It takes time to not let grief consume you.
- Kristyn is so sad her husband is missing key life moments in their children’s lives. He always used to say he will be walking all four daughters down the aisle, and as one of her daughters has just gotten engaged, it makes it all that more a reality that’s not going to happen.
- Kristyn took an RV trip to run away from her grief because everyone around her was mourning. It was depressing.
- When Kristyn started planning her trip, she felt excited again.
- Find what brings you joy and practice that for 15 minutes.
- You want to honor your loved ones, but you also have to honor yourself.
- Nature has calming qualities. It’s a stress reducer!
- Susan chooses what she does with her grief. She chooses what she does with her feelings. You have a lot of power in choice.
- We as a culture need to be more open about talking about our grief and not be afraid of it.
- Kristyn offers some advice for those who are currently in grief.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Join Susan on this solo episode as she talks about a grief situation that came up recently in her life. One of her friend’s daughters, who is college-aged, is still struggling with the death of her father 7 years later. She is stuck in a phrase that she can’t seem to get out of. How do we support the young adults and children in our lives who have experienced something very painful and traumatic? Susan shares tips and her advice on this week’s episode.
Key Takeaways:
- How do children typically grieve?
- Susan can relate to her daughter’s friend because the people in Susan’s daughter’s life also failed her and very poorly handled her grief.
- Keep in mind, the way children grieve is very different from the way adults grieve. We sometimes forget that we’re not at the same level.
- Susan noticed a lot of people came and brought things to Susan, meals, support, love, etc. However, the experience was very different for her daughter.
- Children don’t know how to deal with grief.
- If adults struggle with this, you know children struggle with this immensely because it’s scary.
- There isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach to grief. It looks very different to each individual.
- Asking ‘how are you?’ to a child is really, really huge. People who take the time to ‘see’ you mean a lot.
- It’s hard to be positive all the time. For Susan’s daughter, she felt like she was grieving wrong.
- As kids go through grief, they have milestones that happen throughout their ‘coming of age’ lives. It’s hard to be normal when a big piece of your heart is missing.
- Let your children feel their feelings. Don’t try to shut it down or rush it away.
- How do you show up differently as an adult, or parent, for a child in grief?
- Susan had a friend’s child lose their friend to cancer. There was drama in their circle of friends and this daughter couldn’t stop crying. It’s a tough time to be a kid in grief.
- Everything is worse with grief.
- “That’s what kids do.” is not an accurate response to someone in grief.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Janie Dalrymple has been a nurse for over 17 years including hospital-based bedside care, home health, and the outpatient clinical setting. She has a strong neurology background and was a Clinic Coordinator for an ALS Clinic for several years. After the unexpected death of her husband and mother at a young age, Janie felt the need to advocate for others finding it difficult to navigate the healthcare system, including dealing with end-of-life issues. Janie shares what life looks like after her husband’s passing and how she’s found new meaning in life after a whirlwind of grief.
Key Takeaways:
- A little bit about Janie and her grief story.
- Why did Janie’s husband commit suicide? It came out of nowhere.
- Janie blamed his work and the institution. He was being bullied by a coworker and he had complained multiple times about it, with nothing happening.
- Janie went to a grief counselor 2 weeks after he died.
- It would take Janie 4 hours to just get up and brush her teeth.
- Janie had suicide idealization after her husband passed away. Susan can relate.
- Janie could see how painful the sudden death of her husband was to her friends and family. She couldn’t do that to them x2.
- With her life uprooted, Janie took some time to figure out what her next career steps would be, and then her mom got really sick.
- Witnessing how the nurses and hospital staff treated her sick mother, Janie realized she needed to become a patient advocate and speak for people who can not speak for themselves.
- The best time to have tough conversations is when you’re healthy.
- Families often want to push their own agenda on a sick or end-of-life family member. It’s important to honor the person dying, not the family.
- Janie is working extensively with ASL patients, an incurable disease.
- Get your paperwork in order so that when someone passes away, family members can just focus on the grieving process.
- There’s nothing wrong with planning a grieving session. Just take 20 mins or an hour out of your day to just grieve.
- Would your loved one want you to feel guilty or sad? No!
- The unfortunate reality is that your loved one is gone. So what’s next for you?
- Janie now has a new partner and she is grateful that she can still honor her late husband’s memory.
- With a lot of pain, there comes a lot of growth too.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Yourpatientsadvocate.com
Janie on LinkedIn
David Richman is an Entrepreneur, Author, Public Speaker, Athlete and Philanthropist. David might not have lived to see 40. Overweight, a heavy smoker, in a destructive marriage trying to protect two kids, prone to extremes, he was not a happy man, but really wanted to be. After his sister became diagnosed with terminal cancer, that was the wake-up call David needed to live a more authentic life. In this week’s episode, David talks about his latest book, Cycle of Lives and digs deep into why we’re so afraid to connect with one another when death is right around the corner.
Key Takeaways:
- A little bit about David and his story.
- David had worked his entire life pleasing others and being in hiding. One day he asked himself over and over, ‘who do you want to be?’ And the answer was ‘athlete’.
- David’s sister was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and that was the wake-up call David needed to be a better and happier person.
- People often don’t know what to say when they react to bad news.
- Humans are connected by two things, stories and emotions.
- David shares a story of why it’s important for families to talk on an emotional level.
- What kind of stories does David have highlighted in his book?
- We all have these ‘silent’ emotional stories out there that no one knows about. It’s a shame.
- When one of our friend’s spouses passes away, there’s so many assumptions going on because we don’t want to hurt our friend further. However, there’s nothing wrong with asking curious questions.
- Our identity is based on the stories we tell ourselves. Sometimes, we need to rise above our inner story to find a deeper connection.
- Reaching out and connecting hurts no one!
- Don’t offer what you can’t give.
- What makes someone truly happy?
- Please take a chance to pick up David’s book!
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
David-richman.com
Winning in the Middle of the Pack by David Richman
Cycle of Lives by David Richman
A Thousand Names for Joy by Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell
Jill Johnson-Young is the Co-Founder and Clinical Therapist at Central Counseling Services, where she and her team provide the highest quality care for individuals and families seeking assistance with life's challenges. Jill’s areas of expertise include grief and loss, children's grief, dementia support for families, adoption related issues, LGBT issues, and so much more. Jill has lost two spouses to illness and shares her story on this week’s episode and the frustrating experience she had when friends, therapists, and acquaintances told her what she ‘should’ be doing.
Key Takeaways:
- How did Jill get involved with grief? It started with the AIDS crisis.
- Jill’s wife passed away from post-cancer-related complications.
- When your partner is sick, you go from being a spouse to a care-giver.
- Jill talked to her wife about what she wanted her death to be like and what she wanted for their children.
- When Susan’s husband passed away, she wanted to travel internationally. Her friends said it was a bad idea!
- Susan’s second wife passed away from Lewy Body Dementia.
- After you’ve lost a spouse, you have the right to make your own rules.
- People gave Jill all these ‘rules’ on what to do after her wife passed. Excuse me? She gets to do what she wants to do.
- Jill went to therapists that specialized in grief work. None of them had a clue!
- This is why Jill now helps teach therapists about grief, because it can be so easy to get this process wrong.
- Don’t let people outside of your life bully you into doing something that’s not right for your family.
- It’s okay to be selfish when your spouse dies. It’s okay to make people upset.
- Jill decided that this is her new reality and she’s going to live her life in a way that brings her joy.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Jilljohnsonyoung.com
Centralcounselingservices.net
Jill on LinkedIn
The Rebellious Widow by J. J. Young
Ashley Jackson discovered that her husband had developed a rare form of cancer, with only a 35% chance of survival, this event has forever changed Ashley’s purpose in life. Not only was Ashley planning her wedding, but she also found herself being a caregiver to her future husband at the young age of 31 years old. Life threw Ashley into a hurricane, and with three years in, Ashley shares what her grief journey has been like and how she and her husband have adapted to this new normal of regular doctor’s visits.
Key Takeaways:
- Ashley shares her story of being a newlywed in the cancer ward.
- When you suddenly become a caregiver, your life revolves around the person, and you have very little time for yourself.
- Ashley’s burnout was next level. She couldn’t catch a break.
- Not only was Ashley the caregiver, but she was also planning their wedding at the same time.
- Ashley’s doctor said that they had exhausted all of his options. There was nothing they could do.
- The doctors had to take away Ashley’s husband’s left eye, parts of his skull, and more. He couldn’t get chemotherapy again and the survey they did, didn’t work. Her husband was permanently disfigured.
- It was difficult coming to terms with it from both sides. Ashley’s husband was worried she’d abandon him because he was no longer the man she said ‘yes’ to. Ashley felt like she was marrying a different person. Managing the emotions was tough.
- Ashley has been married for three years and most of their marriage has been dealing with this aggressive form of cancer.
- In May, Ashley had to put her grandfather in hospice care. This was incredibly painful to do.
- When someone is faced with their own mortality, whether it be sudden or through cancer, both options are still horrible.
- Everyone is on their own timeline when faced with grief.
- Every day is a new day. Ashley tries to embrace what’s in store for her each and every day, but sometimes you just need to take a step back and breathe.
- Right now Ashley’s husband is cancer-free, but he still needs regular scans, and those are always filled with anxiety. Will it come back? Or are we okay?
- Ashley shares her advice on how to cope with the flooding of emotions and ways to best manage grief.
Resources
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Email Susan: susan@tendrilsofgrief.com
Timelessdreamevents.com
Ashley on LinkedIn
Helen Morris is a Certified Body Code Practitioner issued by The InsideOUT Institute, a world renowned organization that creates breakthroughs in the lives of its members through innovative energy healing and transformational leadership coaching. After Helen lost her only child, she had to rediscover herself and her purpose again. It was a painful process and today she shares her grief story and what has helped her move forward.
Key Takeaways:
- Helen shares her grief story and how she lost her daughter.
- Helen had a gut feeling something bad had happened to her daughter and the police wouldn’t tell her what was going on.
- Helen made the decision early on to honor her daughter.
- Susan is so grateful for the time she was able to have with Paul. Not a lot of people get those precious opportunities.
- Helen is so grateful for this line of work. She used to be a perfectionist and had a lot of childhood trauma. By being able to dive into her abilities, she’s able to live a freer and healthier life.
- By helping others, Helen was able to step out of her own grief and see the impact and the good she could do for others.
- If you have an inner negative dialogue, just ask if you’d say what you’d say to your best friend, if the answer is no, then don’t say it to yourself.
- Helen’s daughter taught her a lot about life. It was a two-way learning experience.
- Helen reminders her daughter’s teenage years just flying by.
- Holding on to grief is not healthy for you and it’s certainly not what your loved one would have wanted.
- Susan shares a story about her son.
- Helen talks about a physic experience she and her daughter experienced together.
- People should always listen to their institution.
- Grief is terrible, but no matter what, just keep trying different things. Something will click in place.
- Whenever we get stressed out, take a deep breath and try to slow things down. Breathing helps bring us back to center.
- Helen believes there’s still hope and light out there. Even when things got very dark, she knew there was still hope.
Resources
Healing2bu.com
Helen on LinkedIn
Dr. Joshua Black is a Grief Researcher, Speaker, Consultant and the Host of the Grief Dreams Podcast. As one of the world's leading academic experts in grief dreams, which can be dreams of the deceased, Dr. Black has directed his efforts on raising awareness about this fascinating phenomenon and how the brain continues to connect unconsciously with our loved ones. Find out more about what grief dreams are, and what it really means when you dream of someone who has passed away in this week’s episode.
Key Takeaways:
- Susan shares some of the recurring dreams she’s had of her husband. Sometimes, they are traumatizing.
- Dreams are related to processing trauma and unresolved feelings of guilt and blame.
- What can you do to move forward from these dreams?
- How can you change your dreams and how can you change the way you process grief?
- Once you understand these dreams, you can have breakthroughs, and you can have peaceful sleep again.
- Are these dreams some form of a spiritual connection with your loved one? And do they have a particular message for you?
- When it comes to these spiritual dreams, if it's comforting to the individual why not maintain that bond and keep on feeling connected.
- We need to understand the belief system of each person and how those dreams work within that belief system because some people take dreams as a negative visitation.
- People should understand that their dreams are a great way of understanding how you're trying to digest and process throughout the day and as we sleep.
- As you move forward, emotions can be triggered not just because of grief but because of something else happening in your life. The brain is linking these emotions with your grief.
- How Dr. Joshua got into this line of work?
- Dr. Joshua studied dreams because of his father's death. It was the first time he experienced loss. He was broken and shocked by what happened and never stopped grieving until he had a dream about his father.
- When Dr. Joshua was able to say goodbye in his dream, something he couldn’t do in person, he found peace when he woke up.
- Dream rescripting has shown to reduce stress when having negative dreams at any age level.
- Dr. Joshua helps you write the dreams you wanna have.
- When you're stressed, the more likely you’ll have negative dreams, but dreams also teach us how to express our love.
- Dr. Joshua shares a story about dreams and love.
Resources
Griefdreams.ca
A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are by Byron Katie
Dr. Joshua Black
Sarah Davis is a Podcast Producer and the host of Breathing Wind, a podcast about parent loss, change, and healing. Sarah is also a Writer and Learning Experience Designer. Sarah shares her grief journey on this week’s podcast and why it’s so painful when you have to re-find your community and your friends again. She also shares tips on how to overcome your own grief on this week’s show.
Key Takeaways:
- Sarah shares her grief story and how she lost her father.
- After losing her father, Sarah discovered the power of community and explored who she was as a person.
- When you're going through the awfulness of grief, you find out who your real friends are.
- The loss of her father brought her back to a place where she was 13 again and she was a different version of herself. Very introverted, shy, quiet and a lonely person who likes to read.
- It helps to connect with other people. When you’re connected to a community, you begin to feel the love, encouragement and support.
- You cannot think your way out of grief. You need to feel it.
- How do you move on from this grief journey?
- Find the things that work for you. What may work for you today may not work for you next week and that's okay.
- The good news is, more people experience growth out of loss than they do stress and pain.
- When you grieve, you become one of the real people. You reach a new level of authenticity.
- When you have the ability to create, you are able to put your grief outside of yourself.
Resources
Breathingwind.com
Sarah on Instagram
Momastery.com
Payton Lynch was inspired to write her book, Rise From the Ashes, by her husband’s story as a 9/11 surviving child. Payton is also currently going through her own struggles and grief as she is faced with the possibility of never being able to have children naturally. In this week’s episode, Payton shares lessons she’s learned from her husband about grief, surviving grief, her own journey with grief, and so much more.
Key Takeaways:
- A little bit about Payton and why she’s writing a book about the 9/11 child victims.
- Everyone remembers where they were during 9/11.
- We are a very positive and optimistic society, and it can be at the detriment of others because we’re not properly prepared for the reality.
- Payton and her husband are going through infertility and the things her friends and family are saying, although well-intentioned, is very frustrating.
- After Susan lost her husband, she didn’t think that she had a life left.
- Payton is in grief right now because she might be able to conceive naturally, but her husband has been a big inspiration as to how you can move and grow from grief.
- Grief can sneak up on you.
- All of our experiences shape us towards who we are as people today. It can be painful, but it can often be a blessing.
- Don’t make grief an identity where you get stuck in a cloud of misery.
- If you’re in hell right now, keep going.
- Payton shares her advice on ways to manage and work with the grief you are experiencing.
- You are way more than the sum of all your grief experiences.
- You are a human being at the end of the day. It’s okay to feel a wide range of happy and nasty emotions!
Resources
Payton on LinkedIn
Indiegogo.com/projects/rise-from-the-ashes-by-payton-lynch
Ducky shares her grief story about her husband, Colin, of 15 years passing away suddenly from complications of a heart attack in 2019. Ducky shares what it was like dealing with his in-laws at the time of the funeral, what it’s like being a young widow at 36 years old, and how she experiences all the emotions during the last two years in this week’s episode.
Key Takeaways:
- It doesn’t matter if you’re one day in or 10 years in, we are always finding new ways to adapt with grief.
- Ducky shares her grief story. Ducky knew something was wrong with her husband when she saw half of his side was swollen.
- Ducky has to make the tough decision to take him off life support.
- Ducky’s husband was austitic and it went undiagnosed for a long time because at the time, it wasn’t as wildly recognized/acknowledged.
- Ducky shares some of the challenges of dealing with her husband’s parents after his passing.
- Even though she and her husband weren’t close to the parents, she wanted to give them an opportunity to say goodbye.
- It was only until a couple of months later did it hit Ducky that she was a very young widow at only 36 years old.
- Ducky feels so blessed she has a good support system in her life to check up on her.
- What do you need, right now? Ducky had a friend who would just sit with her and figure out her life ‘for the day’. It started small.
- When it comes to grief and working towards a happier life, it comes down to what feels good to you.
- Ducky does have good days, but for the most part, every day is still a challenge.
- When is it the right time to date? Ducky shares her experiences.
- You can still find little ways to honor your passed spouse with your new partner.
- Ducky shares a bit of advice on how to better manage their grief.
Cris Duvall is a retired Dental Hygienist and has transformed her grief story into helping people discover what they want out of life. Cris is no stranger to loss, having lost two of her brothers as well as her father early on in life. However, when her husband passed away suddenly, and she had to take him off of life support, she made a conscious choice not to let her grief consume her. She shares how the act of thinking positive and not letting the woes and her sorrows get her down when she is getting the most out of life.
Key Takeaways:
- Cris shares her grief stories. Her husband passed away suddenly.
- When her husband passed, Cris made the conscious decision that she wasn’t going to regret his loss. You can’t change the past, you have to move forward.
- The majority of our thoughts influence our brain.
- Positive thoughts produce dopamine and less cortisol in your body, which is known to seriously impact your physical body negatively.
- Stress kills. You need to make a choice to change your mindset or you’re at risk of dying too.
- When Cris took her husband off of life support. She promised him she was going to make the rest of her life matter.
- For his sake, she couldn’t stay looking backwards.
- We can have a profound impact on our brain and our health just by our thoughts.
- When you give back, you help both the other person and yourself.
- Cris was sick of her friends asking her ‘how are you?’. She instead asked them to ask her, ‘tell me something great that happened today’.
- Cris wanted her friends to ask her action questions.
- How can you think good things all the time when you feel like absolute crap?
- We don’t have to stay in that place of feeling so crummy and so sad.
- Think, feel, and choose. You can do it.
Resources:
Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health Book by Caroline Leaf
Tony Lynch is the Founder of the Memories of Us nonprofit, a supportive place for men in grief. Men are traditionally shown over and over in society that they can not be vulnerable. This negatively affects our communities. After experiencing devastating loss, Tony was on the brink of suicide. It took a spiritual awakening for him to get out of it. Tony shares what he was going through mentally when he was in grief, and he didn’t even realize it had gotten so bad until it was almost too late.
Key Takeaways:
- Tony hit rock bottom in his life after the loss of several people in his life, including his son. He was ready for suicide.
- Men are told to ‘suck it up’ and keep moving.
- Men do grief differently. Tony tried to put himself through physically gruelling experiences to see if he could die.
- Men don’t like being vulnerable. So, physical pain is used as a way to keep their mind off of their true emotional pain.
- Tony lost everyone he cared about at 26 years old. Life sucked. He knew it would be better to just leave this world.
- As Tony was sitting alone ready to commit suicide, he heard his name call out in the distance, but no one was there. This woke him up. He knows it was a spiritual intervention.
- If you want your men to be good men, you have to have open communication with them.
- Don’t be ashamed to share who you are with someone else.
- Grief gets trapped inside us and it has nowhere else to go if you don’t deal with it head-on.
- How did Tony take this grief and empower his community?
- Tony’s nonprofit shows men that it’s okay to grieve.
- Men don’t talk. By not talking, you’re stuck. Your family wants to help you, but they don’t know what to do.
- When Tony lost his child, he stopped talking about it to other people. He didn’t want people to know what he was going through.
- It’s so easy to feel completely numb to the pain. But if you don’t deal with your ‘stuff’, it WILL come around and bite you.
- You are important. You have someone in your corner. Reach out to Tony for support.
- Tony offers advice to a man in grief right now.
Resources:
Tony on LinkedIn
Memories of Us Podcast
Rachel Kodanaz has been speaking passionately to national audiences of all sizes for 20 years, addressing all aspects of change, growth, and acceptance that comes with embracing life’s challenges – those expected and unexpected. Through her books, Living with Loss, One Day at a Time and Grief in the Workplace, Rachel offers a wealth of knowledge, inspiration and practical advice for those who have lost a loved one or are supporting someone who has lost a loved one. In this week’s episode, Rachel shares timeless advice on how you can return to the workplace and get the most out of your work environment as you go through grief.
Key Takeaways:
- Grief in the workplace is still a real issue.
- A little bit about Rachel and her grief story.
- When Rachel’s husband passed, she lost a bit of her meaning and purpose, especially when it came to work.
- “How can I help?” Is such a loaded question. You can figure out how to help someone if you just observe them and what they are struggling with.
- No two people will behave the same when it comes to grief and work.
- When Rachel lost her husband, she didn’t even acknowledge she was a widow, she was just trying to survive as a newly single mom.
- Susan felt like there was just a world falling down on her at work, and she wanted somebody to just help her.
- So many people don’t know what they need after a sudden life change.
- What’s the difference between a grief coach and a situational coach?
- Managers! Are you listening? You can take a very painful experience and turn that into a beautiful and supportive environment for the griever.
- Susan has been put in situations where an employee was grieving, and she just didn’t know or even have the context at the time to support them.
- A co-worker told Susan to not talk about her loss, in fear of making someone else;who recently lost a parent; angry. Despite them trying to be helpful, it was so hurtful.
- Susan ended up leaving her job because that’s the one thing she felt like she had control over.
- Grief, unfortunately, is a timeline in the workplace, and you can rarely put a timeline on grief.
- As an employer, you can ask empowering questions to help your employee during such a rough time.
- What piece of advice does Rachel have for both the grieving employee and the employer?
- Companies! Do not get this wrong. Seek additional resources if your team member recently lost someone.
Resources:
Rachelkodanaz.com
Rachel on LinkedIn
Rebekah Saltzman is passionate about the Zero Waste Movement and uses her professional design skills to help her clients create organized and beautiful spaces for themselves and their families. She is the Founder of Balagan Be Gone and it’s her mission to have her clients get the most out of their possessions and stress less about managing it all. What do you do with all of your loved one’s things when they’ve passed on? Rebekah sheds some light and offers advice on how to tackle this in a way that still honors the person who has passed on.
Key Takeaways:
- When is it too soon or too late to get rid of something?
- Rebekah’s mother passed away last year and her family is waiting for her to come back home to clean out the house.
- It’s hard to declutter your house when it’s filled with memories.
- You have all the memories you need in your heart. You don’t need stuff to fill it up.
- There are only so many items you can have before it becomes less about the person and more about the clutter.
- Inheriting your loved one’s items is like going on a journey.
- When Rebekah’s grandmother died, her mother kept her stuff in the basement for years before she let anyone in her family have it.
- If you want to sit on these things for a year, that’s okay. Give yourself a bit of grace and permission.
- Susan shares how she had to deal with her husband’s things after he passed away.
- Find ways to repurpose some of these items. You can honor these items in some way and that can be a very healing process.
- What do you do when other family members get upset by what you do with someone else's items?
- The longer it takes you, the more difficult it becomes to close this chapter.
- How do you declutter your loved one’s items without dishonoring them?
- Do you really — need — new stuff right this second? Where is this going to live in the house?
- Why is it important to declutter the house for yourself?
- Most people do not collect things that are valuable in any way.
- Should you sell your items or just give them away?
- Remember, be kind to yourself. It’s going to take you time to get through it all.
Resources:
Balaganbegone.com
Phil Pinti is a full-time single parent, widower, as well as a military veteran, philosopher, and ultra runner. He lost his wife to cancer at the young age of 33, which left him reexamining his life and his purpose. Phil believes you can wallow in your story or use your experiences to push you forward. You can be your best advocate or your own worst enemy, but the good news is you can choose.
Key Takeaways:
- It’s not what happens to us in life that matters, it’s what we do with what we’ve been given.
- Phil shares how he met his wife, Jen. Phil’s wife made him a better person.
- Jen was 33 when she passed away from lung cancer. How did it happen?
- When Jen died so young, Phil felt jibbed by life. There’s a natural order of things, and Jen wasn’t supposed to pass before her grandparents or parents did.
- Statistically, men marry really quickly after the passing of their wife. It’s usually 18 months after, but for women it’s 5 years.
- What can you do tomorrow? This weekend? Set yourself up to look forward to something.
- We are either our own biggest advocate or our own worst enemy.
- It’s difficult to be a single parent. When you lose your other half, you really have to do everything alone.
- Phil’s children spent the weekend with their grandparents, and that’s when he realized he was alone for the very first time in a big house. The loss really hit him.
- Phil shares what his mental state was like before and after putting his body through an ultra marathon.
- Anybody can have the excuse to have their story weigh them down.
- For Phil, Jen was a huge intersection and connector piece to his community. When he lost her, he also lost his circle of friends.
- People don’t want to catch grief.
- Phil shares why he feels COVID has been a blessing to his family.
- We get to choose how we want to feel and act based on the day we face. We also need to set an example for our children because they internalize the stress you are projecting.
- We need to find what our story is about now.
- No one can give you your midlife crisis, you can only do that to yourself. Phil lost his love, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to just give up.
- Phil loved that his wife still stayed true to herself until the very end. He admires and loves her so much.
Dr. Kirsten Turkington is a Family Nurse Practitioner and a Forensic Nurse Expert. Dr. Kristen has seen her elderly clients go through this form of financial abuse by scammers who are presented as ‘the love of their life’. It’s lonely after you’ve lost someone, but that doesn’t mean you should build a love relationship that’s purely based on how much money you send them. Here are some of the things you need to be aware of.
Key Takeaways:
- As widowers get so caught up in their grief, they are prime targets for scammers.
- How does Dr. Kristen help her clients beyond being a nurse?
- People scamming older women is elder abuse!
- Susan met an online scammer in Nigeria and was intrigued by how he survived and got these women to send him money.
- These scammers have a million sob stories in their back pocket.
- The more people in the family that are involved, the better it is for the loved one being scammed to see the signs.
- However, a lot of these widows and widowers exhibit addictive personality traits towards this ‘new love’.
- This isn’t an ‘in and out’ crime. This is a long withstanding crime and it keeps going until the money runs out.
- This scammer told Susan that when they find out he’s a fake, it doesn’t matter, they still keep calling because they’re emotionally attached.
- Scamming is a full-time job.
- By doing a reverse photograph search can prove to you that this is not the person they’re saying they are.
- This scammer pays to be on Match.Com and just go through the motions of talking to various women.
- How do you protect yourself from online scammers?
- Keep your social media profiles locked down. Scammers can get a lot of information off of that.
- There’s a lot of people on dating sites. If someone is out of the country and you can’t see them within the next 30 days. Just move on!
- If it seems too good to be true, have a bit of curiosity about it. Dig a little bit deeper.
- Most of the time, the individual being scammed doesn’t see it as a problem. It’s the family members that become aware of it, and concerned.
- 9 out of 10 times, your family members want the best for you. Listen to your support network.
- Suspect someone you care about is being scammed? How can you best approach it without having them become defensive?
Resources:
Dr. Kirsten Turkington
Gennye Lion is a Light Activator, Mentor, and Purpose Visionary. She helps women visionaries become impactful leaders through deep inner work and light body activation. She also helps women unlock their potential, balance their body and mind, as well as their life and business, to find soul success that achieves self-mastery. Gennye opens up about her grief journal and dives into why embracing the ‘woo’ in your life, as a logical personal, isn’t always a bad thing.
Key Takeaways:
- Gennye shares her grief story.
- Susan is a very logical person and she has a hard time believing in some of the ‘woo’ stuff. However, she made a shift to keep her mind open and take in new information.
- You get to pick your perspective on how you choose to process and look at things. Do you want to be positive or negative?
- During Gennye’s grief journey, she lost a piece of her soul. Gennye explains what a ‘soul part’ is.
- How do you begin to heal? Gennye shares some of her tips!
- How do you find and collect your soul parts?
- Gennye talks about being a medium and how that helps her clients.
- Are you skeptical about this sort of stuff? Gennye shares a little bit about why to keep an open mind.
- Have you ever felt something that had no logic to it?
- The reality is we don’t have the answers to everything, let’s the best way forward is to have an open mind.
Resources:
Gennyelion.love
Dr. Melissa Mork is a Professor and Chair of The Department of Psychology Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement at the University of Northwestern St. Paul. Dr. Melissa lost both of her parents within a short span of each other when she was still in college, and this led her to dedicate her career to learning about and understanding grief. Her career has since evolved and she shares why it’s critical for you to also embrace humor and the ‘gritty’ sides of grief in this week’s episode.
Key Takeaways:
- Dr. Melissa shares her grief story.
- Dr. Melissa has always used humor to help her cope with her grief. She shared hilarious stories about her mother at her funeral, and she realized that there was so much power to humor and healing.
- Dr. Melissa shares the story of how she lost her husband.
- Laughter is the cornerstone to helping everyone move forward and heal.
- Dr. Melissa’s marriage wasn’t perfect, but she tries to not focus on those things too much because it makes her feel farther away from him. However, remembering all the bad things is a necessary part of grief.
- Dr. Melissa went to marriage counseling after her husband had passed away because she needed to work through some of the unresolved conflicts she had with her husband.
- Susan laughs at it now on the silly little fights that she and Paul had.
- If your soul is hurting, seek help. If you want to show up differently in your relationships, friends, family, romantic, and otherwise, you need to first work on yourself.
- There are four tasks of grief. Dr. Melissa breaks this down.
- How do you create a new relationship when it’s been lost?
- No matter where you are, you can always find your purpose.
- We seek purpose in our suffering.
- Grief is a transformative experience.
- Dr. Melissa shares a couple of stories on how humor can really be a fantastic place to start.
- Closure is not the goal. The goal is to find a way to honor them and remember your loved ones.
Resources:
Unwsp.edu/bio/melissa-baartman-mork
Ourhouse-grief.org
Man's Search for Meaning Book by Viktor Frankl
Victoria Shaw received her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Princeton University and completed her postdoctoral training in the department of Educational and Developmental Psychology at Columbia University Teachers College. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a State Certified School Counselor, but what makes Victoria unique is that she has a very high intuitive nature and can use this ability to help her clients heal more effectively. She takes a holistic approach to counseling and helps address clients at the mind, body, and spiritual level. Victoria shares how anybody can tap into their intuitive guide and receive messages from their loved one, even when they’ve passed on.
Key Takeaways:
- A little bit about Victoria and how she helps her clients.
- Victoria defines and explains what our intuitive guide does for us.
- You’re exactly where you need to be. Don’t be cruel to your human self.
- Can anyone connect with their spirit guide and talk to someone who has passed on?
- How do we know the difference between the stories that we’re making up in our mind vs. what’s actually real and spiritual?
- Victoria tunes into her intuition and feels her client’s energy. She helps connect her clients with messages they need to hear, but can’t always see clearly.
- If you’re feeling so sad and so depressed, just keep asking yourself, “What now?”
- Acknowledge that there’s a speck of hope when you’re in grief. This can be hard, but just know that you can grow this hope.
- Susan shares an example on how Paul guided her.
- Our loved ones aren’t ‘all knowing’ just because they’ve passed on to the other side.
- No matter where you are in your grief journey. You are love and you will get through this.
- How can you connect to your higher power? Victoria offers some tips.
- Victoria shares a message from Paul.
Resources:
Victoriashawpsychotherapy.com
Susan Hannifin-Macnab is the Founder of A2Z Healing Toolbox®, an organization which provides powerful tools and resources to accompany and accelerate the healing journey of those living with grief and/or trauma. She is also a social worker, education, speaker, and an author of the five-time award winning book, A to Z Healing Toolbox. Susan H. shares her grief story, why you need community to heal, and explains how no one is truly alone in this journey.
Key Takeaways:
- Susan H. shares her grief story. Her husband disappeared for two weeks and she didn’t know where he went.
- Susan H. didn’t want to live. She just wanted to be in her pit of despair.
- How did Susan H. work through her grief and try to get out of it?
- What was Susan H’s big breakthrough moment? It was a bunch of small things that added into a big thing.
- Susan H. shares how she turned her grief into something with purpose.
- Susan H. found community and realized she needed community to help her heal.
- When you give back, you don’t only help others, but you help yourself.
- When you have community, you don’t feel judged for your grief. You have people who understand you and can hold space for you.
- We are changed by grief. Susan shares an exercise she did with a group to realize you’re not alone in your feelings.
- It’s okay to be angry. It’s okay to feel. Life isn’t always fair.
- You have to get that pent up energy out of your body. Whatever that looks like for you, but you need it out.
- Susan talks about how she used her ‘rage on a page’ technique to help her get her anger out.
- What is sand therapy?
- Susan H. shares her tips on how to help move through grief.
- Ask for help, and then accept that help.
- People want to help you. It’s their gift to you. Let yourself receive it.
Resources:
A2zhealingtoolbox.com
Soaringspirits.org
Susan on LinkedIn
Dying To Be Me Book by Anita Moorjani
Campwidow.org
Mansi Jain is a Mindset Transformation Coach and helps people break through on their limiting beliefs, which are preventing them from living their dream life with joy, enthusiasm, and abundance. When it comes to grief, we can get stuck in a negative self-talk cycle where we don’t believe we deserve happiness. Mansi shares best practices on how you can overcome your grief, even when it feels impossible.
Key Takeaways:
- After a traumatic grief experience, people get stuck in a negative cycle of woe and dread.
- Why do people get stuck in this energy?
- How do you define a limiting belief?
- It’s unpleasant, but you have to feel your emotions. Do not numb it out.
- There are very negative effects that come with not dealing head-first with your emotions.
- Write down your feelings.
- Do you feel like you don’t deserve to be happy?
- Observe your thoughts. Are they true? Do not let these thoughts define you.
- We are overly critical of ourselves.
- Mansi’s limiting belief was that ‘good people go away soon’ because she had witnessed her grandmother passing at a young age.
- Susan developed a belief early in her youth that ‘people who love her will leave her’.
- Your work is never done. This is a lifelong journey of working on yourself.
- Don’t let grief control your journey.
- Are you struggling to find the gift in this negative and awful situation?
- Look for the evidence that good things also happen to good people.
- We think that in order to honor someone, we have to make a big bold statement, but actually, it can be something simple.
- Would your loved one be happy seeing you miserable without them?
- Joy will come. All emotions come and go, including the bad ones.
- Mansi shares a story of how a couple lost their son in a train accident. How did they overcome it?
- Mansi shares some tips to help you overcome negative self-talk and to move out of grief.
- Whatever positive words of affirmation that you write down at first you don’t have to believe it in the beginning. Just do it.
Resources:
https://www.mindsutra.in/
Mansijain.co
Mansi on LinkedIn
Susan’s daughter, Madison, had a wide range of challenges when her father passed. Some of her friends were not able to show up for her, but there are some silver linings that happened from the experience. Madison has some of her friends on today’s show to discuss how to show up for a grieving teenager, and how to be supportive no matter what.
Key Takeaways:
- When you have a friend that’s grieving, it can be so challenging to show up for them.
- Madison gives a quick overview of what the experience of losing her father was like during the time.
- Katherine shares her experience and how she saw Madison being treated by her friend group + how she was feeling during this time.
- Emeline shares her own grief experience and how she chose to show up for Madison.
- Madison had this experience that people did not want to acknowledge themselves.
- Madison shares how her friends showed up in a great way for her during this very hard and challenging time.
- Madison did a solo dance performance as a way to give tribute to her father and here’s how Katherine showed up for her.
- It’s so important to just let people know how much they mean to you.
- Emeline shares a little bit about Paul and the childhood memories she built with Madison.
- What advice does Katherine have on how to show up for a friend in grief?
- Emeline also shares her advice on how you can support your grieving friend.
Brian Waters is a licensed Indiana Funeral Director and also the co-host of the podcast, Undertaking, where he shares stories about his profession and how we navigate life and death. Brian shares his grief story and gives perspective on what it’s like working as a funeral director, and how he helps people navigate their pain during their most vulnerable times.
Key Takeaways:
- Funeral directors build up a wall and detach themselves emotionally from the outcome.
- Brian shares his personal grief story.
- What do you do when you lose a child? Despite Brian being in this industry, he needed to find meaning.
- Brian’s grief snuck up on him. People assume he has all the answers, but everyone reacts differently.
- When you share your story, people feel comfortable sharing theirs. Brian found out his best friend lost 4-5 children via miscarriage. It helps you feel not so alone.
- Brian was worried he was developing a problem with alcohol as a way to mask his grief.
- The most helpful people were those who just sat and listened to your pain and grief.
- Brian felt like he didn’t have any time to bring his personal feelings to work.
- The passing of his child really reset him as a funeral director.
- What is Brian’s podcast about?
- Have a conversation with your family members about what you want after you pass.
- What keeps Brian up at night?
- You have the power of choice on how you want your loved ones to be represented after they pass.
- Brian shares some common red flags with funeral directors. You want your director to be your advocate.
- Goodbyes are important.
Resources:
Undertakingthepodcast.com
Dylan King is a Spiritual Alignment & Success Coach. Dylan had a gift ever since she was 14 years old and would physically see her grandfather, who had since passed, and listen to his messages. He was her spirit guide and the reason why she started on this journey. Today, she helps her clients reconnect with their heart and to get out of their logical head in order to live a more fulfilling spiritual practice and to be open to receiving messages from beyond.
Key Takeaways:
- A little bit about Dylan and how she found herself down this path.
- How our loved ones show up to us after they pass is very unique and different to each and everyone of us.
- Dylan explains her process and why it might take her clients a little longer than others to reconnect with their loved one spiritually.
- Keeping our walls up makes it more difficult for you to see your loved ones.
- How do we release the walls we’ve built up to be more open receiving?
- How does Dylan respond to people who think she’s just crazy for seeing ‘ghosts’ and ‘spirits’?
- Susan went to a medium after her mom died. What was that experience like?
- What is the actual fear you have about not living in your intuition and your spirituality?
- Not everything in life has to make sense or have a science-based background.
- It’s important to have a balance between leading with your head and heart.
- We don’t want to always live in our heads.
- Just because you’ve never seen a spirit, doesn’t mean they don't exist.
- Dylan shares how she helps her clients get more in touch with their spiritual side.
- The biggest thing is showing up for yourself and living with an intention with your beliefs.
- How do you best create a deeper spiritual connection?
Resources:
Queenofgrit.com
Susan celebrates a year of podcasting, she also is recording this on the third anniversary of her husband’s passing. There’s a lot of lessons she’s learned over the years about grief and how to best manage it. She shares the top ten tips that have helped her through her grief journey and in processing a lot of complex emotions coming at her. It is definitely a process, but the good news is that resilience gets easier as you practice it and that there is hope out there.
Key Takeaways:
- Susan records this episode on the three year anniversary of her husband’s passing.
- This podcast has been an important part of Susan’s grief journey.
- Self-care is incredibly important when you’re grieving.
- Whatever is good for your soul, do that.
- There is no normal. What feels good for you is what you should do.
- Susan has found blessings in new friends.
- It’s okay if people flow in and out of your life.
- Set good boundaries with yourself.
- If you don’t wanna go somewhere, it’s okay. Don’t go!
- If someone is not feeding your soul, you’re not obligated to keep entertaining the relationship!
- Susan decided to do a gratitude practice, and she is so glad she did!
- There is hope out there!
- Resiliency is a muscle! It gets easier and easier as we go.
- If someone asks you for help, show up for them.
- We all feel guilty after our loved one has passed.
- We all wish things were different, but they’re not. So count your blessings. You’re here today, just take a small step forward.
- This is your opportunity to rebuild who you are.
Resources:
Yourtopix.com
Brigette Squire is a recent graduate of IIN and she is dedicated to working on issues that trouble people in areas of mental, reproductive, and digestive health. She also mentors members of the community on how to eat holistically. She has her own business, Ebb And Flow Holistic Care, and is a community volunteer within the Christian Roberts Foundation.
Key Takeaways:
- Brigette shares her grief story. Her younger brother was murdered two years ago.
- Because of COVID, it’s been hard to get closure + there were no witnesses to the crime.
- The people who were responsible for the murder might be let free. This is a hard faith to grapple with.
- How does Brigette find her center?
- Brigette and her family decided to continue to carry on her brother’s life work.
- Brigette is a very optimistic person, but that by default doesn’t mean she ignores what’s happening.
- When you focus on the negative, all you see is negative.
- Whatever is happening in your life, face the feelings. It’s okay to feel sad.
- Why is meditation so important to Brigette?
- Brigette made a conscious effort to seek out the good in others.
- What advice does Brigette have for someone in grief?
Resources:
Yourtopix.com
Tope Folarin is a Nigerian-American writer. He won the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story "Miracle". In his first novel, A Particular Kind of Black Man, Tope writes about a Nigerian family, new to America, as they try to assimilate and it takes from themes he had experienced throughout his life in America. Tope shares his grief story about his mother and her struggles with mental illness in this week’s episode.
Key Takeaways:
- Tope shares his grief story.
- Tope’s mother didn’t pass away, but it felt like she was gone through her illness.
- When Tope’s mother left, a lot of deep wounds were created and there was just a lack of understanding on why.
- Tope had to undergo a very tough journey when it came to forgiveness of himself and his mother.
- How did Tope get over his anger?
- As a way to cope with Tope’s sadness and grief, he became hyper focused in school.
- Tope wanted to feel like a whole person again.
- We are all on this journey together. No one truly has all the answers.
- Do you believe ‘good things’ don’t happen to you?
- If you tie your life to achieving specific goals, you will never truly be happy.
- Tope’s father would always remind him to be thankful for everything you have.
- In every crisis, there is an opportunity.
- Grief can come in and then you end up structuring your life around it, not realizing there is a pest in your house.
- Tope shares some of the benefits he’s received by going through hardship.
- What advice does Tope have for someone going through grief?
Resources:
Topefolarin.com
Tope Folarin
Tope’s book: A Particular Kind of Black Man: A Novel
After losing her infant son in 2011, Catherine McNulty embarked on a journey to do more than survive grief. The loss forever changed the trajectory of her life and sent her looking for meaning and purpose for the life she was given. She channeled the love for her son into her own healing, self-growth and personal empowerment. In this week’s episode, she shares her grief journey and how we can get better at recovering from grief during this process.
Key Takeaways:
- Catherine shares her grief story and how she got started on this journey.
- Catherine left the hospital twice as a mother without a child.
- People aren’t aware of how common a miscarriage is among women.
- Grief can be a lot harder for women who have lost a child because it’s so unexpected.
- People don’t know what to do with you when you’re the one experiencing the loss of a child.
- How did Catherine recover from her loss?
- Going through grief can be a lot quicker and easier than it needs to be. There are tools out there to help you get out of it.
- Why isn’t there a manual for grief??
- Catherine believes she’s a better mother because of her experiences and everything that she’s gone through.
- There’s no ‘getting back to normal’ when grief is considered. You live in a new normal.
- Celebrities bring so much awareness to issues, but a lot of people suffer in silence.
- How can people better show up for their friends and family when someone they know has had a miscarriage?
- Remember anniversaries. Remember the day they lost someone.
- People just kind of wait for you to get better, but it takes time.
- What advice does Catherine have for those who have experienced a miscarriage?
- You can choose to be a victim, but there comes a point where you become tired of being miserable.
Resources:
Griefinspired.com
Catherine’s book: THE GIFTS OF GRIEF: Grief Was An Unwanted Gift That Changed My Life
Paula Stevens is the author of ‘From Grief to Growth’, which details how you can give grief a purpose. She wrote the book and got into grief and trauma after her son passed away unexpectedly while home on leave from the army. Paula focuses on how we can become whole again and work on ourselves in the face of tragedy. In this episode, Paula shares why people, especially close friends, choose to distance themselves from you during your toughest times and how you can learn to grow from this experience.
Key Takeaways:
- Paula shares her grief journey and how she lost her child.
- Through the writing of her book, Paula realized that she has had a long history with grief.
- Paula knew that when she rebuilt her heart and put back the pieces, it would become bigger than ever before.
- What do you say when you know someone has passed?
- You’re going to have to do the work one way or the other. It can be a negative experience or a good one, but you do choose.
- Susan thought she’d have a friend for life, but after Paul passed, the friendship turned sour.
- Our culture just doesn’t deal with grief very well, and we don’t have protected rituals around that.
- People distance themselves while you’re grieving because they might have trouble facing their mortality.
- You can either point your anger and pain outward or work with it inward.
- Choose what you want to focus on.
- When someone is distancing themselves from you, it means they’re suffering. Paula puts some things into perspective.
- Why did Paula decide to write a book?
- How can you protect yourself from people who might hurt you, abandon you, etc?
Resources:
From Grief to Growth: 5 Essential Elements of Action to Give Grief Purpose and Grow from Your Experience by Paula Stephens
Judy Thureson has a genuine desire to see people live their most authentic life. In the last decade, she has helped hundreds of clients focus on their mental, physical, and spiritual health. In 2019, Judy experienced the tragic loss of her eighteen-year-old son, Jacob, to an opioid overdose. She wrote the book Beautiful Tragedy chronicling her experience and introduces the GIVE Principle.
Key Takeaways:
- Judy lost her son to the opioid crisis. She shares her grief story.
- Judy shares how those two weeks of Jacob being unconscious were a gift.
- Unfortunately, visiting Jacob in the ER due to a drug overdose was not Judy’s first time.
- Jacob had so many recoveries prior due to his drug abuse, but Judy knew that this time it was different.
- There is a lot of judgement from other people about losing someone to addiction.
- Shame breeds and grows in silence.
- We all do stupid things as kids, but sadly these children are not making it out okay. These drugs are way more addictive than what we were exposed to in our youth.
- Hope and despair and misery and joy can all live in the same space.
- There is peace at the end of the grief.
- We are so ill-equipped when it comes to managing grief.
- What are the four pillars of GIVE?
- It’s okay to sleep in and just take care of yourself.
- We’re all on this journey together.
- Why did Judy write her book?
- Love wholeheartedly and make the effort to share fully. Do not be afraid to hold back.
- There is a lot of good that has come out of Judy’s tragedy.
Resources:
Judythureson.com
Beautiful Tragedy by Judy Thureson
Sean Tobias Ambriz is an American soldier that has served in a variety of duties in the military including driver, gunner, platoon medic, team leader, designated squad marksmen, and more. Sean enlisted in 2008 at the height of the war and shares his experiences as a soldier who has lost important people in his life from act of war or from suicide. Listen in as we hear from his perspective on trauma, anxiety, and PTSD.
Key Takeaways:
- Sean shares his journey with grief and trauma as a soldier.
- Death is constantly around you, but you get used to it.
- When you get home from war, it changes how you interact with the world.
- Sean always has a plan to kill someone. This is just training that doesn’t go away.
- How does PTSD show up in Sean’s life?
- Military people live in an anxiety bubble where death can happen at any time and at any moment.
- Susan often struggled with the ‘Why’.
- Sean often asked himself why he survived his deployments and his friends did not.
- How does Sean process all the grief in a healthy way?
- The veteran suicide rate is an epidemic.
- What can you do to better handle anxiety and PTSD?
- There is so much power in sharing your story.
- What is Sean’s book about?
- How did Sean build his resiliency and keep moving forward with his life?
- Sean shares some final words of wisdom.
Resources:
Veteransreferringveterans.com
Ghosts of the Valley by Sean Tobias Ambriz
Meghan Smith Brooks is an Ordained Unity Minister and the author of Unraveling Grief: A Mother’s Spiritual Journey of Healing and Discovery, which details her grief experience when she lost her son when he was just 19 years old. Meghan shares how she was able to pull herself out and find a sense of gratitude to this new path she has been set on in this week’s episode.
Key Takeaways:
- Meghan shares her grief story and the murder of her son.
- Meghan spent two months walking around like she wasn’t in her body.
- How did Meghan find gratitude after she found out about her son’s death?
- Meghan is so grateful that she had a spiritual foundation to stand on.
- Pain and loss is part of our human reality.
- Meghan still has moments where she wants to scream.
- Sometimes you have to forgive the people who killed your loved one, not for their sake, but for yours.
- You can live in a dark hole when someone you love passes away, but it’s up to you to get past that.
- Susan remembers her arguing with her husband on where to go to eat.
- It’s a choice to be angry at someone.
- Grief is your teacher. It broke Meghan open.
- When Meghan wrote her book, it helped her oldest son cope.
- It becomes an ongoing blessing when you can be vulnerable and create something beautiful out of your pain.
- How does Meghan spiritually help people in grief?
- Everyday you get to choose how you will show up and what you do to make a difference.
- Keep breathing, keep moving forward.
Resources:
Unityawakeningways.org
Meghan on LinkedIn
Unraveling Grief: A Mother’s Spiritual Journey of Healing and Discovery
Kristi Sachs is a Certified Mindfulness Practitioner. Her experience in Mindfulness and Meditations ranges from individuals seeking personal peace, to teen groups, to corporate groups looking for focus and clear goal making strategies. Kristi lost her best friend at a young age and it made her spiral into a place of hate and despair. She shares how she worked to get out of that place and how she found a sense of peace again.
Key Takeaways:
- Kristi shares her grief story.
- When Kristi lost her best friend, she was a mess and she didn’t know how to process any of her feelings.
- Kristi’s best friend was part of her soul. When she passed away, she lost part of who she was.
- Kristi knew she had to act in the best interest of her best friend’s three children. She tried to be strong for them.
- Kristi had a dream of her best friend coming to her. She explains what that meant and feels like.
- Kristi put her grief and anger aside so that she could be present with the children. IT was her sole focus at that time.
- How did Kristi get out of her grief?
- Kristi hated everything. She was in a place of darkness. And she liked it.
- It’s important to get outside of yourself. To see beyond yourself, and to find meaning in the little things.
- Grief is a beautiful reset button. Kristi shares how she learned how to be grateful again.
- What advice does Kristi have about grief?
- There is a new person that you grow into and you have to accept this new person in order for you to go forward.
- Take deep breaths and don’t be afraid to cry.
Resources:
Workflowmindfulness.com
Kristi on LinkedIn
Sandy Weiner, founder of Last First Date and The Woman of Value, is passionate about helping women communicate and lead with power and grace. She guides women to know their true worth, do work that lights them up, and live up to their potential in every way. Sandy shares her grief story and how to navigate grief.
Key Takeaways:
- Sandy shares her grief story with her son.
- At the age of 5, Sandy lost her son. They said it was an ‘ear infection’ at first.
- When seeking comfort for her grief, the hospital staff treated her so poorly. What was going on? She just lost a child.
- Sandy asked to do a CAT scan and none of the doctors were listening to her.
- Susan understands completely. She had to corner a doctor to get the real information about her husband. They just didn’t want to tell her.
- Instead of fighting her son’s diagnosis, Sandy chose to accept it.
- How does Sandy celebrate her son’s life?
- Life is short. Stop being in toxic relationships. It’s time to empower yourself.
- You have control over what you will allow in your life.
- What happened to your friends who couldn’t handle your grief?
- People don’t know what you need if you don’t tell them.
- It’s so important to communicate with your friends.
- When you’re grieving sometimes, you don’t always know what you want.
- How can friends show up and be helpful?
- Susan remembers how she had so much food after her husband passed. She had to throw it away.
- Not happy with how someone is treating you? Speak up.
- If you fall apart, everybody else does.
- Need coaching as a widow? Reach out to Sandy.
Resources:
Lastfirstdate.com
Sandy with LinkedIn
Christi Staib is the President of Silver Sail Wealth Advisors and works with her clients on making sure they have a secure financial future. After losing her husband, Christi found herself in grief and navigating this complex financial world. This is the second episode with Christi as she discusses how to make the best financial decision for your family while in grief, how to avoid scams and the best ways to set financial boundaries.
Key Takeaways:
- Widowers need to protect themselves from people who don’t have their best interests at heart.
- When someone passes away, you’re in a vulnerable state and you might open your heart up to family members who want to take advantage of you.
- How long after grief should you be making important financial decisions?
- People felt guilty when they bought something that made them feel happy.
- When Susan was grieving, someone asked her to invest in a business.
- There are emotions that come out of nowhere, especially when you’re talking about your finances without your loved one for the first time.
- How can you spot a professional scammer?
- Susan shares an example of a professional scammer and how they specifically target widows.
- These scammers are brilliant. They have thought of everything to keep you hooked.
- Listen to your network. They know when something is up. Tell them about the people you’re dating. They will help protect you.
- Some people know they are being scammed, and don’t care. They just want the connection.
- How do you protect your financial boundaries?
- Are you overspending?
- Vet your potential partner through their friends.
- Before you give anyone money, look at their relationship with money.
- What are some of the signs someone might be taking advantage of you financially?
- When the money runs out, the scammer will leave.
- Know your limits and trust your friends. If enough people are saying the same thing, you have to pay attention to it.
- Get an advocate in your corner to help protect you.
Resources:
Silversailwealthadvisors.com
Silversailwealthadvisors.com/team/Christi Staib
The Secrets of the Power of Intention by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
Navigating the Unique Financial Needs of Women Today: Smart Steps for Women and Their Wealth by Christi Staib
Christi Staib is the President of Silver Sail Wealth Advisors and works with her clients on making sure they have a secure financial future. After losing her husband, Christi found herself in grief and navigating this complex financial world. There are so many things you don’t consider after a loved one passes and this is why Christi has created a financial checklist to help fellow widows navigate this foreign world. This is a two-part series, so stay tuned for next week’s episode with Christi!
Key Takeaways:
- A little bit about Christi and her background in wealth management.
- This is a two-part series on how to gracefully navigate death and money.
- Christi shares her grief story.
- After losing her husband in a scuba diving accident, she found purpose again in helping others.
- Why are we poor?
- What does someone need to do/think about to keep their finances safe after a loss?
- Call the social security office, attorney, accountant, and insurance.
- Have a safety deposit in the bank? Access it before you notify the bank about your loved one’s passing.
- Christi shares a list of documents you also need to be looking for/need to find.
- People also don’t think that you can transfer airline miles and other points onto someone else.
- Susan has heard stories of widows losing their home and having to take on a second job.
- Money is such a big topic, often taboo, and it caused Susan a lot of anxiety trying to navigate how much money you need to be okay.
- It can be so tough to even just sell the car or the house when there are so many memories attached to it.
- People will give you the ‘should’ dos on when to sell things, but at the end of the day, it’s your decision.
- How should you be thinking about money as you navigate the grief process?
- What are some of the most common mistakes people make in their financial planning?
- Everyone has made some bad mistakes with money.
- What advice does Christi have for someone battling with grief and money?
- Christi also shares her advice on how friends and family help a grieving person with their finances.
- Consider giving your friend or family member the gift of a financial advisor.
Resources:
Silversailwealthadvisors.com
Silversailwealthadvisors.com/team/Christi Staib
The Secrets of the Power of Intention by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
Navigating the Unique Financial Needs of Women Today: Smart Steps for Women and Their Wealth by Christi Staib
Autumn Toelle-Jackson felt so cursed when she lost both her husband, cousin, grandfather, and later her daughter, in less than a four year period. She really hit bottom, but what helped her out of her depression was the ability to focus on the life these people brought to you. She knew and trusted there were good people in the world, and she knew she would find love again, and that was the hope she needed to keep putting one step in front of the other.
Key Takeaways:
- Autumn has experienced a lot of loss in her life. She shares her grief story.
- Autumn’s husband passed away suddenly when he was 30 years old. There was no explanation as to why. There were no underlying conditions Autumn could pinpoint. One day, he was just gone.
- Autumn found herself as a single mom to a two week old baby and 3 year old.
- Sometimes, you can’t get good answers. You just can’t.
- It’s so easy to put blame on someone or something when someone you love passes.
- Autumn had two sudden losses after that. She had her close cousin pass away as well as her grandfather. There was no warning or time to ‘process’ the emotions.
- Three years later, Autumn remarried and had a beautiful girl with her husband. However, after a very heavy cold, she lost her daughter. It was discovered she had infant botulism.
- How did Autumn keep going? She knew love existed, and she knew she could find it again.
- In the beginning, Autumn felt cursed.
- Although she lost her daughter, she knows her organ donations have helped save the lives of three other people.
- It’s so easy to focus on the stuff that hurts so bad, but remind yourself and remind yourself, and remind yourself, there’s more positives to this than negatives.
- Autumn had horrible days where she felt the world was against her.
- How did Autumn date again after the loss of her husband?
- Even though you have a lot of loss, you can still be happy.
- Autumn had a good day, and that day turned into weeks, and then it turned into months. It’s a slow progress, but it does happen.
- Autumn has had to keep her fears in check and figure out if this is an irrational fear or a rational one.
Resources:
Growingwithgrief.com
Reverend Anne Presuel suffered intense grief over 20 years ago and it sparked her down this journey of intuitive energy and healing. Her grief shook her to her core where she didn’t know if she could even trust God again. However, there is hope. Today, not only is Anne an Interfaith Minister, but she is also a certified Emotional Freedom Technique Practitioner, Master Alignment Therapist, and Angel Therapy Practitioner. In this episode, Anne shares how you can use your intuitive energy to unlock the endless possibilities within you and to help you soothe your grief.
Key Takeaways:
- Susan worked with Anne to help her improve and change her energy and life outlook.
- How did Anne get into energy healing?
- Susan never considered herself a very ‘woo woo’ kind of person, but this work has transformed her.
- Anne helped Susan get clear on her grief. She shares what this process looks like.
- Anne shares her grief story and how she came to trust her intuition.
- How can you create new pathways when you’re in grief?
- What is tapping and how does it help people?
- When Anne learned how to tap and release bad energy, she ended up meeting her husband shortly after.
- It’s all about unblocking you so that you can tap into your possibilities.
- Anne shares a technique you can use to help soothe the waves of grief you might experience throughout the day.
- Grief doesn’t define you. It’s just something you went through.
- How do you honor your boundaries and stand up for yourself when you’re in such a vulnerable state?
- We are manifesting all the time. Either we are aligned or not aligned when we do it.
- Sometimes we have to figure out what we don’t want to know what we do want.
- What advice does Anne have for those currently in grief?
- Trust your inner voice. It will not lead you astray.
- Anne has changed Susan’s life and has immensely helped her grief journey.
Resources:
Divinelyintuitivebusiness.com
Michelle Anhang lost her husband to suicide when she was 34 years old. She had two young children to take care of and the stigma was so bad that her family thought it was better to tell friends he passed away in an accident. This meant that Michelle had to live with this grief secret for over ten years before she had the courage to reveal the truth.
Today, she is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and a Professional Certified Coach (PCC). Michelle works with her clients on ways to better their mental health and shares tips on this week’s episode on how to navigate depression and thoughts of suicide during the holiday season.
Key Takeaways:
- Michelle lost her husband by suicide when she was just 34 years old.
- Because of the stigma, Michelle’s family decided it was best to say he died in an accident. She held onto that secret for 10 years.
- Michelle lived in constant fear that someone would find out her secret. She didn’t even want to talk about his passing because it would have just been a lie.
- Did Michelle feel regret or guilt that her husband passed in such a shocking way?
- Family members can’t do anything to prevent suicide from happening. When mental illness takes over, it just takes over.
- When Susan’s husband passed away, she didn’t want to live. She felt so much shame because she had a daughter to take care of.
- No one Michelle knew could relate to her. She had to explain to her young children what death meant.
- How do you create a brand new life when the picture in your head isn’t going to happen?
- The man that Michelle knew was long gone. Mental illness had fully taken him over.
- A lot more people are at a higher risk of suicide around the holidays. How can you improve your mental health during this time?
- What is your inner voice saying to you?
- You are loveable.
- What has Michelle’s journey of recovery looked like over the years?
- If you don’t deal with your problems, your problems will deal with you.
- Michelle offers advice for someone grieving a loss of suicide.
Resources:
Michelleanhang.com
Kelly Frager partners with organizations to help them optimize the power of their people through training and consulting. On this week's episode, Kelly talks a lot on the topics of work etiquette and shares what coworkers can do to show up for a grieving coworker. She also shares a quick and handy list of things to say and things not to say when someone has recently lost someone. Grief will always be with us, but it does get easier as time goes on. Key Takeaways: Nearly all people want to feel good about where they work. What kind of work etiquette should someone have when one of their co-workers is grieving? Grief makes you behave in strange ways. People struggle with words the most and people will go out of their ways to avoid saying something stupid. What are some of the things you shouldn't say to someone grieving? Kelly shares a helpful list. Kelly also shares a list of things that makes people feel loved and like you're there for them. Someone came up to Susan and told her, “You are a wonderful wife to Paul.” It was so meaningful. The words people say, they matter. Although people want to empathize with what you're going through, saying, “I know how you feel.” can be quite hurtful to someone in grief. The best thing you can do is listen and be there for someone. Allow the person to share their stories. “Call me if you need something.” This is another phrase that is unhelpful to the griever. The easiest ways people show love is through food, but Susan was overwhelmed with gestures of food and she ended up throwing it away. Year two was harder to deal with for Susan than year one. People assume that you'll be okay after a year, but you're not. It can be worse. Grief takes on different forms and people grief in different stages. When Susan lost her husband, everyone she knew came to see her. Kelly shares how she keeps the memory alive of her family members who have passed. Write a personalized letter and send it in the mail. It means so much more than a text message. Resources: Kellyfrager.com
Monica Jayne is an Authentic Relating facilitator and helps her clients create and embody more connected, vulnerable and authentic interactions and relationships in their life. She has studied alongside vulnerability expert Brené Brown, relationship and polarity expert Alison Armstrong, mindset expert Dr. Joe Dispenza, and sexuality expert Jaiya. If you find yourself putting other people’s needs before yourself, especially during the holiday season, then you need to listen to Monica and her wisdom on how to honor your yeses and your nos.
Key Takeaways:
- Monica shares her grief story.
- Monica was able to ask her mother everything she ever wanted to ask her before she passed. Even on the topics of sex.
- What happened to the family dynamics after Monica’s mother passed? Things fell completely apart within 3 years.
- There’s tons of resources on how -you- can cope with the loss of a person, but there’s no resources out there about what to do when the whole family falls apart due to the loss of one person.
- How can you honor your yes and honor your no.
- Monica grew up doing everything you were supposed to do. Not what she wanted to do.
- Fast forward, she’s making six figures and crying in the parking lot feeling so unfulfilled.
- Whether you realize it or not, we’ve been conditioned by our environment and this sometimes suppressed our true selves.
- We need to take time to unlearn all the ‘shoulds’ and ‘shouldn’ts’ our society has put on us.
- How can someone best honor their yeses and their nos?
- Are you a self described ‘people pleaser’?
Monica Jayne's Bio:
Dare To Be Unabashedly You™ is Monica Jayne’s slogan and the undeniable outcome you'll experience with her.
She supports adults who have done lots of self-development but aren’t getting where they want to be in themselves, their relationships, and their life. They know there is more to life! Monica Jayne knows that at the foundation of not having what you want, is the fact that you’ve been told who and how to be your whole life. NOW, it’s time to resurrect your OWN voice and learn to listen to YOU! She guides you home to your own truth, authenticity, and voice so that you can speak up and be you.
Monica Jayne has studied directly with vulnerability expert Brene Brown, mindset expert Dr. Joe Dispenza, relationship and polarity expert Alison Armstrong, sex expert Jaiya, and sexological bodywork creator Joseph Kramer. She has two college degrees, earned Magna Cum Laude in 2006, and certifications in the Erotic Blueprints™, Queer Competency, Accelerated Evolution™, Hatha Yoga, and forthcoming in Sexological Bodywork. Monica Jayne has supported 1000s of adults across 6 continents and 45 countries guiding them in deep shadow work and awakening to pleasure and joy to become their true selves.
Because she wants everyone to feel safe to be who they are, she created a membership community for you that guides you into conscious authentic adulting and play called They Didn’t Teach Me That™ PLAYHOUSE and a process called Authentic Evolution™ - 7 steps for excavating your truth and knowing what you truly want. Both are available to you through her website.
Visit MonicaJayne.com/morehttp://monicajayne.com/more?fbclid=IwAR2AykQHQwveQmhGyiv1569u_YdfuRZl5c702O7FE-da1a3mL_IL1Xcieu4 - for amazing freebies including Look Back to Move Forward™, mentioned in this episode! Or dive into the full process and pick up Authentic Evolution™http://monicajayne.com/authentic-evolution for 15% off with code TENDRILSOFGRIEF!!
Resources:
Monicajayne.com
Join Monica’s program: http://bit.ly/iwantitfirst
MonicaJayne.comhttps://www.monicajayne.com/ - and use TENDRILS OF GRIEF for 15% off.
IG: @iammonicajayne or https://www.instagram.com/IAmMonicaJayne/
Facebook: Facebook.com/Monica.Jayne.mehttp://facebook.com/Monica.Jayne.me
Pastor Jeeva Sam has helped hundreds of families on their grief journey. He has over 35+ years of active congregational ministry before retiring in 2017. Susan is a spiritual person and not a religious one, but when she saw her husband dying, she really struggled with her relationship with God. Some of the most hurtful things that were said to her were from good-intentioned Christians. Pastor Jeeva shares his life experience on how to continue to have a strong relationship with God and what to say/do if you have a grieving friend.
Key Takeaways:
- What difference does faith make when you're going through a terminal illness?
- When people ask Pastor Jeeva why is God doing this, he has a unique way of looking at it/framing it.
- Life is not fair but God is good.
- When being diagnosed with a terminal illness, people feel like they've been abandoned by God.
- You sometimes see people praising God for healing someone from cancer or another illness. However, when it doesn't happen to you, you can feel forsaken.
- Pastor Jeeva shares a story about a friend of his, was a big believer, but still ended up passing away.
- Ask God to please open your heart, your mind, and your eyes, so that when the answers do come, you can see them.
- Some of the most hurtful things that were said to Susan came from Christians.
- Pastor Jeeva shares how different ways people express their faith can be hurtful.
- You don't have to defend God based on life's actions and circumstances.
- It can be as simple as calling someone up and asking how they're doing. You don't need to give your advice.
- Being with someone is better than what you have to say.
- Give people the space to mourn.
- What do you do when you’re struggling with your spirituality?
Resources:
Thesams.ca
Cathy Campbell is a Licensed Professional Counselor and has worked in a variety of different roles including, Hospice Grief Counselor, an Adjunct College Professor, a Causality and Death Notification Coordinator, and a Mental Health Counselor for our military. To continue our holiday grief series, Cathy shares advice on how to best navigate, set proper boundaries and expectations, and how to create a bit of control when things get too hectic as families come together.
Key Takeaways:
- Holidays are difficult enough! Add grief on top of that and you get a very painful experience.
- We have cliche perspectives on what the holidays should be like and they’re sometimes unrealistic to achieve.
- Find ways to take charge of your lie and take on something you can control during the holidays.
- Just give yourself a break. .
- It’s okay to let people know what your expectations are.
- Don’t want to go to a social gathering? Set time limits for yourself.
- What do you do if you don’t want to spend time with family members you don’t like?
- Don’t let someone else make the plans for you. Take charge.
- When Susan’s husband passed, she didn’t even know what she wanted herself. She was completely drained, how do you best navigate that?
- How can a friend show up for a grieving person?
- The most important thing to keep in mind is to not make assumptions.
- Calling your friend and asking them ‘what do you need’ can actually go a really long way.
- How can you better show up for yourself when you’re just not feeling it?
- Do what you have to do to get through the holidays.
- Every holiday is not the same. You will have some good pens and some bad ones.
Resources:
Newly Widowed, Now Socially Awkward by Eileen L. Cooley Ph. D
Dr. Ashley Wellman is a scholar and professor that specialises in homicide, victimology, and trauma since 2008. She is also a children’s book author. As a widower and single mother, she had to find her way again and rebuild her life after the sudden passing of her husband. She shares her story and how she was able to navigate her grief journey.
Key Takeaways:
- Dr. Ashley had four miscarriages and also had hit a ceiling in her career. She just wasn’t happy.
- Dr. Ashley shares her grief story and how she lost her husband.
- Within hours of her husband passing away, Dr. Ashley went into a bookstore with tears coming down her face and asked for every book they had on grief for children.
- Dr. Ashley had to explain to their young daughter how her father died.
- When Dr. Ashley came home, she had to get rid of everything near where her husband fell.
- Dr. Ashley knew she had to set a good example of life going forward for her daughter.
- Dr. Ashley witnessed her child grieving differently than her.
- Dr. Ashley was a 34 year old widow in a new town with a four year old who watched her husband die. Dr. Ashley is not going to assume someone else’s grief story is the same as hers.
- In this new job position, Dr. Ashley knew she had to stick to her identity and prove to her colleagues that she wasn’t a hot mess.
- Dr. Ashley ended up getting bereavement leave from her job and it was a blessing. She doesn’t know how she would have been able to do her job so soon after the incident.
- Sometimes your colleagues, people you consider friends, and your managers can be your hardest critics with no empathy after you lose someone close to you.
- Why did Dr. Ashley decide to write a children’s book?
- What’s life really about?
- Don’t hold grudges, it doesn’t serve you.
- If someone is not serving you in your life, it’s okay to move on.
Resources:
Ashleywellman.com
Dr. Ashley on Twitter
Dr. Ashley bio
Myfriendfresno.com Promo code: Grief20
Katie Rössler has been working as a licensed counselor and grief healer for over 12 years. Currently based in Germany, she helps people from all over live healthier and happier lives. In today’s episode, she shares strategies you can adopt during the holidays when things feel very tough, especially if you feel like you have this external (or internal) pressure to look like you have it all together.
Key Takeaways:
- Katie is not new to grief. She shares her grief story.
- When you go through grief, it touches you in a different way. Beyond what the books can teach you.
- Most of us have a grief story that we’re still stuck on and haven’t worked through.
- We often try to avoid our problems and not face them. We go into an escape to help soothe us.
- Katie identified that food was one of her coping mechanisms. When she was able to clean them up, she felt better and could focus more on what was inside of her that she was trying to avoid.
- The holidays provide us an easy out for us to escape.
- What kind of signs should you look out for?
- People don’t really know how to respond to your grief.
- Katie’s grief about her mother didn’t take a toll on her until after the holidays and it took the family by surprise.
- How would Katie help someone struggling with family dynamics?
- Don’t let emotional manipulation from your family stop you from doing what’s best for you.
- Find visuals that work for you so that you can protect yourself and your own boundaries.
- Forgiveness doesn’t mean you’re just letting things go and having it go back to normal, it means you’re learning.
- How do you honor your loved one around the holiday season?
- How do you also get through the holiday season as a parent and show up a certain way for your kids?
- You’re creating new memories for your kids. It’s important to show up, but also take space for you and your emotional needs.
- Katie shares how someone can get through their first holiday, or first year, without their loved one.
- Allow yourself to break down. Reach out for help if you need it. Really make space for your grief.
- If it’s been a couple of years without your loved one, give yourself grace.
- Crying is not a weakness.
- Your loved ones really do want you to live your best life.
- Katie shares her final thoughts on how you can best manage your grief during the holidays.
Resources:
Katierossler.com
Today, we are kicking off a holiday series for grief. The goal behind is to provide tips and tricks on how people can best manage their grief during their holidays and not feel jealousy or animosity towards our family members and loved ones. This series will also provide resources so that you can help a friend you know who is grieving in the best way possible. This podcast showcase’s Susan and Susan’s daughter, Madison, on how they both managed their grief during the holidays.
Key Takeaways:
- This is Madison’s third year without her father.
- Halloween has just passed. A hard day for both Susan and Madison.
- Susan’s home was filled with laughter and silliness.
- Susan’s husband died six days before christmas. A lot of people came to check up on the family.
- Christmas the year after, the grief ended up setting in a lot harder because it was just Susan and the kids.
- Is it hard for Madison to see other people celebrating christmas with their dads and families?
- Susan received a letter from her friend a year later with a lot of kind words in it. It meant the world to Susan that someone was thinking about her.
- What advice does Madison have on how to support someone during the holidays?
- Do something nice for someone else.
- Talk to someone if you’re feeling sad. Don’t bottle it in!
- There is always something to be grateful for.
- Stay tuned for future episodes with our guests for this holiday season.
Raelin Saindon is a childhood abuse survivor and shares her story in this week’s episode. She did not only lose her step-father, but she lost her entire extended family as well, while her sister; who did not experience the same abuse, got to keep her family. Raelin shares how she has been able to heal from her deep wounds and be an inspiration to others in the work that she does.
Key Takeaways:
- Raelin shares a bit of her story and her experience with grief.
- Unfortunately, Raelin was sexually abused by her step-father for several years. She didn’t want to get him in trouble.
- Raelin finally confessed what was happening to her and it was traumatizing. She stopped going over to his house, but her younger sister still went. Raelin couldn’t believe they would allow her to still see this man.
- Raelin ended up losing her extended family, who she was close with, because of her confession.
- How did Raelin heal and grow from this?
- No matter what we go through, our life doesn’t end. We are stronger than we think.
- Raelin shares a story of her friend whose son took his own life and she was the one who found him.
- We feel so much guilt for being the one that gets to live and carry on.
- What advice does Raelin have for someone who has experienced deep childhood wounds?
- The more you bottle it up, the more it hurts you and the others around you.
Resources:
Raelinsaindon.com
Raelin’s Facebook group
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Victoria Volk is a certified Grief Recovery Specialist and the author of The Guided Heart. Victoria spent her entire life trying to figure out what was wrong with her, why she’d get angry for almost no reason, and the inner despair that she had in her heart. It wasn’t until she discovered the Grief Recovery Institute that things clicked for her. She had let her grief become part of her identity and it stunted her growth as a person. She shares her story and how it’s okay to not be okay.
Key Takeaways:
- Victoria lost both her father and her grandmother from cancer when she was 8 and her sister, who she was close with, graduated from high school and left home.
- Victoria’s mother took on a lot of grief and there weren’t resources back then that she could turn to.
- Victoria grew up so angry and it took her a long time to address this anger.
- Back then it was a sign of weakness to express grief or intense sadness.
- Victoria had a midlife unraveling when her children began to leave the house.
- When Victoria became a certified grief recovery specialist, that’s when things really clicked for her on her own traumas that she’s carried throughout her life.
- How is the Grief Recovery Institute different from other grief certification programs?
- Grief can really derail your entire life and it can even become part of your identity.
- Victoria feels like her grief stalled her growth early on.
- There’s over 40+ different losses we can experience in our life.
- Society makes it difficult to fully grieve and process our emotions.
- The Grief Recovery Institute is a 7 week program.
- If you feel like you’re not okay, it’s okay to ask for help.
- There is nothing wrong with you.
Resources:
Theguidedheart.com
Theunleashedheart.com
Tanya Tenica Patxot lost her highschool sweetheart at 24 years old. She was pregnant with their second child at the time and had a hard time coping with everything that was going on. It was almost expected that Tanya would have everything ‘under control’, but on the inside, she was suffering. Tanya shares that when dealing with grief, you also have to deal with the underlying trauma that gets created from losing a loved one. If not, then little problems or triggers will keep happening throughout your life.
Key Takeaways:
- How did Tanya get started in this work?
- Tanya lost her highschool sweetheart two days after she told him she was pregnant with her second child.
- This is also around the time where Tanya felt psychologically unemployable and wanted to start a business for herself.
- Tanya wasn’t dealing with grief well. She lost her husband at 24 years old. She had to host two funerals for him and had a child she had to protect.
- Tanya felt like it was almost expected of her to be under control and have all the ‘womanly’ duties done. She wonders if men would get the same treatment.
- When people asked her if she was okay, she was honest and just said no.
- People are so occupied by ‘what can I do for you’, but what you need is to just ‘be there’.
- When you lose such a presence in your home, you feel so scared and vulnerable. Having people just ‘be there’ in your home and doing everyday activities with you can be huge.
- How does Tanya help her clients? Some of them were making 6-7 figures and wanted to commit suicide.
- It sounds silly because we’re adults, but there’s something really powerful about someone giving you permission to be a crazy person/sad/wild/whatever you might be feeling.
- Oftentimes, when there’s grief, there is also trauma. When you feel triggered, there is a root cause to that and it’s important to keep diving deeper and deeper until you find it.
Resources:
Tanyatenica.com
Tina Hicks is the CEO of Jolt of Energy and is a workout and life coach. She helps her clients find the good and positive in life when things seem to be really heavy and weighing down on you. It all starts with mindset and practicing gratitude every day. It might not seem like much, but sometimes taking the smallest steps towards a positive change can really impact your entire outlook on life. Tina shares more on this week’s episode.
Key Takeaways:
- Sometimes you have to let go, but at the same time, you don’t want to say goodbye to who you are.
- Tina took a break from her career and was depressed. She turned to emotional eating to comfort her.
- How have you been talking about yourself? Why would you be cruel to your own wellbeing?
- It’s Tina’s purpose to bring a healthy relationship to yourself.
- Tina wants you to focus on mindset, not the food.
- Wake up every day with gratitude.
- Susan was in such a dark place that she was wondering why even her friends liked her.
- Fall in love with yourself again. It takes practice, but it’s possible.
- You can surprise yourself on what your body is capable of.
- Stop worrying about the little details and beating yourself up for it. Keep the eye on the prize and keep working towards your future self.
- How does Tina help someone who is in a bad place?
- Start small and then go from there.
Resources:
Tina on Instagram
Tina on Facebook
Wendy Andrew is a lifelong animal lover and vegetarian for over 30+ years. After leaving her job with the police, she became a dog walker and pet bereavement counselor. Through her years of work in this field, Wendy quickly realized this form of grief was often dismissed by employers, family, and friends. In this week’s episode, Wendy shares how the loss of a pet is no joke and can be quite traumatizing for our wellbeing.
Key Takeaways:
- Pet bereavement is often dismissed or mocked by society.
- How did Wendy get into pet bereavement counseling?
- Pets give you unconditional love and when they pass, your own health can deteriorate too.
- Our pets are a constant in our lives and it can affect us much more than a person passing away.
- What are some of the positive ways to mourn your pet in a way that honors them?
- When does it make sense to discard pet toys or bowls of a passed away pet?
- So many pet owners get stuck with guilt in their grieving process.
- When is it okay to get another pet?
- Getting a new pet doesn’t replace a previous one, it just makes your heart bigger.
- Employers do need to be compassionate when an employee loses a lifelong pet.
- Do pets also experience grief?
- Wendy shares some last thoughts on how to best manage the grief when you’ve lost a pet.
Resources:
How To Recover From Pet Loss: Supporting You On Your Journey To Acceptance by Wendy Andrew
Website - www.thescottishpetbereavementcounsellingservice.com
Email - hello@counsellor.com
Facebook - @thescottishpetbereavementcounsellingservice
Instagram - @the_spbcs
Twitter - @The_SPBCS
Kathy Sanderson always dreamed about having a big family, but unfortunately it was just not in the cards. Kathy and husband would try, but they would end up having miscarriage after miscarriage. Despite having 3 children, Kathy could not carry her babies to term and she felt a lot of shame around this. Kathy shares her grief story and how she was able to overcome her feelings of inadequacy as a woman during these very challenging years.
Key Takeaways:
- Kathy shares her grief story and how she got started in this line of work.
- What is a rainbow baby?
- Although Kathy currently has 3 beautiful children, she has had several miscarriages and each of them passing was heartbreaking.
- Kathy needed to prove to herself that she could carry a baby to term.
- Kathy is a medium so she could hear her children dying and talking to them up until their last breath.
- The trauma of losing all these children, Kathy had to give up her career to focus on herself.
- What made Kathy decide that she was no longer going to try to carry a baby to term?
- Kathy didn’t realize the full extent and impact it had on her husband when he found out that she miscarried.
- Kathy took the time to look inward and take on a path of spiritual healing, and realized that she never really felt loved.
- People would tell Kathy, ‘Can’t you just be happy with the 3 you got?’ That’s not the point!
- Out of all of this, Kathy has learned that she is not a victim and she’s not going to let other people take control of her own life. You choose what happens to you.
- Death is just not talked about. Kathy’s 3 children have experienced a lot of death from such an early age.
- What advice does Kathy have for women who are struggling to get pregnant or are unable to conceive? You can maintain your personal power. Keep holding on to your power.
Resources:
Healingfromwithin.co.uk
Jillie Maria is a Transformational Catalyst, Certified Akashic Records Practitioner, & Intuitive specializing in grief and trauma work. She holds space for deep healing, one client at a time. Jillie shares why it’s important to grieve different life transitions, even if you haven’t physically lost someone. Your body keeps emotions in and pushing those down will only cause your emotions to resurface at odd and strange times.
Key Takeaways:
- Jillie shares her unique perspective on grief.
- A lot of us don’t know how to grieve. Our society even shames us for grieving!
- We have to grieve the routines we don’t have.
- Jillie’s grandmother survived World War 2 and apologized to her and the family for making them unemotional. She felt like she didn’t have the luxury to feel emotions.
- You get to feel what you feel.
- What would it look like if you felt your anger? What would it feel like if you just laid on the ground and cried?
- Susan has yelled at her husband so many times for having to go through some of these moments alone.
- What is it like if you get stuck in your grief?
- For many men, they end up remarrying within two years of losing their spouse.
- Sometimes you need to take a step back and grieve so you don’t make everyone else’s life around you miserable.
- How did Jillie become a psychic medium?
- It’s okay to be happy again, and it’s okay to find happiness again after the passing of a loved one.
- Jillie lost her best friend in 2016. It was devastating. She shares how she honors her.
- What should we know about our grief? We are emotional beings.
- Our loved ones want us to be happy. Sometimes happiness looks like sobbing your eyes out.
- Jillie shares one piece of advice for someone who is currently grieving.
Resources:
Jillie on Facebook
Jillie on LinkedIn
Jennifer Warren lost her husband when he was in his early 40s. It was a sudden loss and it took her by surprise. She started her blog as a way to detail the very raw and emotional journey of her grief. It was a place where she could be vulnerable and share things that her friends didn’t know she was going through. Through all of this, she found gratitude and the goodness of others. Find out more about Jen and her story in this week’s episode.
Key Takeaways:
- Jen shares her grief journey and how she lost her husband.
- Knowing what she knows now, Jen would have taken her husband to the ER when he had trouble sleeping.
- Jen’s conscious husband went to the hospital with the ambulance and she stayed at home to get things in order. When she met him at the hospital, he was on a ventilator and was not conscious. A chaplain had met with her in the lobby to prepare her for what would happen next.
- Why did Jen decide to start a blog?
- How did Jen find comfort in grief?
- Jen offers words of wisdom for those of you who might be stuck in your grief.
- People care about you. People really do.
- Just because people aren’t there every single day after you lose someone, doesn’t mean they’re not there. You just have to look for them.
- Jen’s blog is to show vulnerability because she knows a lot of people in her life don’t know she’s going through this.
- What advice does Jen have for someone who is grieving right now?
- Practice gratitude.
- Don’t wallow in self-pity. Don’t underestimate your friendships.
Resources:
Jenr8ion.com
Sherrie Toews is the Founder and CEO of Effortless Momentum as well as a licensed marriage family therapist and breakthrough coach. When it comes to grief, it can be so hard working through your emotions. If you find yourself hung up or stuck, a therapist can help you through your grief process. In this episode, Sherrie shares some strategies on the best ways to navigate your grief and communicate with your loved ones on what you need.
Key Takeaways:
- When it comes to grief, what do some of Sherrie’s clients struggle with the most?
- Susan’s daughter went into a very dark place when Paul passed away. No one really knew how to respond to it.
- Why is it that some people get stuck in their own emotions?
- Expressing anger is very healthy.
- It’s so important to work through your emotions and get help if you need it.
- “Why Me?” is sometimes an impossible question to answer.
- Write a letter to whoever you’re mad at! Let it all out!
- When Susan was grieving, she didn’t need a casserole, she needed someone to just hold her hand and stare at the wall.
- You’re doing the best you can and your friends/family are also doing the best that they can, but miscommunication or mismatches will happen during your time of grief.
- When do you know you’re experiencing healthy anger vs. unhealthy anger?
- Love people through the anger phase.
Resources:
Effortlessmomentum.com
Lisa Zawrotny is a Certified Stress Management Coach and specializes in productivity and organization. She is also the host of the Positively Living podcast. When it comes to your loved one’s possessions, what do you do when you know it’s time to make space? How do you continue to honor them? Lisa helps define the balance and works with what you feel is right. She offers advice on this week’s episode on how to best tackle this while still keeping your loved one’s memories alive.
Key Takeaways:
- When do you know it’s time to remove or discard a loved one’s possessions?
- When we don’t want to interact with the world, having clutter around us really makes us feel safe.
- Give yourself permission to pack away items, but create an inventory/list of what’s in them.
- Susan felt like she had some things she could not get rid of at all, but after six months, she was ready to depart with it. Sometimes it just takes time!
- Lisa kept one of her dad’s clothing for 15+ years. Whatever it is that you’re feeling, that’s truly the right choice.
- How should you depart with the things? Do you give them to Good Will?
- What happens if a family member wants an item you cherish? How do you manage that?
- You can always change your mind. The grief process is complex and you don’t need to apologize for that.
- When clearing out items, it doesn’t have to be an ‘all or nothing’ kind of thing.
- There is nothing wrong with having a ‘maybe’ box.
- When does it make sense to hire a professional organizer or get extra help?
Resources:
Positivelyproductive.com
Dr. Chris Sopa is an industrial-organizational psychologist, speaker, and researcher who has spent the last 20 years studying human potential, self-awareness, and ‘selective mind theory™’ (the ability to select the thoughts that will drive the behaviors we seek). Dr. Chris’ passion can be found at the juncture of the mind (logic) and the heart (intuition), both working together as channels that guide us on our own unique path. She uses the idea of tapping into the whole person (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) to help people overcome seemingly impossible obstacles, personal and professional life changes, loss of power (self-worth), and illness.
Dr. Chris is the author of three published books Choosing the Life You Were Born to Live: How Changing Your Thoughts Will Change Your Life (Balboa Press, 2012), Breaking Free: Overcoming Self-Sabotage (Professional Women Publishing, 2013), and Women of Courage (Professional Women Publishing, 2020), as well as several white papers and articles. Dr. Chris received a B.S. from Bowling Green State University and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Capella University, where she graduated with high honors. She is currently the CEO of The Wayfarer Group, LLC, which she created in 2003 as an organization to inspire human potential. She resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Key Takeaways:
- A little bit about Dr. Chris and her grief story.
- People can get stuck in anger and depression.
- Do people get stuck in a particular stage of grief? More so than the others?
- People tend to get stuck around anger because it’s not as widely accepted to express.
- Depression is another tricky one people have a hard time getting over.
- It’s okay to be in the depression phase when going through the five stages of grief.
- It’s important to identify your feelings. Sometimes we’re just not aware of how sad we feel!
- Locations can trigger strong emotional responses.
- When you’re dealing with heavy problems, you can’t just ‘think positive’.
- People want us to go from a 10 to 0, but really, your goal should be from getting from a 10 to just a number 8.
- Don’t ignore your feelings. Our brains and bodies need to process the emotions, the more you push it down, it’ll come back again and you’ll have to restart the process all over again.
- How we talk to ourselves and the words we use matter.
- Everyone has been hurt by words. Words are very hard to take back.
- Understand what your boundaries are and be protective of them. Avoid energy vampires.
- Sometimes we keep unhealthy people around because we’re afraid of being alone.
- Be kind to yourself. You know you best. Don’t let other people’s ‘shoulds’ dictate your life.
- Your best is going to be different every day. Take one step at a time.
Resources:
Chrissopa.com
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Marni Battista is a dating and relationship coaching and the Founder of Dating with Dignity and the Institute for Living Courageously. Marni coached Susan through this new dating world she found herself in after 20 years of being married to Paul. Marni shares advice for widows out there who are ready to start dating again, but aren’t sure how.
Key Takeaways:
- Dating after loss is scary.
- Susan hired Marni to help her navigate this very scary space.
- How do you know when you’re truly ready for love again?
- What are the values you want to share with your partner? Marni recommends a minimum of five deal-breakers.
- There is someone out there for you.
- Susan had a big sense of relief where she could talk about her late husband freely with her new partner without him feeling threatened.
- If you don’t have your mind right, you can start to ‘leak’ and it can show up everywhere. People can pick up on these subtle cues.
- Susan hadn’t dated in 20 years and the whole landscape had changed. Marni offers advice on how to navigate that.
- How do you protect yourself from scammers?
- If someone wants to see you, they will write you back, they will make an effort to see you.
- When Susan started dating again, it felt like this was finally something she could do for herself and not as a caretaker.
- We are so good at nurturing other people that we forget about our own needs.
- It takes courage to open up your heart and to love again.
- Can you put your feelings out there even when you don’t know how it’s going to be received?
- Susan really truly believes she found a man that her late husband would have approved of.
Resources:
Marni’s Website
Join Marni’s Dating Den Facebook Community
After her son passed away from cancer, Erica went on an 8-year journey where she felt and acted insane. It was eventually discovered that Erica had PTSD and it’s taken her only up until last year to finally feel somewhat normal again and to recognize her triggers. She shares both the emotional and physical toll the loss of her son took on her and what has helped bring her back to a bit of normalcy as she continues on.
Key Takeaways:
- Erica lost her son to cancer.
- Erica went to therapy and spent her time trying to convince her therapist that she was crazy. She felt insane.
- Everything in Erica’s life just kept surfacing, the grief she had experienced even when she was two years old, and she couldn’t turn it off.
- Not only did Erica suffer the emotional effects, but she had an intense physical response to grief as well.
- Erica was diagnosed with PTSD and she would randomly pass out when she got too stressed out.
- The next phase Erica went through was fear. She had fear everywhere she turned.
- Erica shares tactics and strategies she used to keep her grounded.
- Erica felt like this for 8 years and it was only until the last year and a half did she feel like a normal person again.
- It’s taken time for Erica to feel healthy again.
- Your body reacts to what you’re thinking.
- When Erica went back to work for the first time, it was really hard.
- Erica got stuck in her grief when she saw her son decline.
- It feels like a full-time job to keep herself somewhat ‘normal’.
- Erica was working before the pandemic. Now she’s unemployed. She’s not sure what’s next for her.
- Susan and Erica talk about their relationship with God after the passing of their loved one.
- When it comes to grief, get a therapist! You’re not crazy if you have someone to help you through this journey.
- If you have bad or evil thoughts, it doesn’t mean you’re suicidal. You’ve gone through something very dramatic in your life. Practice forgiveness.
- If you think you’re losing your mind or going insane, this is very normal in your grief journey.
Resources:
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Kate Arnold is the Washington D.C. Franchise Owner of The Bar Method. When she found out there wasn’t a Bar Method studio in D.C., she knew she had to be the one to fix that! The positive community makes this place so much more than just a fitness gym. She shares why it’s so important to care for your mental health and practice self-care as well as offers tips on how to best incorporate a bit of gratitude into your everyday life.
Key Takeaways:
- How do you unlock the right doors to create space for healing?
- Kate shares her background and why she decided to focus on wellness and self-care.
- Susan shares why she loves The Bar Method.
- How did Kate first discover the importance of self-care?
- Kate has changed a lot through her self-care journey and has so much love in her life.
- Life is short and anything we can do to enhance the time that we have is so important.
- Susan had so little to be grateful for when her husband passed, but when she took on a gratefulness practice, she was able to see the good in the small moments.
- Just start small.
- It’s important to have a why when practicing self-care.
- Move your body! It’s very important to help with your mental health.
- Don’t feel guilty if you don’t do it. You don’t need guilt on top of grief.
- If you have a bad day, you can get back up.
Resources:
Barmethod.com
Kate on LinkedIn
Kate on Facebook
Becky Tuma lost her daughter, McKenna, to sudden infant death syndrome when she was only 3 months old. Becky returned to work after two weeks and the work environment was different. People were trying to ignore the elephant in the room. Becky shares her grief journey and shares advice on how to best handle grief in the workplace.
Key Takeaways:
- How do you get back to work after experiencing a devastating loss?
- Becky shares her grief journey and the loss of her daughter.
- The physician that cared for her daughter and helped her through this journey will forever be in Becky’s memory. He did a wonderful job.
- You can ask why all day long, but in the passing of a loved one, it’s hard to find those answers.
- What was Becky’s transition back to work like?
- When Becky came back, she was locked out of almost everything. Was she being fired?
- Susan shares what happened when she came back to work after Paul died.
- We train for so many ‘what ifs’ like hostile work environments and sexual harassment cases, but no one trains for grief and the passing of a loved one.
- Becky left her job because she felt like she wasn’t wanted or welcomed.
- When someone is grieving at work, it’s important to create space for them to move through that grief, with support.
- How can employees best advocate for themselves?
- It’s okay to not know how to properly do this.
- If roles were reversed, you’d want someone to advocate for you.
- What advice does Becky have for organizations on how they can be better stewards of grief in the workplace?
- Challenge yourself to be different and work towards making the employee experience better.
Faith Wilcox lost her daughter, Elizabeth, to a rare form of cancer called Osteosarcoma. The journey was very tough, but over the years Faith has learned to love and appreciate the beauty of life. She shares her grief journey and the strategies she used to move forward after the passing of her daughter.
Key Takeaways:
- Faith lost her daughter to cancer and shares her story.
- When her daughter, Elizabeth, was going through cancer, she experienced a lot of sadness and a lot of isolation from her friends.
- 4 years after Elizabeth passed, Faith attended a college reunion and it was very difficult for her.
- If Faith is in a situation or a group where people can not relate to her or she feels uncomfortable, she is completely okay leaving that setting. There’s nothing wrong with doing that.
- How has Faith been able to feed her soul and move forward?
- Faith took the time to write a book, which will be coming out in June 2021.
- It took Faith 15 years after the passing of her daughter to write her memoir.
- Faith shares a poem she wrote on the podcast today.
- It’s been 20 years, how has life been for Faith right now?
- There is no timeframe for grieving.
- Faith honors her daughter by helping others through their grief journey.
- Faith created Journals of Hope and attends the MassGeneral Hospital for Children to help parents and grandparents journal out their feelings.
- Be kind to yourself.
- Never give up on hope. You can, and will, recover and you will have rewarding experiences.
Resources:
Faithwilcoxnarratives.com
Betsy Kammerud is a licensed clinical social worker providing clinical service to Hospice Savannah families for over eight years. One approach does not fit everyone on their grief journey. In this episode, Betsy shares her advice on how grieving families can build healthy coping mechanisms when dealing with a loss of a loved one.
Key Takeaways:
- A little bit about Betsy and her background in hospice.
- When someone passes, Betsy asks the family how they’d like to honor that person.
- When her husband passed, Susan decided to write a letter to Paul every night.
- People might believe at some point your grief is going to end. That’s just not how that happens.
- We go through a wide range of emotions, not just the ones listed in the 5 stages of grief.
- Group therapy gets you into a room with people who get it.
- What are the five things Betsy wants people to remember during their grief journey?
- Give yourself permission to feel, even if it’s happiness or sadness.
- There is so much loss of power when someone is dying.
- How can you regain your power in a healthy way?
- How can someone practice a ‘grounding’ exercise?
- If someone makes you feel awful when you’re around them, stop hanging around them!
- You deserve to be surrounded by people who love and support you.
- Betsy offers three pieces of advice for people who are currently grieving.
- Even if you don’t feel like it, eat something every day. Sleep when you can. Take care of yourself.
- Don’t beat yourself up on the unknown and unchangeables.
- Honor your grief path, honor your connection with your loved one, honor yourself. Walk your own path.
Resources:
Hospicesavannah.org
Betsy on LinkedIn
Kristina Shands is a transformational launch strategist and copywriter. She shares some social media best practices when dealing with grief and handling the pouring in of messages from friends and family. What’s the best way to share the news? If people are hurt, how do you navigate that? And so much more.
Key Takeaways:
- Kristina shares her grief story.
- As a launch strategist, Kristina shares how she used social media to share her story and inform her friends and family about her mother’s passing.
- Susan has had bad experiences with people on social media.
- When is it appropriate to post on social media about a loved one’s passing?
- Having deep and personal conversations on facebook is not the best way. Pick up the phone and call to talk to them if they are doing something disrespectful to you.
- If someone is hurt, don’t try to hash it out on Facebook. It just causes more hurt.
- Some people just want to be the knowledge center, but they do not consider what that really means and who that ends up hurting.
- For some people, having a facebook page of the person who has passed is very comforting and keeps their memory alive. For others, it’s very painful.
- Look into your social media settings, you have a lot more control than you think!
- It was very difficult for Susan to look at social media after the passing of their husband and seeing how everyone was moving on with their lives and going on vacation together as a family.
- We have to be really aware of what we’re allowing into our hearts and in our minds.
- Susan had to unfollow and block people from her friend circle. It feels petty and childish, but it had to be done!
- Don’t be guilted into being friends with people you don’t like. That doesn’t apply to social media.
- Everytime Kristina got on instagram, she just felt worse about herself.
- The beauty of social media is you can unfollow people who don’t serve you and follow people who inspire you! You have control over this!
- When it comes to grieving, you can’t compare what you’re going through with someone else’s grief journey.
- Why is Kristina passionate about social media?
- Give yourself permission to say no to toxic people in your life. Your sanity and your wellbeing deserves that.
- We don’t owe anyone a front row seat to our lives!
Resources:
Kristinashands.com
Christie was married to her husband, Brian, for 30 years before he passed away suddenly one night. He was riding his motorcycle when he was hit by an oncoming truck. It was so sudden that Christie didn’t even believe it was real until after she received the autopsy report, despite already having a funeral for him. She was not able to say goodbye to him one last time due to it being a closed casket. She shares her story and how she’s been able to work through her grief.
Key Takeaways:
- There is never a good time or a good way to lose someone you love.
- Christie shares her grief story.
- She couldn’t believe it. It couldn’t be her husband that was gone overnight.
- Christie arrived at the funeral home, only to find out her husband wasn’t even there. They had moved him to another location. The whole process was chaotic and painful.
- Christie unfortunately couldn’t even see her husband one last time due to how bad the motorbike accident was. There was a closed casket ceremony.
- When Christie got the autopsy report, that’s when it finally hit her that this was real. That her husband did pass away. It was a hard feeling.
- Christie needed closure and met with the driver who ended up killing her husband. She decided to forgive him. Her soul needed peace.
- What has Christie’s grief journey been like?
- Christie’s feelings were all over the place. She felt like no one understood what she was going through.
- Thank God for therapy. Christie still continues to go to therapy to this day. It has been a blessing.
- What advice does Christie have for other grievers? No two people are the same.
- People might say the wrong thing, but at the end of the day, they’re just trying their best to relate to you and help you through your pain.
Clarke McBee is a Licensed Professional Counselor and the Director of Community Relations at Home Instead Senior Care. In this podcast episode, she shares why someone should consider hospice care, how people can best navigate anticipatory grief, and why certain strong emotions (like anger) come up during the grieving process.
Key Takeaways:
- How did Clarke get into this field of work?
- What is the difference between working with people in anticipatory grief vs. post-death grief?
- Susan had a very tough time when she was in the anticipatory grief stage.
- Susan is grateful she had a hospice team because they made recommendations so that Paul could still be a part of their daughter’s life during her big milestones.
- Is grief different between people who know when a loved one is going to pass vs. if they had someone pass very suddenly?
- There is no right or wrong way to grieve.
- Susan’s daughter said that the father she knew, died a long time ago. This statement rang true, but it punched Susan right in the gut.
- Where does anger come from when you experience grief?
- What advice does Clarke have for someone who is in anticipatory grief?
Linda was married to Scott for 35 years and it was a rocky marriage. They got accustomed to living as roommates and were close to throwing in the towel when Scott got diagnosed with cancer. They spent a year working on all the pain their relationship had and it became a year of healing where they both forgave each other. Even though it was a very horrible year, Linda is so grateful because it brought them closer together. She shares her grief journey.
Key Takeaways:
● Sometimes a terminal diagnosis can bring people together or tear people apart. ● Linda shares her story about how she met her husband, Scott. ● Scott suffered from depression all of his life. When it came time to retire, his depression got worse. ● Linda and Scott had gotten accustomed to living as roommates. Linda was sad and done. She was ready to divorce. ● However, Scott didn’t want her to go and was willing to reshape their lives so that they could live a better life. The following summer he was diagnosed with cancer. ● All those years, Scott didn’t wear his wedding band, but when he was faced with this, he wanted to put it back on again. ● It was a year of healing the relationship. They both forgave each other. ● Scott was so afraid to leave Linda behind. ● Scott had so much regret about all the years lost in the marriage. He apologized to Linda for ‘blowing it’. ● Linda remembers when she was completely alone after Scott passed. She asked, ‘Now what?’ ● Linda trusts God and has told herself she is going to be thankful and open to new paths. ● Linda feels so blessed. ● Linda was able to find a very supportive group at her church to help her through after Scott’s passing. Linda’s soul is filled with gratitude.
Miranda Parker is the Executive Director of Hospice Foundation of the South and the Hospice House. Miranda is also the co-founder of Loss Love, a project that supplies care packages for child survivors of suicide. Miranda shares why a hospice house can give you the space and self care you need to reconnect with friends and get the extra support you need as your loved one’s journey begins to pass.
Key Takeaways:
- Miranda shares a bit about her background and what she does for the Hospice House.
- How does Miranda help family members transition into a new normal as their loved one gets ready to pass?
- When Susan was helping her husband through his cancer journey, she had so much on her plate that her self-care completely went out of the window.
- Miranda helps her family members not feel so guilty for prioritizing themselves and practicing some self-care.
- By being able to take some time for yourself, you can reconnect with your social network and friends and gain access to a support you didn’t know you had.
- Your friends want to help you, but don’t always know how.
- Susan didn’t want to miss out, but her husband was often sleeping and she was not spending the quality time she needed with him.
- It’s okay to continue with life.
- For the most part, the person you're grieving doesn’t want your life to stop because theirs did.
- Miranda understands that relationships can be complex. She asks the patient if there are particular people they don't want to visit the Hospice House. This is a request they uphold even when they might not be conscious.
- It’s important to understand that the dying process is not about you. Miranda and her staff make sure that the person passing is going on their own terms.
- The hospice team is such a great asset not only for the person passing, but also for the family members.
- How is Miranda and the Hospice House giving back to the community and to the children who have experienced loss?
- It’s important that your children realize it’s okay to grieve and express themselves.
- What advice would Miranda like to give to an adult or to a child?
Melanie Green is a Bereavement Counselor at Hospice of Washington County and she shares some of the common struggles her clients go through when they’ve experienced intense loss. People sometimes feel like they’re abnormal for showing so much emotion and for crying all the time, but this is a perfectly okay thing to do. We each navigate through our grief journey differently. Melanie shares how each of her clients differ and how they’ve been able to overcome some of life’s challenges/differences after losing someone they care about.
Key Takeaways:
- What drew Melanie into grief counseling?
- What are some of the common questions or issues that grievers struggle with?
- Crying and sadness is an absolutely normal response to tragedy and loss.
- How can people better navigate social media when dealing with loss?
- There’s pressure from family that after a year you should be ‘better’, but how does Melanie feel about better managing timelines?
- Coming to terms with the fact that your life won’t be the same is the biggest hurdle people face.
- People felt that Susan’s daughter was ‘grieving wrong’ because she had a different way of handling loss.
- How can mindfulness help those who are grieving?
- The most important thing is to be with yourself and surround yourself with a good family while going through cancer or life-threatening diagnosis.
- Strength comes in many different forms after a loss.
- If you need help with a specific thing, ask! People want to help you during this challenging time.
- The best gift Susan’s grief counselor gave her was the permission to give Susan a chance to be a human being again.
- There is no correct answer. The way we handle grief is different for each one of us.
Quotes:
“I can’t think of a better reason to cry than losing someone you love.”
“People feel they’re abnormal when they’re expressing very real and human emotions.”
“There is absolutely no timeline. You grow a little stronger and adjust to this new life that you have.”
Alison shares her grief story when she lost both of her parents within a short period of one another. Her dad had always been sick and so when his passing came, Alison was prepared for it. She had her mom to help her through that grief. However, when her mom had passed away from cancer, even though she knew it was a ‘5 year diagnosis’, it still came to her as a shock. She was 21 when she found out both her parents had cancer and by the time she was 25, she had lost both of them. She shares her story.
Key Takeaways:
- Alison lost both of her parents within a two year span of one another.
- As Alison’s dad was dying, she got engaged and wanted to have her dad see her get married.
- When Alison’s mom passed away, she had to move out of their home while she was trying to graduate.
- It was tough, Alison is a speech pathologist and ended up having to be in the same room her mother died in two weeks later to help a patient.
- Looking back, Alison doesn’t know how she did it.
- People would tell Alison, ‘you’re so strong’, well, yeah, what else is she supposed to do?
- You’re a crazy person in your early 20s normally! And then your life gets turned upside down.
- Alison experienced envy when her friends had parents who could pay for them to go to college or had family that supported them.
- Alison felt so alone in her grief. No one knew what she was feeling or going through.
- Alison kept asking, ‘why?’. This shouldn’t have happened.
- Alison was so angry and saw a therapist...who ended up making her feel angrier.
- Even though Alison lost both parents, 8 years later she is still grieving her mom’s passing.
- People reacted poorly to Alison’s morbid sense of humor, but that was how she was able to handle the passing of her father.
- Everyday, Alison thinks about them and wonders what they’d think/feel about the situation she’s in.
- Alison tries to do little things to keep her parent’s memory living on.
- What are Alison’s coping mechanisms? Writing has been a huge healer.
- What advice does Alison have for others who have lost their parents?
- Any feelings you had during that moment are completely okay.
Jen shares her painful story of losing her husband to a rare terminal cancer at 38. He had been diagnosed with cancer as a teenager and was in remission for 25 years. However, when the cancer came back, her husband wanted nothing more than to connect with his absent parents. They didn’t get involved until the very end and Jen ended up being pushed out in some of the key decisions during that challenging time. She shares her story of how she navigated that pain and her in-law's blatant betrayal and disrespect.
Key Takeaways:
- Jen’s husband was diagnosed with a rare terminal cancer at 38.
- You’re not alone in this journey.
- Jen’s husband wanted nothing more than to be connected with his parents, but they didn’t get involved much until they found out it was serious.
- However, the parents' intense involvement towards the end was stressful. They wanted control over every medical decision Jen was making and how he should spend his time.
- It made Jen resentful that her husband was picking them over her. 12 years of marriage and she was being thrown to the side while they had been absent during that entire time and more.
- The times where he really wanted his parents to be there (like during unplanned emergencies and hospitalizations), his parents didn’t show!
- Jen’s husband allowed his father to take care of the life insurance side of things. Jen was devastated to hear this and prayed that his father would do the right thing to make sure she and the children would be taken care of.
- When he passed, his mother became resentful towards her and the doctors/nurses. She was upset that they didn’t take care of him. During the funeral, they pushed her and her children to the side.
- The insurance money came in...and the parents went on vacation.
- When Jen decided to take the legal route, things got ugly and now she is no longer in contact with that side of the family.
- Because of Jen’s story, Susan made sure that her husband and she were united on the legal side of things so that no one could make last-minute changes.
Dr. Eileen L. Cooley lost her husband of 30 years in a span of 2.5 months after he was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It was shocking, it was painful. Her children had grown and were no longer living at home and Dr. Elieen was struggling with her grief in the beginning. She found writing to be a comforting thing to help her work through her emotions and through that experience, she wrote the book, Newly Widowed, Now Socially Awkward to help others like her.
Key Takeaways:
- Dr. Elieen shares her story on how she lost her husband.
- Most of her circle of friends hadn’t been through such a loss and didn’t understand what Dr. Elieen was going through.
- Dr. Elieen expected the tears and loneliness, but she was caught off-guard when it came to social changes. She was annoyed at people and at herself.
- Dr. Elieen found comfort in writing herself letters and just taking time to write out her thoughts and feelings.
- “Call me anytime.” But after trauma, you’re less likely than ever to be the initiator.
- Dr. Elieen hated when people told her, “You’re stronger than you think.”
- Dr. Elieen would get invited to parties and she had such a conflict with it. She wanted to go, but she also wanted to leave without being noticed. There were a lot of mixed emotions.
- Susan really noticed things getting tough around the year two mark.
- As people are stuck in quarantine, the feelings of loss have become so much larger.
- Dr. Elieen's advice for those grieving is to not try to keep up with anybody’s timetable. You work on your own time.
- Be kind to yourself and the people in your life.
Get Connected:
Eileencooleyphd.com
Newly Widowed, Now Socially Awkward: Facing Interpersonal Challenges After Loss by Eileen L. Cooley Ph. D.
Jill lost her husband, John, in early 2018, after being married for 30 years. In 2007, she saw that John was acting weird and not like himself and he was misdiagnosed as bipolar, but his erratic behavior was far more extreme than the standard bipolar symptoms. On top of that, none of the medication was working. It was not until 10 years later, did Jill realize the true nature of his illness, it was Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) combined with Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). Jill shares her grief journey and how she’s been able to live life without John by her side.
Key Takeaways:
- One of the ways Susan was able to cope with tragedy was by becoming connected to a community that understood her pain.
- Jill shares the story of how she met and fell in love with her husband, John.
- After a death in his family, John decided to go back to school to become a respiratory therapist.
- John started showing signs of dementia but it was misdiagnosed as a bipolar disorder at first. Nothing was working.
- Jill has to do her own research to figure out it was FTD and ALS.
- FTD can last anywhere from eight to 20 years.
- Jill relied on God’s guidance to help her through this.
- It was a blessing that Jill’s children were supportive of her on how she was going to care for her husband.
- People often say that you’re lucky to spend the last moments of your life with him, but they don’t realize that you watch your loved one become tortured by the disease.
- There are so many points of grief leading up to death.
- Relying on your instincts is key in helping you through grief.
- When is the right time to take your wedding ring off?
- You’re still here. Jill still had things to do and she chose to live.
- What has been the most difficult in Jill’s grief journey? John was her biggest fan.
- Jill had to re-define her purpose after her husband passed away.
- Where is Jill now in her grief and how does she feel about the future?
- What advice does Jill have for those who have experienced loss? Take care of yourself.
Get Connected:
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Alz.org
Alsa.org
https://www.theaftd.org/
Gene is the mother of five children and grandmother to five children. Gene recently lost her 24-year old daughter to heroin two years ago and her older son, who is 33 years old, has terminal cancer. Gene has lost a child and is about to lose a second child and she shares how God has helped her through the passing of her daughter. She also shares coping strategies the various people in her family used and how they were different from her own. The best advice and comfort she received from others were typically from people who have lost themselves and understood deeply the pain that she was and is currently going through.
Key Takeaways:
- Gene lost her 24-year-old daughter to heroin.
- How has prayer helped Gene cope with her loss?
- The recovery rate of heroin addicts is between 2-4%.
- Gene’s older son, who is 33 years old, was diagnosed with a rare genetic cancer. It is terminal.
- People are desperate to help your family, but they go about it the wrong way.
- “You’re so strong.” Takes away the griever’s permission.
- Gene and everyone in her family grieve very differently. It was even hard for Gene to not give advice to her family. She learned sometimes you need to keep your mouth shut and recognize that this is just a terrible situation.
- Gene and her husband also had to learn how to overcome this together. They both grieve differently and it was a give and take.
- How would Gene like people to help her through her grief?
- Your friends go back to their regular lives at the 2-3 week mark, but you’re not done grieving after 3 weeks.
- We suck at helping people in pain!
- Gene believes Jesus died on the cross and arose from the dead so that he could open the gates of heaven for us.
- We are in the beginnings of a pandemic and people are going to suffer in a lot of ways.
- Those that have passed on are waiting for us in a better place. That’s how Gene gets out of bed.
- What would Gene like the world to know about Kate?
Get Connected:
Tendrilsofgrief.com
To continue from episode one, my daughter, Madison, shares her perspective on coming to terms with the passing of my husband, Paul. Madison opens up and shares what it was like seeing her father become a different person through treatment. She also shares how a lot of her peers did not completely understand what she was going through and she ended up losing life-long friendships because of her grief.
Key Takeaways:
- Madison tried to remain positive, but when mom and dad told her they were stopping treatment, she didn’t know how to feel.
- Madison’s dad was a weightlifter who loved food, but seeing him become sick by eating the very foods he loved, made it even harder for her to understand what was really going on.
- Madison’s dad would cry during major life events like her birthday and when she saw him cry, she broke down too.
- It had been a long time where Paul was sick and Madison was so numb to it all that at first she didn’t really know how to take the news that he had passed.
- Dad was always happy and he stopped being the person she knew when he underwent treatment.
- Madison’s friendships have changed now that her dad has passed. Her friends didn’t really understand that she was hurting and so they stopped talking to her.
- Madison felt shamed for her grieving.
- The adults in her life acted as nothing had happened. She just wanted someone to be there for her.
- People say she’s lucky because of the relationship she had developed with her dad, but she doesn’t feel lucky.
- How can you show up for a child who has recently lost a parent? Check-in with them and ask how they’re doing. Just let them know that they matter and notice them a bit more.
- Madison shares some fun stories about her dad.
Get Connected:
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Quotes:
“I thought it would be one of those cancers that would go away.”
“There is no one way to grieve, so when I didn’t grieve in a way that people were comfortable with, they judged me.”
“Losing a parent is a whole new different pain. Me and dad were best friends and he was always there for me.”
My story is that of a lot of love and a lot of loss. My husband felt resentful towards the people who were trying to steal his already-borrowed time, but as I helped him and supported him through his journey, Paul and I became closer than we ever had before. At the end of your life, what matters are the relationships you have, nothing else. For me, it’s about connecting with the right people and finding the right path forward. It hasn’t been easy. Some days are harder than others and some days are easier than others.
Key Takeaways:
- The story of how I fell in love with Paul. Not only did he become an amazing stepfather to my three children, but we also grew our family by having a baby girl together.
- Paul started to get sick and the doctors didn’t know why. He kept getting winded just by doing minimal physical activity.
- Paul finds out he has cancer, it’s stage four, and the origin of the cancer is unknown.
- Treatment was tough and Paul was not reacting well to it. He had every side effect you could imagine.
- I saw in Paul’s eyes that he wanted to let go and stop treatment. He looked to me for permission and I had to make one of the hardest decisions in my life.
- Throughout this whole journey, it was always Paul and I first and it made us grow closer together.
- People had their opinions on how Paul should manage his illness and these comments made him very resentful.
- On December 19th, Paul died peacefully in my arms.
- The first year of my grief journey was shock and numb.
- I regret that I went back to work so soon. I needed time to grieve.
- As my friends and family slowly went away, I felt alone and I had to manage life as a single parent. Year two was filled with heavy grief.
- My daughter was grieving so hard and I was powerless as a parent.
- I hate it when people tell me, “You’re so strong.” What does this even mean?
- Year three has been a phase of rebuilding for me. I think about Paul every day and I strive to honor his wishes.
- I am grateful for the people in my life.
Get Connected:
Tendrilsofgrief.com
Quotes:
“The one thing I was proud of is Paul and I did this together.”
“People told him to fight when he felt so defeated and weak and this made him feel weaker.”
“I was in a fog most of the time. Overwhelmed by sadness, loneliness, and pain.”
Grievers and grief professionals share their personal stories and describe what was helpful for them or their clients in working through grief. This podcast will outline steps to have hope and build meaning into your life.