My guest Junice Rockman is a Neuropsychotherapist, Media Correspondent & Mental Health Policy Advocate. In this episode, she brings her personal and professional wisdom to our powerful and far-reaching conversation. We explore so many topics from the impact of unprocessed grief and trauma across generations to the embodied nature of grief. We share some of the insights and practices we’ve both discovered over our careers that people have found helpful in honoring grief and oh so much more. J...
Jan 19, 2021•1 hr 14 min
You’re going to meet my inspiring new friend Kate Manser. She is the author of the book (and the movement), YOU MIGHT DIE TOMORROW. SO LIVE TODAY. What you will quickly discover through our conversation is that this isn’t just a flippant slogan or catchy phrase aimed to shock. It comes from hard-won growth in response to the loss of 4 friends in a span of 2 years. Though her initial response to these devastating deaths was fear, anxiety, and retreating from the world, she discovered that the bes...
Jan 05, 2021•1 hr 2 min
In this episode, I'm re-airing an episode (with a new introduction) that was originally released in October 2019. In When Stillness Silences Our Grief with my guest Autumn Campbell, we explored the incredible harm and isolation she experienced in the wake of delivering her son Zion stillborn more than 19 years ago. The reason I'm choosing to re-air this episode today is that 1 in 160 pregnancies ends in stillbirth in the U.S. One in 160. And yet, I'm disheartened to see how little has changed in...
Dec 22, 2020•1 hr 1 min
I’m thrilled to be bringing you a conversation I had with not just one, but two incredible humans, Michelle Williams and Rachel Bensoussan. These two are bringing their unique lived experiences, both personally and professionally, to honor the humanity in death, dying and grief. Both have faced personal loss, including the death of Michelle’s mother and the death of Rachelle’s partner Diane nearly 15 years ago. They also both recognize and are making visible the trauma and grief passed down thro...
Dec 08, 2020•1 hr 1 min
In Expansiveness of Grief, I’m bringing you a very special and personal conversation. I’m actually inviting you to listen in on a pretty typical conversation I have quite often with my longtime friend, Shonagh Taruza. In addition to being one of the most insightful and deeply compassionate human beings I know, She is a daughter without parents, losing her mother at 17 then her father at 30. She is an immigrant several times over, from Scotland to Zimbabwe to England to the US. She is a mother, a...
Nov 24, 2020•1 hr 20 min
In Bearing The Wait, my guest Christina Bain and I sat down together (physically distanced of course), to hold this beautifully intimate and special conversation about the grief that comes about when you face your own mortality. Christina was so honest and vulnerable as she opened up about the journey she’s been on over the past 5 years. She is 36, married to Wes, her husband of 12 years, and she has an 8-year-old girl named Marlowe. She also has Stage 4 Colon Cancer. She is wise and kind, she o...
Nov 10, 2020•1 hr 17 min
ABOUT THE EPISODE My guest, Michael Hebb, is an innovative and influential cultural figure and our conversation was fascinating, inspiring, and frankly blew me away. In End of Life Conversations, you’ll hear from a man who, since losing his father at 13, and feeling like a teenager out of touch with his peers and his family, has been on a quest to understand the secrets of human connection. His journey has been a wild and interesting ride so far, from studying the great philosophers and mystics ...
Oct 27, 2020•1 hr 19 min
The River in Her Heart with guest Amber Smith I am so honored to be bringing you the conversation Amber Smith and I shared recently. Amber’s wisdom, warmth and kindness touched my heart and I know it will touch yours too. Amber and her husband, country music singer Granger Smith, lost their 3-year old son River in an accidental drowning in their backyard pool in the summer of 2019. In today’s episode Amber opens up about what it’s like to be grieving in the public eye. She shares the advice she ...
Oct 13, 2020•53 min
If humor is the best medicine, then my guest today is going to make you feel so much better! When you find someone who just gets it, you want to hold on to them forever. That’s how I felt as I laughed and cried my way through today’s conversation with my guest, Leslie Gray Streeter . Leslie is the absolute queen of pop-culture references and she found a way to weave in more than a dozen as we explored her love and loss of her late husband Scott, the heartbreak of knowing her son will grow up wit...
Sep 29, 2020•1 hr 13 min
In This Episode Do you ever have a moment when you meet someone, a fellow traveler on their grief journey, and you know immediately you’re going to be friends? Well that’s how I felt the first time Elizabeth Benton and I spoke. Her warmth, thoughtfulness and tenderness shone through. Elizabeth is a successful entrepreneur, owner of Primal Potential . An inspirational author of the book Chasing Cupcakes . Host of the wildly popular Primal Potential Podcast . She is passionate about using her own ...
Sep 15, 2020•1 hr 14 min
Season 2, Episode 1: What I’ve Learned So Far Whether you’re a first-time listener or you have listened to every episode, I’m thrilled you’re here. And today, I’m equally excited to say, welcome to SEASON 2 of Grief is a Sneaky Bitch ! This episode is a little bit unique because I don’t have a guest. Today I’m talking directly just to you, my incredible listeners. I'm sharing some things that are on my mind right now since we last connected in Season 1, including:⠀ Some reflections I’ve had abou...
Sep 08, 2020•39 min
BONUS EPISODE I set aside my title as host and took a turn as a guest on The Death Dialogues Project, a podcast hosted by the talented and generous Becky Aud-Jennison. Much like the work I’m doing Reimagining Grief , Becky is seeking to do the same with death. As the guest, on the other side of the microphone, we shared a deeply honest, reflective, and emotional conversation about the experience of losing my husband when I was 40 and our daughter was just 7. I share what it was like to be holdin...
Mar 17, 2020•57 min
In this final episode of Season 1, I was joined by Ryan Bouman and Michael Janke, two filmmakers out of Calgary. They recently released a powerful short-form documentary film on grief called We, The Bereaved . In this meditation on grief, their goal was to show solidarity for those who are grieving and permission for those who felt they were never allowed. From the beginning of our conversation, Ryan and Michael demonstrated deep vulnerability. Both men shared their initial trepidation about tak...
Feb 25, 2020•1 hr 39 min
In today’s episode, I was joined by Krissy Teegerstrom , an Austin-based artist and creative consultant at Featherweight Studio , and podcast host of Beyond and Back Podcast . Krissy bravely explores how her father’s death due to addiction when she was 11, a condition her family never discussed, profoundly impacted her life. She reveals how her mother’s insistence on not talking about it, virtually removing traces of his existence from their home, taught her some damaging lessons about love, gri...
Feb 04, 2020•1 hr 9 min
In today’s episode, I was joined by Renee Rouleau. She is a dynamic and inspiring woman who has many titles. Founder and CEO. Esthetician to the stars. Globe-trotter. Adventurer. Motorcyclist. About one year ago she added another title. Widow. Renee shares the lessons she learned from her business partner and husband, Florian, over their 22 year relationship. She reflects honestly and openly about the myths and the realities of accompanying someone through a cancer diagnosis. And she lets us in ...
Jan 21, 2020•1 hr 5 min
In this episode, my guest Mark Garza reminds us that honoring someone after loss can look like so many different things. Since the loss of his father, Mark has dedicated his life to shining a light on a critical but often unmet need in everyone’s grief journey - access to quality mental health services. Through his work at the Flatwater Foundation , Mark is carrying on a family legacy of honoring those we’ve lost. This tradition of giving back to the community was started by his father after the...
Jan 08, 2020•1 hr 10 min
In today’s episode, I was joined by a very special human, Kelly Abbott. On a call from his home in San Diego, Kelly was open, thoughtful, and at times poetic about the journey he has been on for the past 4 1/2 years since his son Will drowned a few months before his 5th birthday. He shares what it has meant to him to have people show up for him and his wife in the beginning … and now. He explores what it means to do the work of grief. He reflects on how the nature of relationships is amplified i...
Dec 24, 2019•1 hr 13 min
This episode has been one of the most powerful and transformative experiences for me so far this season and I hope it will be for you too. As a trained narrative therapist, I understand that words and language are constitutive of our identity, our experience, our world view. And yet, there are some words that evoke so much shame, judgement, blame, vitriol and other emotions that they make conversations feel off-limits. And when we can't talk about things, we can't process our emotions or make me...
Dec 11, 2019•1 hr 30 min
In this episode of Grief is a Sneaky B!tch, I was joined by my new friend and fellow social worker, Rachel Carnahan. As a social worker serving as part of a Pediatric Palliative Care Team for nearly a decade, Rachel explores what she has learned from accompanying parents as they endure the most excruciating experiences imaginable - the devastating illnesses and often death of their children. Her warmth and compassionate approach to her work show up throughout the interview as we discuss some of ...
Oct 22, 2019•57 min
In this episode of Grief is a Sneaky B!tch, my dear friend Autumn Campbell bravely and boldly shares her experience of delivering her son Zion, stillborn, 18 years ago this month. She opens our eyes to how the medical, social, and larger cultural systems amplify the pain of this type of loss in so many ways. Autumn also reminds us that simple acts of showing up in silence, or accompanying people in their darkest moments, like her sister did for her can make the biggest difference in our grief jo...
Oct 15, 2019•57 min
In this episode of Grief is a Sneaky B!tch, I sat down with Heather Saucedo, a young woman I first met back in 2014. Our first encounter was during one of the scariest times in her young life. At just 22, she had just learned that her fiancé was facing a cancer diagnosis. Not long after that, they welcomed their beautiful daughter Aubree into the world. She was considered medically fragile from birth. By 23, Heather had become a mother and a widow, two titles we happen to have in common. But as ...
Oct 01, 2019•1 hr 1 min
In this episode of Grief is a Sneaky Bitch, I sat down with my new friend Jae Kim, Founder and CEO of Chi’lantro to talk about grief and gratitude and the lessons he learned from his little sister Michelle. He opens up about how his admiration for how she lived, and her death as a result of a long struggle with Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2), has transformed how he shows up in his personal and professional relationships. About the show If you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready...
Aug 26, 2019•55 min
On this episode of Grief is a Sneaky Bitch, host Lisa Keefauver , sat down with her dear friend Romy Suskin at her Photography Studio to talk about her early experiences of watching and caring for her father during her formative years as he endured nearly a decade long journey with Lou Gherig’s disease and how that period and her subsequent grief journey has shaped her outlook on life and love and even how she shows up now as a caregiver for her mother. About the show If you love deep, honest, a...
Aug 09, 2019•1 hr 6 min
In this episode, host Lisa Keefauver is joined with a new friend, Mickey Kay. Mickey shares a bit about how a horrific bike accident at age 20 changed the trajectory of his life. And perhaps more importantly, what he has learned over the last 15 years about grief, love, life, sorrow, and joy. About the show If you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver , is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself...
Jul 28, 2019•1 hr 2 min
In this Pilot Episode, host Lisa Keefauver just shares a Grief Moment as her way of introducing the show and why Grief is indeed a sneaky bitch. Everyone warns you that the anniversaries and firsts are gonna be hard, but no one tells you how that sneaky b*tch grief shows up at happy celebrations! About the show: If you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver , is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume he...
May 26, 2019•4 min
