In this special solo episode, I announce my decision to take a sabbatical from Grieving Voices and reflect on the nature of change, the power of asking "why," and how letting go can create space for new growth. I share my personal journey of questioning the routines and commitments that no longer serve me and the surprising sense of relief and excitement that came with making this decision. Key Points Change is inevitable and often reveals our true nature and patterns The connection between grie...
Mar 18, 2025•10 min•Ep. 238
This week's guest is Michelle Vignault, who opens her heart about the unimaginable journey of losing both her brother to suicide and her husband within just six months. Michelle shares how she was suddenly thrust into solo parenting two daughters, ages 2 and 4 while navigating her own overwhelming grief. With raw honesty, Michelle reveals how writing became her lifeline—beginning as simple notes and evolving into heartfelt letters to her best friend before ultimately becoming her book, "Hold Bac...
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 31 min•Season 5Ep. 237
I sit down with Christina Keyes, a remarkable woman who transformed her life from a career-driven professional to a dedicated caregiver of her mother in 2013, after her mother nearly died of a stroke, only six months after the death of her father. Around this same time frame, Christina was also grieving the loss of a dear cousin who was responsible for Christina getting sober. However, the grief doesn't stop there. Christina was also grieving the end of a 17-year relationship as she knew it when...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 5Ep. 236
In this enlightening episode, I welcome Dr. Dolores Fazzino, a trailblazing thought leader and visionary in the realm of energy healing. With her unique blend of medical intuition and energy expertise, Dr. Fazzino shares her insights on how intuition and trust can facilitate deep healing and transformation, especially in the context of grief. Throughout our conversation, Dr. Fazzino opens up about her personal journey, revealing how her childhood experiences with grief shaped her path toward bec...
Feb 25, 2025•50 min•Season 5Ep. 235
I had the privilege of sitting down with Reese Zahner, a poet and writer who has beautifully transformed her grief journey into a powerful testament of healing and acceptance under the pen name Cleo Childs. Reese opens up about the profound impact of losing her mother to early onset Alzheimer's, a journey that spanned seven years from diagnosis to loss. Through her candid storytelling, Reese shares how she turned to poetry as a means to process her emotions. We delve into the complexities of ant...
Feb 18, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Season 5Ep. 234
In this touching episode, Erin Whalen shares her heartfelt journey of growing up with her beloved sister, Gina, who had cerebral palsy. Through her personal experience of anticipatory grief and loss, Erin found her calling as the founder of Compassionate Coaching, where she now helps end-of-life and bereavement professionals develop essential communication skills. Erin opens up about the profound impact of losing Gina in 2016 and how their unique sister relationship – though different from what ...
Feb 11, 2025•1 hr 24 min•Season 5Ep. 233
This week, I sit down with Katie Prentiss, a filmmaker, actress, and caregiver who transformed her most profound loss into a powerful creative mission. Katie shares her raw and inspiring journey of caring for her mother through frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a challenging form of dementia that impacts personality and communication far differently than traditional memory-loss conditions. At the age of 62, Katie's mother, Maggie, passed away from FTD. Through our conversation, we follow Maggie's t...
Feb 04, 2025•55 min•Season 5Ep. 232
In this soul-stirring episode, we explore the profound journey of Sujala Shastry, who lost her mother to a brain tumor at age 11 in India. Her story illuminates the complex intersection of cultural silence, emotional isolation, and the transformative power of breaking generational patterns around grief. Key Takeaways: The impact of losing a mother in a joint family system that provided physical but not emotional support. How 20 years of survival mode led to disconnection, anxiety, and lost memor...
Jan 28, 2025•58 min•Season 5Ep. 231
Kenisha Nichelle is a trailblazer in the sports industry and a passionate advocate for individuals navigating the challenging landscape of grief. Kenisha shares her deeply personal journey of overcoming profound losses, including becoming an orphaned only child with the unexpected deaths of both her father and mother, and how she has channeled her experiences into a mission of healing and empowerment. Key Takeaways: Journey of a Child Griever: Kenisha discusses the unique challenges she faced as...
Jan 21, 2025•55 min•Season 5Ep. 230
In this powerful episode, I sat down with Angela Clement, who shared her moving journey of losing her husband Blaine to stage four colon cancer in October 2021 after 35 years together. Their life on their ranch underwent dramatic changes when Blaine fell ill, leading to multiple transitions, including selling their ranch, Angela's early retirement as a school principal, and relocating to be closer to medical care. Through her journey, Angela discovered the transformative power of energy healing,...
Jan 14, 2025•48 min•Season 5Ep. 229
In this collaborative conversation recorded for our respective podcasts, I sat down with fellow Certified Biofield Tuning Practitioner (and Biofield Tuning Trainer) Jillian Faldmo. We discussed the grief journey, the complex emotions that arise when we experience loss, how grief can manifest differently for each individual, and how our respective paths led each of us to energy healing work. Jillian shares how her early experience with health issues and a feeling of detachment in childhood impact...
Jan 07, 2025•1 hr 46 min•Season 5Ep. 228
In this week's New Year's Eve episode, I reflect on 2024 as a year of laying the groundwork for future growth. As we look forward to 2025, I want to emphasize themes like introspection and personal development that can help us all prepare for a more balanced and fulfilling year ahead. Reflecting on the past year often brings up negatives, but it's crucial to focus on lessons learned. Inspired by Mel Robbins' podcast episode about conducting yearly audits, I plan to engage with her seven-question...
Dec 31, 2024•23 min•Season 5Ep. 227
On this Christmas Eve episode, I extend warm, festive greetings to all listeners, no matter how you celebrate. Inspired by my recent newsletter, The Unleash Letters, I reflect on the past year's experiences and energies while looking forward with hope to 2025. I discuss the power of self-reflection as a healing tool—especially for those grieving—and encourage everyone to consider what energies from 2023 they carried into 2024 and how these might impact their future. I've experienced a shift in m...
Dec 24, 2024•19 min•Season 5Ep. 226
In this final episode of the Holiday Grief Series, I explore the power of reflecting on our past, especially when dealing with grief during the holiday season. It's about facing those tough memories head-on, much like a buffalo charges through a storm to find peace faster. By confronting these feelings directly, we gain insight into ourselves and can make better choices for our future. Reflecting on history isn't just personal; it applies to society, too. Understanding past events helps us break...
Dec 17, 2024•17 min•Season 5Ep. 225
Welcome to the third episode of my Holiday Grief Series! In this episode, I explore the often-overlooked challenges of the holiday season. While this time of year is traditionally filled with joy and celebration, it can also bring about stress and anxiety that lurk beneath the surface. Key Takeaways: Understanding Holiday Stressors: I explore various sources of holiday stress, including family dynamics, social pressures, environmental factors, and financial concerns. Whether you're feeling isola...
Dec 10, 2024•14 min•Season 5Ep. 223
In Episode 2 of my holiday grief series, I explore the tender journey of honoring lost loved ones during the festive season—a time that often brings a mix of joy and sorrow. As your host, I want to assure you that feeling these emotions is completely normal. Reflecting on my own experiences, I've learned that traditional ways of handling grief—like keeping feelings bottled up or avoiding memories—usually don't bring comfort. One story shared by a podcast guest really resonated with me; she grew ...
Dec 03, 2024•10 min•Season 5Ep. 223
In the first episode of a four-part series on holiday grief, I discuss estrangement and its impact during the holiday season. Estrangement, a form of alienation within families, can arise from conflicts over values or unresolved trauma and affects relationships between parents, children, grandparents, siblings, and even extended family members. It often stems from disputes over values, lifestyles, past trauma, or unresolved issues. The holiday season is typically seen as a time for joy and toget...
Nov 26, 2024•9 min•Season 5Ep. 222
In this heartfelt episode of Grieving Voices, Chris Cochran shares the inspiring legacy of his late son Christian, who faced terminal cancer with remarkable positivity and resilience. Despite his illness, Christian lived life to its fullest up until his untimely death at the young age of 23—all while asking, "What's good about today?" Christian's spirit continues to inspire through Chris's nonprofit, What's Good About Today?, and the book that bears the same name. Today's episode highlights how ...
Nov 19, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 5Ep. 221
Helen Gretchen Jones, a death doula and intuitive channeler, shares her inspiring journey into shared death experiences and spiritual consciousness. With a rich background in art history, theology, sound therapy, Reiki, hypnosis, and past-life regressions, Helen now dedicates herself to supporting the dying and those they love in life and after death. The innate gift of connecting with those who have crossed over has profoundly shaped her understanding of life and death, despite those around her...
Nov 12, 2024•1 hr 39 min•Season 5Ep. 220
Today, I'm sharing my conversation with my former Do Grief Differently client, Delyla Ovalle-Bowyer, a dedicated research associate at UT Austin's Texas Center For Disability Studies. Delyla shares her transformative journey into special education and advocacy after initially struggling to find direction in life. The conversation is especially poignant as it marks the second anniversary of her father, Fred Bowyer's passing—a pivotal moment that led Delyla to seek help with me through my one-on-o...
Nov 05, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 219
D Paul Fleming, a retired Navy veteran and spiritual healer, shares his lifelong journey from trauma to healing. His story is a testament to resilience, as he recounts overcoming severe childhood abuse detailed in his book "2,442 Steps To Crazy." Through writing and sharing his experiences, Fleming found therapeutic relief while inspiring fellow veterans facing similar challenges. D Paul and I discuss the systemic issues within the Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system. Despite its flaws—such ...
Oct 29, 2024•1 hr 34 min•Season 5Ep. 218
In a world increasingly defined by division and isolation, radical belonging offers a powerful antidote to the epidemic of loneliness. Joe Primo's article, "Radical Belonging in an Age of Othering," featured on Grateful Living, delves into this pressing issue with profound insights that resonate deeply amidst our post-pandemic reality. In this week's episode, I read his article out loud because, although I tried, I couldn't have written it better myself. This article (and episode) hits on indivi...
Oct 22, 2024•18 min•Season 5Ep. 217
In this week's episode, I share what I mean when I say at the end of every episode, "When you unleash your heart, you unleash your life." For me, it's more than a slogan; it's a belief. I navigated over 30 years of unresolved grief, resentment, and anger to achieve profound personal growth and self-realization. Healing is about unleashing one's heart to truly unleash one's life—a conviction born from addressing painful experiences and reframing and seeing those past experiences differently to be...
Oct 15, 2024•19 min•Season 5Ep. 216
In today's episode, Rev. Christine Davies, a hospital chaplaincy leader, shares the path that led her into spiritual care and offers invaluable insights on navigating grief. A deep church involvement from childhood shaped her life path, a calling toward medicine influenced by her nurse mother, and personal health crises that highlighted the importance of compassionate bedside manners. Christine emphasizes chaplains' unique role in healthcare—focusing on emotional and spiritual support rather tha...
Oct 08, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 5Ep. 215
Amidst the challenges of her daughter Dalia's rare condition, MERRF Syndrome , this week's guest, Jessica Fein, also faced the crushing blows of losing her mother, father, and both sisters during the same trying period. Her story is a tapestry of sorrow and strength, woven with threads of love and loss that resonate deeply with the human experience. The uncertainties surrounding her daughter's diagnosis added layers of complexity to Dalia's health, making it a daunting task to predict her future...
Oct 01, 2024•50 min•Season 5Ep. 214
I'm excited to share this episode with Amanda Popovski, in which we discuss everything related to being an empath or highly sensitive person (HSP). I could feel the energy behind the words Amanda used in her application, and the synergy I felt with her was one of being a kindred spirit. Sometimes, there are people in this world you click with, and it was refreshing not only to be and feel seen by Amanda but, more importantly, I hope she felt seen by me as well. This episode is a masterclass of s...
Sep 24, 2024•1 hr 43 min•Season 5Ep. 213
Inspired by recent discussions, this episode offers a new perspective that's been noodling around in my mind. In this week's episode, I explore the question: Is there a wrong way to grieve? Key Points: Societal Struggles with Grief: Despite popular belief that all grieving methods are valid, society often fails at effective coping—indicating a need to reevaluate our grief practices. Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms: People frequently turn to short-term harmful behaviors like substance abuse, gambling...
Sep 17, 2024•8 min•Season 5Ep. 212
With over a decade of experience collecting stories globally, this week's guest and author, Annie Sklaver Orenstein, has been featured on platforms such as NPR and Time. Her book, Always a Sibling: The Forgotten Mourners Guide to Grief , is an empathetic resource for surviving siblings—a group often overlooked in mourning. Annie shares her insights about sibling relationships being some of the longest-lasting bonds in life. This perspective offers new dimensions to understanding grief, especiall...
Sep 10, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 5Ep. 211
Today's guest, Carolina Sotomayor, is a renowned fertility Reiki womb healer who shares how Reiki helped her conceive her son. We also dive deeper into her childhood stories and the emotional wounds that created what Carolina believes were the energetic blocks to conceiving. Carolina's Path to Healing 🧘♀️ Personal Struggles : Initially struggling with conception despite no medical issues, Carolina turned to Reiki after suggestions from her grief therapist and a psychic. Journey Through Adversi...
Sep 03, 2024•1 hr 41 min•Season 5Ep. 210
Unlock the power of deep connections with one simple phrase: "Tell me more." Today, I explore how a single statement can transform relationships and foster emotional honesty. I also explore the impact of inviting others to share their stories, emphasizing the importance of being present and truly listening. Key Takeaways: - Discover why "Tell me more" is a game-changing invitation for deeper conversations. - Learn how to create safe spaces for emotional sharing without needing to fix or judge. -...
Aug 27, 2024•9 min•Season 5Ep. 209
