Catholic Grief Coach

After an event we just start planning the next thing. We start looking ahead to the next day or weeks and depending on how this event went, we feel excitement or dread. This episode I talk about what to do after an event. We rarely take time to pause and reflect on why it went well or ended poorly. I guide you through some easy questions to help yourself know what to do for next time. Feel stuck i...

The holidays are just around the corner. There is pressure to make them special. What if you are not feeling it. How do you put on a happy face when you just want to crawl in bed and cry? This episode I help you with those awful feelings. Get 20 tips on ways to make the holidays special and also honor your deceased loved one without having to fake it. Peace in the Storm: Grace for the Grieving Hea...

Self care is a good thing. We hear all the time how we need to have self care, but too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing. This episode I explain the difference between having self care and just trying to numb out so you don't have to feel anything. Go to www.catholicgriefcoach to sign up for a free grief consult.

Everywhere you look is Christmas stuff. This started before Halloween. This can subconsciously trigger your grief during the holidays to happen earlier and earlier. You can start to feel more dread and sadness this time of year.  This episode I help you process through the grief and see it for what it is. You will learn three steps to help allow the grief instead of always trying to push it away. ...

This time of year there are a lot of celebrations or gatherings. The thought of this makes your stomach drop. You might feel pressured to show up, smile, and pretend you are okay. Or you want to avoid it completely and stay home. You don't know what you want to do so you just spin in anxiety, stress, overwhelm, and grief. This episode I lead you through how to discern if you want to attend celebra...

You keep reliving those final moments or days of your loved one. It makes you feel awful, so why do you keep doing this. There is a driving feeling behind everything we do. You may not be aware of it, but it is there.  This episode I give you four steps to help find the feeling and to help you stop torturing yourself. Nothing has gone wrong, this is a natural thing to do, you just need to slow dow...

You feel like you have a strong faith, but you feel like it's not working. That maybe you aren't as faithful as you thought. That you should be doing something different.  This episode, I talk about the ways that these lies sneak in. That we tell ourselves generalized statements. What does "it" even mean. What would it look like if it was working? Get help with your grief while staying true to you...

After the initial shock and numbness of death wears off, you may find yourself not only mourning the future moments with your loved one, but also past memories. You may find yourself thinking, 'I wish I had told them thank you more', 'Why didn't I appreciate all they did for me instead of snapping at them.' This episode will help you recognize when you get stuck in a guilt and shame spiral and wha...

I have joined a new walking challenge. What I have realized is that I have a hard time pausing and being present. This is especially true when grief is spiraling around in our brain. Pausing feels scary. Pausing feels painful.  This episode I talk about pausing more. Resting in the Lord. Allowing it to feel scary. Allowing the Lord to heal. Join my Catholic Grief Group. We start the next cohert No...

You were just trying to survive and get through the day. It was too hard to say no to food, drink, scrolling, or shopping. So you didn't. Now you are starting to see that the thing that helped you cope is getting out of control. It doesn't make you feel good, it just makes you feel guilt and shame. This episode, I talk about how those things can be helpful, but what do we do when they aren't. Lear...

For those of us on the grief journey, there is always some element of guilt that comes in. Specifically if the relationship with the deceased was not what we hoped it to be. This episode I show you how to handle the guilt that will come. I talk about how to heal the relationship, even though the person is no longer alive. For help with your grief, go to www.catholicgriefcoach.com  

There have been so many tragic losses this past week. Iryna Zarutska was brutally murdered on a train coming home from work. Charlie Kirk was assassinated. We had the anniversary of 9/11. We naturally look to why things like this happen. It feels senseless. It shouldn't be happening. Something needs to change. This podcast episode I talk about what needs to change. How all can feel hopeless. What...

You are experiencing grief. Maybe it's the death of a loved one. Maybe it's the loss of a job. Maybe you child's best friend recently moved away and they are really struggling. As a Catholic, you hear that you should offer it up. So you try. You tell yourself that there are people experiencing war. You tell yourself that people are going through worse things than you are. This is not offering it u...

Most of the time when we think of grieving, we think someone died. Grief is a very intricate part of life. We experience grief when we didn't get the job we applied for. We experience grief when we have a falling out with friends or family. Often we don't recognize it for what it is; grief. When our children experience grief we can sometimes dismiss it without realizing. Just like when things are...

There are so many things on your mind. Relationships have changed. There are things to take care of. There are the basic day to day things to get done. It all feels so heavy. It feels like you are walking through mud. This episode I talk about all the other things that we focus on. In the reading of Luke 10: 38-42, Jesus tells Martha that she is "worried and distracted by many things; there is nee...

This summer has been amazing. I have been telling myself a lot that 'I love my life.' I have been practicing being present in the moment. I have been practicing enjoying the moment. After the death of a loved one, it can often feel scary to enjoy life. It might feel like if you enjoy it, then something bad will happen. This episode I talk about 6 years later, how I am emotionally in a great place...

When celebrities die, it can effect us. A lot. We may feel confused by this and wonder why we are so affected when we didn't even know them.  This episode I talk about how we may feel when celebrities pass away. You are having feelings about a relationship you didn't even know about! Searching for community in your grief? Go to www.catholicgriefcoach.com to sign up for the next grief group.  

The Catholic Mass is the highest form of prayer. For many grieving Catholics, this is a sacred but sometimes underappreciated tradition.  This episode I talk about how to have a Mass said for someone and the importance of this. Longing for community? Go to www.catholicgriefcoach.com to sign up for my next grief group.

Grief is complex. We think if we can just understand it then we can fit it in a box and move on. That is not how it works. It feels frustrating that the stages are not one and done. That all the feelings can circle around and show up over and over again. It can feel like you are doing grief 'wrong'. Or that you are being punished. This episode I talk about how complex grief is. Since it's complex,...

Not being able to sleep is a terrible thing. When you are grieving and unable to sleep, it is life altering. The thoughts just won't stop. You feel dread and anxiety in your body. This shouldn't be happening. This episode I talk through what is happening and how to get some sleep.  Join my group for Catholics who are grieving.

It often feels like it's never enough. There are never enough finances, there is never enough time in the day, there is never enough rest, and everyone wants something from us. This can cause you to spiral and feeling like nothing is going right. Especially if you are tired or hungry.  This episode I talk about how to recognize this for what it is. That your brain is made to look at all the negati...

When you are taking care of others, you forget to care for yourself. You are so tired and overwhelmed that you turn to food, or other vices to numb those feelings. You forget about what it is that you enjoy and love and instead just try to check out at the end of the day. This episode I talk about the first steps to take in caring for yourself. Starting small is enough. Instead of letting days, mo...

If your grief was an image what would it look like? What would that image have looked like 2 or 3 years ago? What does it presently look like? What could it look like in 3 years if you invited God into that space? This episode I walk you through an exercise to see what your grief looks like. How are you doing to heal yourself on your own? What ways does God want to be invited into that healing and...

When someone dies, the immediate days that follow are consumed with death. There are arrangements to be made, and people to be notified. After a couple weeks all of that settles down. What do you do after the tasks have all been completed. What do you do with the silence that now seems to creep in. At first you didn't have time for the emotions, now they don't seem to want to stop. This episode I...

When you are grieving, you feel abandoned by God. You know that He is there but you don't feel Him. The pain is too great. This episode I talk about why it's OK to question God, how to look to scriptures and the Saints, how to pray in the midst of suffering and where to find hope. Join me for a Catholic grief group to find others going through the same struggles. The pain of missing your loved one...