From Overwhelmed to Relieved The Senior Caregiving Podcast

Featured Pull Quote "Your sibling is not your enemy. The disease is. The grief is. Underneath almost every battle are two terrified people who both love their mom — and have never once said, 'I'm scared too.'" Episode Summary Shannon welcomes guest Teresa for an unflinching conversation about sibling conflict in caregiving. With her mom in memory care and her brother holding POA, Teresa shares wha...

Most families dealing with a senior placement crisis carry a belief that stops them from even exploring one of their biggest financial resources: 'We won't qualify for Medicaid.' In this episode, Shannon Calles dismantles the four most common Medicaid myths and walks families through what Washington State Apple Health Long-Term Care actually covers, who actually qualifies, and what to do right now...

POA: What It Actually Means (And What It Doesn't)   "Power of Attorney is not a title. It is a role. And like any role, it comes with responsibilities, boundaries, and a need for support." — Shannon Calles, Episode 19   Episode Overview Most families treat Power of Attorney like a checkbox — sign it, file it, breathe easier. But the gap between what POA actually means and what most people think it...

Episode 18 | How to Have the Hard Conversation About Your Parent's Care Plan (Before Crisis Forces It) Are you avoiding "the talk" with your aging parent about their care plan — and secretly hoping it never has to happen? You're not alone. But the longer we wait, the more that decision gets made for us. In an ER. By strangers. In crisis. In this episode, Shannon Calles — senior care consultant, ce...

Episode 17: Self-Care for the Daughter in You 7 Types of Care You Actually Deserve — Not Just the Ones You Give Away   EPISODE QUOTE: "You are not just a caregiver. You are a whole person. And your care matters." — Shannon Calles   When did you last do something that was just for you? If the answer takes more than two seconds, this episode is for you.   Shannon Calles, Certified Dementia Practitio...

Episode 16 Summary Nothing in caregiving fully prepares you for the final days with your parent. Not the years of experience. Not the training. Not even the love you carry.   In this deeply personal episode, Shannon speaks truth with tenderness about the sacred collision of exhaustion and honor that lives in end-of-life caregiving. She talks about caregiver autopilot — the survival mode that keeps...

Episode 15: That's Memory Care — The Light in the Heavy and Why Planning Now Changes Everything Nobody told you it would look like this. The behaviors that stop you in your tracks. The moments your kids want to disappear into the floor. And yes — the moments that are just a little bit funny, even when you feel guilty for laughing.   In Episode 15, Shannon shares stories from her years inside Memor...

You're managing everything — the appointments, the medications, the decisions, the grief — and the loneliest part isn't the workload. It's doing all of it without a single person in your life who truly gets what this season feels like. In this episode , Shannon Calles opens up about why she built The Strong Daughters Club in January 2026, what it's grown into (250+ members and counting!), and why...

The Sandwich Generation — When Keeping Mom Home Is Costing You Everything   Are you caught between caring for your aging mom and raising your own kids — running on empty, trying to be everything to everyone? You're not alone. You're the Sandwich Generation, and this episode is for you.   In this honest, tender conversation, Shannon Calles breaks down what it really means to keep Mom home — the lov...

That voice that says "what kind of daughter does this?" — it's lying to you. And today we're going to talk about why. Placement guilt is one of the most painful and least talked-about parts of the senior caregiving journey. In Episode 12, I'm breaking down what placement guilt actually is, where it comes from, and why feeling it does not make you a bad daughter — it makes you a daughter who loves...

The biggest financial mistake families make in senior care? Assuming Medicare covers it. In this episode, Shannon Calles breaks down the truth — and gives you a clear, doable plan for what to do instead. If the cost of care has you in full panic mode, you are not alone. Most families don't figure out how to pay for senior care until they're already in a crisis — and by then, their options are limi...

🎉 Episode 10 is here — and we're celebrating! Ten episodes of showing up for daughters who are exhausted, overwhelmed, and still somehow doing all of it. Thank you for being here. This one's for you. Now let's get into something that trips up almost every caregiving family: the hospital discharge. When the hospital says "she's medically stable and ready to go," most daughters freeze. Not because...

EPISODE OVERVIEW Have you ever toured an assisted living community, looked around at the long hallways and the dining room for 80 people, and thought —  this doesn't feel right for my mom? You're not wrong. There's a senior care option most families never hear about until they're deep in the search. It's intimate. It's personal. It actually feels like home. And it might be exactly what your parent...

EPISODE OVERVIEW Caregiving doesn't always come with a diagnosis — and neither does the exhaustion that comes with it. In this episode, Shannon Calles speaks directly to every adult daughter who is watching her parent slow down, become more frail, or need more help than before, without a clear medical label to explain it. If you've ever felt like your caregiving situation wasn't "serious enough" t...

Am I Allowed to Laugh? The Question Every Caregiver Is Afraid to Ask Finding Humor in the Hardest Season of Your Life   "Laughter didn't make me a bad daughter. Some of the most tender moments I had with my mom came wrapped in the completely absurd. And yours will too."   — Shannon Calles   Episode Overview Nobody warns you that caregiving is sometimes... funny. Not funny in a sitcom way. Funny in...

Are you the one doing everything — the showers, the medications, the appointments, the daily coaxing — while your siblings debate what should happen next? You are not alone. And this episode is going to name exactly what is happening, why it happens, and what you can do about it. In this episode of From Overwhelmed to Relieved: The Senior Caregiving Podcast, Shannon Calles tackles one of the most...

Episode 5: The Cruelty of Dementia: It's Not Personal Why does your mom with dementia save her worst behavior for you—the daughter who sacrifices everything—while being pleasant to everyone else? In this episode, Shannon Calles tackles one of the most painful, isolating realities of dementia caregiving: being the target of your parent's cruelty when you're the one doing all the work. You'll learn:...

Episode 4 When someone asks, "Who's taking care of Mom?" they usually picture a daughter. But what about the sons who are quietly cooking every meal, managing meltdowns, missing work, and losing themselves in the process? In this episode, Shannon Calles shares her personal story of watching her 29-year-old brother become their mom's primary caregiver during her dementia decline—and the communicati...

Episode 3 Have you ever had a doctor look at you and say, "What do you want us to do?" - and realized nobody's asking what Mom actually wants? In this episode, Shannon Calles shares her personal story of being told "it's up to you" when her mother was on life support in 2006 and the framework she now uses to help adult daughters navigate impossible medical decisions with clarity and peace. When yo...

Episode 2  If you're an adult daughter caring for an aging parent, you've probably asked yourself "Am I doing enough?" a thousand times. The guilt keeps you up at night. It whispers that you're failing. It makes every decision feel impossible. In this episode, Shannon Calles unpacks the guilt that's stealing your peace and shows you how to make caregiving decisions from a place of clarity—not sham...

Episode 1. If you love your mom, but you're exhausted, overwhelmed, and secretly wondering "how much longer can I keep doing this?"—you're not alone. In this episode of From Overwhelmed to Relieved: The Senior Caregiving Podcast, Shannon Calles breaks down what caregiver exhaustion really is, why it happens, and gives you three immediate steps you can take today to start finding relief. Shannon sh...

From Overwhelmed to Relieved: The Senior Caregiving Podcast - Trailer If you love your mom… but you're exhausted, this podcast is for you. You didn't plan to be managing medications, appointments, safety concerns, family opinions, and your own emotions all at once. Yet here you are—trying to do the right thing without losing yourself in the process. Welcome to From Overwhelmed to Relieved: The Sen...