Untethered: Healing the Pain from a Sudden Death

When The Trauma Impacts Grief After The Sudden Death Of A Child:  An Interview With Therapist And Author Randie Clark In today’s podcast I interview therapist and author Randie Clark. Randie is a therapist in Washington State who specializes in traumatic grief and specializes in helping people who have experienced the death of a child of any age. She co-authored the book When Your Child Dies:...

In today’s podcast I interview psychologist and author Dr. Tina Payne Bryson.  Dr. Bryson is the author of multiple books, including Bottom Line for Baby and the following books co-authored with Dr. Dan Siegel, The Power of Showing Up and The Yes Brain , as well as  The Whole-Brain Child . Tina is also the Founder and Executive Director of The Center for Connection , a multidisciplinary...

Show Notes - Interview with Dr. Pamela Blair In today’s podcast I interview the Reverend Dr. Pamela Blair, perhaps best known for the book she co-authored that was first published the year 2000 entitled “I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye: Surviving, Coping & Healing after the sudden death of a loved one.” Dr. Blair is a retired psychotherapist who specialized in working with individuals grieving t...

In today’s podcast I interview Dr. Mariel Tourani, a psychiatrist who treats people struggling with the aftermath of a sudden or unexpected death. Dr. Tourani shares how she got started in psychiatry, she provides us with an excellent overview about the clinical differences between grief and depression, talks about the diagnosis of prolonged grief disorder and how medication can benefit someone wh...

Today’s podcast interview is the second part of my interview with author Kim Cantin, who wrote the book Where Yellow Flowers Bloom: A True Story of Hope Through Unimaginable Loss which was released Friday, April 9th 2023. Kim’s memoir is a heartfelt testament of her love as a mother and her devotion as a wife in the midst of sudden loss and trauma, with an enlightened perspective on mortality. Thr...

  Today’s podcast interview is the first of a two-part interview with Kim Cantin, author of the brand-new book, Where Yellow Flowers Bloom:  A True Story of Hope Through Unimaginable Loss . Kim’s book describes the tragic story of what happened to her family during the mudslides in Montecito, CA in 2018 after the Thomas Fires. In the early morning of January 10, Kim, along with her husba...

Today’s podcast features a woman whose son suddenly died in January from COVID.  At the time of this recording, the CDC estimated that a total of 1,123,613 Americans died from COVID, and many think these numbers highly underestimate the actual numbers of people who die from COVID related causes.  My guest was one of the millions of people in the United States who has been impacted by the...

In today’s podcast I interview an anonymous young woman who experienced the death of her partner from alcoholism related causes.   According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention more than 140,000 people died from alcohol related causes each year in 2015 – 2019.  The CDC further estimates that alcoholism can shorten a life by 26 years.  If you live with someone who i...

In today’s podcast I am sharing an interview that I participated in with The EFT Tapping Training Institute in collaboration with Suzanne Fageol and Dr. Craig Weiner from Tapping Out of Trauma Continuing Education Seminars called using EFT tapping for traumatic grief.   EFT stands for the Emotional Freedom Techniques.  EFT is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same en...

In today’s podcast I interview Riece Morris who shares with us the story of her mother who unexpectedly died from medical causes related to alcoholism.  Riece, the mother of 5 children who works as a certified life coach and Equus coach, firmly believes that life is meant to be LIVED and not merely endured.  She has helped hundreds of women create lives of intention and purpose, release...

In today’s podcast I interview Fran Solomon who is the founder HealGrief, an all-encompassing virtual platform serving the bereaved. HealGrief serves users from around the globe, and their programs include Let’s Talk Death, Loss Project, and Actively Moving Forward.  HealGrief also offers the AMF App, a way for members to communicate with others having a similar experience because they, too,...

In today’s podcast I interview Dr. Nina Gutin, a dear friend, colleague, and fierce advocate for survivors of suicide.  Dr. Gutin is a psychologist who works in the field of suicidology.  She works with clients who have experienced the death of a loved one by suicide and trains clinicians on how to work with survivors of suicide loss.  She also facilitates suicid...

In today’s podcast I interview Michelle Post, a grief therapist who also specializes in traumatic loss.  We discuss how she got started in the field, the influence of Dr. William Worden’s tasks of grieving in her work, and she shares her personal experiences with sudden and anticipated death and how her losses have impacted her personally and professionally. If you want an opportunity to...

In today’s podcast I interview Martinique Brown, a 34-year-old woman living in Southern California whose husband was killed in a single person car accident.  Marti tells the story of how she learned about her husband’s death, her difficult struggle with traumatic grief and the complications she faced after learning about her husband’s betrayal during their marriage.  She also discusses t...

Sudden Death from the view of a Chaplain:  An Interview with Cindi Sinnema. In today’s podcast I interview Cindi Sinnema, a Chaplain who lives on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound.  Cindi has an extensive backing working with individuals who have experienced grief and loss.  She has provided crisis support for many survivors of natural disasters including Hurricane Katrina.  She pr...

Today’s podcast is different than my previous podcasts.  In this episode titled Holiday Grief, an Interview with Dr. Jennifer Levin, I am a guest on Corrine Crabtree’s podcast, Losing 100 Pounds with Corrine .    Show Notes from Corrine’s Podcast, An Interview with Dr. Jennifer Levin : Most of us "should" all over ourselves during the Holiday season... "I should be happy"...

In this podcast I interviewed Mark Davidson, whose father was murdered on the island of Belize.  Mark and his family live in Pasadena, CA, and he was returning home from a business trip when he learned about his father’s death.  In his interview Mark shares his story and describes what it was like to travel back and forth across international borders to say goodbye to...

In this podcast I interviewed a mother whose son died suddenly in a car accident.  Dolores Cruz is a retired elementary school teacher and the author of Look Around; A Mother’s Journey from Grief and Despair to Healing and Hope. Her book talks about her spiritual journey after the sudden death of her 24-year-old son, Eric, which brought her to a whole new understanding of the questions we all...

In my interview with Dr. Rynearson we learned about his personal history with sudden death and the diverse projects and activities that he has conducted to advance knowledge and treatment for individuals who he describes as having experienced a “violent death”.  Dr. Rynearson described some of his major accomplishments as a physiatrist and researcher, how his personal experience with sudden d...

Definition of healing The concept of healing can be defined in so many ways.  To feel better, to feel stronger, to have less pain, to be more resilient, to hurt less, or to experience more peace.  There is no right or wrong way to define healing.     In 1996 Dr. Lois Tonkin developed a model about how we grow around grief that is often referred to as the “fried egg model o...

Today’s podcast is titled But I don’t want to accept it!  We will explore what it means to accept the loss of someone you love, and help you assess where you are right now in the process of acceptance.  I will discuss what happens when you struggle to accept the death of your loved one. Finally, I will provide you with some ideas of how you can begin the process of accepting your loved o...

Today’s podcast is titled Guilt, Shame and Regret are Killing Me .  We will explore some of the common thoughts associated with these emotions, the consequences of these negative thoughts, and the impact they can have on our lives.  I will discuss concepts of self-compassion and self-forgiveness as methods to combat feelings of guilt, regret or self-blame related to the sudden death of y...

Podcast 7,  How do I live with the Unanswered Questions and Uncertainty ,  was written for listeners living in the unknown after experiencing the sudden death of a loved one.     This episode focuses on the following concepts: Living with uncertainty and the loss of control. Why living with unanswered questions is detrimental to your healing. Catastrophizing.   C...

In this podcast,  But I Didn’t Get a Chance to Say Goodbye,  I explore the pain you may be feeling if you didn’t get an opportunity to say goodbye to your loved one who died suddenly.  Many of you have probably spent hours thinking about final words you would have spoken if you had the opportunity.     The podcast addresses the following: Validates feelings you may ha...