Acceptance Without Forgiveness: Suicide, Trauma, and Taking Your Life Back with Maike Mullenders

Maike is the author of The Confession: A Journey to Acceptance, her memoir of growing up with a father with undiagnosed mental health issues who went on to take his own life. She is a lived experience speaker and volunteer for Survivors of Bereavement by suicide

When Maike Mullenders was eleven years old, her dad sat her down and told her he was going to end his life — and made her say goodbye.

He survived that night. But ten years later, he died by suicide and left behind a confession to the police saying he’d “been inappropriate” with her — something Maike had no memory of.

In this conversation, we talk about what happens when your childhood forces you into the role of caretaker, and how that shapes everything that follows. We explore dissociation, survival, and what it means to grow up reading every tone of voice in a room just to stay safe.

Maike shares how decades of therapy, yoga, and community work helped her reclaim her body, her boundaries, and her right to take up space — even without ever knowing the full truth about her past.

We talk about:

Surviving a parent’s suicide attempts and living with the aftermath

The lifelong impact of emotional enmeshment and hypervigilance

Parenting after trauma and breaking generational patterns

Acceptance versus forgiveness — and why you don’t need both

Learning to feel safe in your body through movement and presence

The healing power of community and self-compassion

This episode is about what real healing looks like — messy, nuanced, and deeply human.

It’s about learning to live with not knowing, and finding peace anyway.

Please take care of yourself while listening.

Find Maike here -

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maike-mullenders-3021232b7/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091853840552

#suicideawareness #mentalhealth

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