Grief is a Sneaky Bitch

My guest Junice Rockman is a Neuropsychotherapist, Media Correspondent & Mental Health Policy Advocate. In this episode, she brings her personal and professional wisdom to our powerful and far-reaching conversation. We explore so many topics from the impact of unprocessed grief and trauma across generations to the embodied nature of grief. We share some of the insights and practices we’ve both discovered over our careers that people have found helpful in honoring grief and oh so much more. Junice and I are kindred spirits and I can’t wait for you to meet her.If you want to learn more about Junice and her incredible work, you can visit www.jrocktherapyinstitute.com or follow her on Instagram @ jrocktherapy When you do, tell her I said hi!About the showIf you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver, is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself, as a social worker, narrative therapist, grief guide, and widow. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter, follow on Instagram and Twitter or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today!If you like this series, please make sure to leave a rating and write a review TODAY on Apple Podcasts.About The Sponsor - GiftPodJulian and TJ, co-creators of GiftPod, are two special guys who created a beautiful product I just know you’re going to love. They see podcasts as much more than a collection of digital audio files; they see them as opportunities to share and eternalize memories with loved ones. TJ lost his father when he was young. His family often shares stories of his dad’s laugh; TJ wishes he could hear it again. GiftPod was created to capture these memories. Their support of this show means the world to me AND it also means they support my listeners too! Visit www.giveagiftpod.com and enter our special discount code, GSB10, at checkout. Oh, and tell them I said hi too!P.S. Oh, and I mentioned two books in the show that are really powerful reads I thought I'd share here. My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem. and All About Love by Bell Hooks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You’re going to meet my inspiring new friend Kate Manser. She is the author of the book (and the movement), YOU MIGHT DIE TOMORROW. SO LIVE TODAY. What you will quickly discover through our conversation is that this isn’t just a flippant slogan or catchy phrase aimed to shock. It comes from hard-won growth in response to the loss of 4 friends in a span of 2 years. Though her initial response to these devastating deaths was fear, anxiety, and retreating from the world, she discovered that the best way to honor them, to carry their memory forward, was to live each day fully and to encourage others to do the same. One of the many things my conversation with Kate confirmed for me is that you DO NOT have to choose between honoring your loss and living a joyful life. I can’t wait for you two to meet!If you want to learn more about Kate, her work, or pick up a copy of her book, you can visit www.youmightdietomorrow.comAbout the showIf you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver, is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself, as a social worker, narrative therapist, grief guide, and widow. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter, follow on Instagram and Twitter or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today!If you like this series, please make sure to leave a rating and write a review TODAY on Apple Podcasts.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm re-airing an episode (with a new introduction) that was originally released in October 2019. In When Stillness Silences Our Grief with my guest Autumn Campbell, we explored the incredible harm and isolation she experienced in the wake of delivering her son Zion stillborn more than 19 years ago.The reason I'm choosing to re-air this episode today is that 1 in 160 pregnancies ends in stillbirth in the U.S. One in 160. And yet, I'm disheartened to see how little has changed in terms of the isolation & suffering so many women experience because of the stigma and shame and silence that still exists.Most recently, we all watched as Chrissy Teigen and John Legend shared the heartbreaking news that their son Jack died at 20 weeks. Over the years, we've heard from singers like Lily Allen. We’ve heard from actors like Keanu Reeves who speaks openly about the grief he and his girlfriend Jennifer faced over the stillbirth of their daughter Ava - a pain that resulted in the dissolution of their relationship. And yet, there is still such a profound stigma and shame around this very real and all too common experience.Since the mission of my show is to change the narratives of grief and because I never want a single grieving person to feel alone in their grief, I'm bringing back this conversation. If you’ve experienced this type of loss, I hope you will feel seen and held in your grief. If you know someone who's been through this, I hope you will discover how to show up for them in their grief.About the showIf you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver, is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself, as a social worker, narrative therapist, grief guide, and widow. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter, follow on Instagram and Twitter or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today!If you like this series, please make sure to leave a rating and write a review TODAY on Apple Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’m thrilled to be bringing you a conversation I had with not just one, but two incredible humans, Michelle Williams and Rachel Bensoussan. These two are bringing their unique lived experiences, both personally and professionally, to honor the humanity in death, dying and grief. Both have faced personal loss, including the death of Michelle’s mother and the death of Rachelle’s partner Diane nearly 15 years ago. They also both recognize and are making visible the trauma and grief passed down through generations, helping us to understand the intergenerational impact of grief. As practitioners in the palliative care field, both of my guests have witnessed and experienced racism, classism, and homophobia in the current model of care. These shared experiences led them to co-found Being Here Human, an organization that centers anti-racism, anti-oppression, and inclusiveness in their work. Like me, they’re also taking a stance to denounce the pathology-focused language and systems that currently exist within standard grief delivery models. We explore some of the unexplored terrain of grief, including the consequences of unacknowledged grief and trauma across generations. We uncover some of the biases in the systems of care, and together invite you to honor what it means to be grieving and to being here human.You can learn more about their work at Being Here Human here.About the showIf you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver, is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself, as a social worker, narrative therapist, grief guide, and widow. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter, follow on Instagram and Twitter or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today! If you like this series, please make sure to leave a rating and write a review TODAY on Apple Podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Expansiveness of Grief, I’m bringing you a very special and personal conversation. I’m actually inviting you to listen in on a pretty typical conversation I have quite often with my longtime friend, Shonagh Taruza. In addition to being one of the most insightful and deeply compassionate human beings I know, She is a daughter without parents, losing her mother at 17 then her father at 30. She is an immigrant several times over, from Scotland to Zimbabwe to England to the US. She is a mother, an artist, a Minister and a Racial Justice AdvocateIn addition to exploring the very intimate losses she faced in her life, we explore grief in its most expansive definition to include the losses faced through experiences like immigration, global movements, and cultural upheavals. We explore the impact of compounding loss and the physical aspects of grief work.Shonagh and I have been book swapping for a decade and a half now, constantly learning and sharing with one another, so I’m not surprised we ended up talking books in today’s show including How to Be an Anti-Racist by Dr. Ibram X Kendi and My Grandmothers Hand by Resma Menakem I want to thank Justice Leaders Collaborative for support of today's show. Learn more about the White People Working for Racial Justice series by visiting Justice Leaders Collaborative today. About the showIf you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver, is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself, as a social worker, narrative therapist, grief guide, and widow. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter, follow on Instagram and Twitter or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today! If you like this series, please make sure to leave a rating and write a review TODAY on Apple Podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Bearing The Wait, my guest Christina Bain and I sat down together (physically distanced of course), to hold this beautifully intimate and special conversation about the grief that comes about when you face your own mortality. Christina was so honest and vulnerable as she opened up about the journey she’s been on over the past 5 years. She is 36, married to Wes, her husband of 12 years, and she has an 8-year-old girl named Marlowe. She also has Stage 4 Colon Cancer. She is wise and kind, she offers insights and humor, and she expands our understanding of grief. She is such a gift in my life and I’m so grateful to have this chance to introduce her to you too. As mentioned in the show, you can read What to Make When You're Dying, the beautifully insightful article she published earlier this year. You can also follow her cancer journey on Christina’s blog at Bearing the WaitAbout the showIf you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver, is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself, as a social worker, narrative therapist, grief guide, and widow. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter, follow on Instagram and Twitter or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today!If you like this series, please make sure to leave a rating and write a review TODAY on Apple Podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ABOUT THE EPISODEMy guest, Michael Hebb, is an innovative and influential cultural figure and our conversation was fascinating, inspiring, and frankly blew me away. In End of Life Conversations, you’ll hear from a man who, since losing his father at 13, and feeling like a teenager out of touch with his peers and his family, has been on a quest to understand the secrets of human connection. His journey has been a wild and interesting ride so far, from studying the great philosophers and mystics of the ages, to considering how architecture impacts belonging, to staging large-scale community civil disobedience efforts to strengthen communities. He eventually ended up collaborating with some of THE greatest writers, thinkers, and creators of our time to transform human connection. With the metaphor of gathering around the table, Michael Hebb has created culture-shifting movements such as the City Repair Project, Death Over Dinner, and his most recent creation, the End of Life Collective. Each has offered participants a deeper level of human connection, most recently focusing on the thing that we have most in common. Death.You can learn more about Death Over Dinner by visiting www.deathoverdinner.org. His newest initiative, End of Life Collective (which I’m grateful to say I’m involved in) can be found by visiting www.eol.community About the showIf you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver, is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself, as a social worker, narrative therapist, grief guide, and widow. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter, follow on Instagram and Twitter or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today! If you like this series, please make sure to leave a rating and write a review TODAY on Apple Podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The River in Her Heart with guest Amber SmithI am so honored to be bringing you the conversation Amber Smith and I shared recently. Amber’s wisdom, warmth and kindness touched my heart and I know it will touch yours too. Amber and her husband, country music singer Granger Smith, lost their 3-year old son River in an accidental drowning in their backyard pool in the summer of 2019.In today’s episode Amber opens up about what it’s like to be grieving in the public eye. She shares the advice she received about how to tell their other two children about River’s death. She reveals what’s helping her navigate grief in year 2, about their decision to donate River’s organs, and about the work she is doing to carry River’s memory forward through the River Kelly Fund. If you want to learn more about the River Kelly Fund, visit www.riverkellyfund.org. About the showIf you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver, is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself, as a social worker, narrative therapist, grief guide, and widow. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter, follow on Instagram and Twitter or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today!If you like this series, please make sure to leave a rating and write a review TODAY on Apple Podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If humor is the best medicine, then my guest today is going to make you feel so much better!When you find someone who just gets it, you want to hold on to them forever. That’s how I felt as I laughed and cried my way through today’s conversation with my guest, Leslie Gray Streeter.Leslie is the absolute queen of pop-culture references and she found a way to weave in more than a dozen as we explored her love and loss of her late husband Scott, the heartbreak of knowing her son will grow up without him, and the lessons life hands you when you become a widow.Leslie’s memoir, Black Widow - A Sad-Funny Journey THrough Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like “Journey” in the Title hooked me from the front cover. I could not put down this book until I had devoured it all. She speaks so much truth about the thoughts, feelings and experiences of widhowhood that I practically got whiplash from nodding so vigorously as I read.If you’re a fellow widow, I’m sorry you’re in this club, but I know you’ll find solace in her insights and her humor. If you’re someone who is grieving a different loss, or trying to show up for someone in your life who is grieving, she offers wisdom there too.About the showIf you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver, is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself, as a social worker, narrative therapist, grief guide, and widow. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter, follow on Instagram and Twitter or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today! If you like this series, please make sure to leave a rating and write a review TODAY on Apple Podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In This EpisodeDo you ever have a moment when you meet someone, a fellow traveler on their grief journey, and you know immediately you’re going to be friends?Well that’s how I felt the first time Elizabeth Benton and I spoke. Her warmth, thoughtfulness and tenderness shone through.Elizabeth is a successful entrepreneur, owner of Primal Potential. An inspirational author of the book Chasing Cupcakes. Host of the wildly popular Primal Potential Podcast. She is passionate about using her own experiences of transformation to help others.She is a wife. She is a friend. And she is a grieving mother who is opening up about the recent loss of her 2 week old daughter Dagney at the beginning of the COVID19 Pandemic. She is sharing her story with all of us, because like me, she believes if we’re going to show up in community and love one another through the pain of loss, we have to speak openly and honestly about it all. About the showIf you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. Host Lisa Keefauver, is a grief and empathy activist who holds an extensive grief resume herself, as a social worker, narrative therapist, grief guide, and widow. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter, follow on Instagram and Twitter or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today! If you like this series, please make sure to leave a rating and write a review TODAY on Apple Podcasts.With gratitude,Lisa Keefauver, MSW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.