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Ep. 136: L.Y.G.H.T. - Supporting Grieving Youth In The Foster Care System

Grief Out Loud

Release Date: 02/21/2020

It's All Hard - Sudden vs Anticipated Loss show art It's All Hard - Sudden vs Anticipated Loss

Grief Out Loud

Is it harder when someone dies suddenly, or when you know their death is coming?  It’s a question that comes up often in grief spaces, and there’s no easy answer. Both are hard - just in different ways.  In this episode, Aimee Craig talks about grieving the deaths of both of her parents under very different circumstances. Aimee’s dad died suddenly when she was 23, during a season of major life transitions. Nearly two decades later, her mom died after living with cancer for many years, including five years with a terminal diagnosis.  Aimee...

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How to Talk With Children About Grief & Loss show art How to Talk With Children About Grief & Loss

Grief Out Loud

How do you talk with children about death, dying, and grief - especially when the truth feels impossible to say? Most adults feel unprepared to tell a child that someone in their life has an advanced serious illness or has died. There’s often a deep desire to protect kids from pain, avoid overwhelming them, or wanting to wait until there’s a “better” time to talk. But children often already sense that something has changed. In this episode, Jana is joined by Dougy Center colleagues Rebecca Hobbs-Lawrence, M.A. and Sat Kaur Khalsa, M.S.W. to talk about how adults can approach these...

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What Happens When You Stop Outrunning Grief? Camila Crews & Sorry For Your Loss (Cards) show art What Happens When You Stop Outrunning Grief? Camila Crews & Sorry For Your Loss (Cards)

Grief Out Loud

Have you ever found yourself trying to outrun grief? That’s what did when she was 19 and her mother died. Twenty years later, following the heartbreaking disappearance and death of her father, Camila stopped running and started feeling. Unable to just keep pushing through, she had to face her grief and learn how to care for herself in the process.  Facing her grief inspired Camila to start , an initiative to help people better understand grief and show up for those who are mourning. Centering the experiences of Black and Brown communities, Sorry for Your Loss (Cards)...

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When When "It's Not Your Fault" Falls Flat - Grief & Guilt

Grief Out Loud

In December of 2021, Sawyer was halfway through their final year of college in a world that was still reeling from the pandemic. Home for the holidays, Sawyer got the heartbreaking news that their older brother, Jason, had died by suicide - a before-and-after moment that continues to reverberate today. Sawyer shares their nuanced perspective on grief, delving into how mental health, incarceration, and other systemic barriers impacted Jason's life and death. We also explore how the phrase, "It's not your fault," while well-intentioned, can leave little space for those who are grieving to truly...

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When Grief Gets Silenced: Supporting Black Youth & Families With Dr. Allen Lipscomb show art When Grief Gets Silenced: Supporting Black Youth & Families With Dr. Allen Lipscomb

Grief Out Loud

Acknowledgment, validation, and curiosity – meeting grief with these three elements is crucial in creating supportive, culturally relevant grief support environments for children and adults. Dr. Allen Lipscomb has spent his career researching, designing, and implementing anti-racist interventions that directly support not just grief from death loss, but also the grief from racialized trauma experienced by those in the Black community.   Dr. Lipscomb shares his personal experiences with grief, including the death of his grandmother when he was a...

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A Mother's Legacy, A Daughter's Grief - N'keya Peters-Camille show art A Mother's Legacy, A Daughter's Grief - N'keya Peters-Camille

Grief Out Loud

In this episode of Grief Out Loud, Jana is joined by , LCSW, RYT® 200, a social worker, certified Grief Yoga teacher, facilitator for  grief meet ups, and creator of . N’keya shares the story of her mother, Hope - a woman she describes as her soulmate - who died of pancreatic cancer in 2021 at the age of 46.  N’keya reflects on growing up alongside her mother, witnessing her overcome immense challenges, and experiencing firsthand what it meant to be deeply seen, supported, and loved. After her mother’s...

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Tips For Grieving Through Mother's Day show art Tips For Grieving Through Mother's Day

Grief Out Loud

Mother's Day is approaching - Sunday, May 10th, 2026 - and it's a "holiday" that comes with lots of mixed emotions for those who are grieving. Whether you're a child grieving a parent, a parent grieving a child, or anyone who is carrying grief into the day, this episode might be for you. We explore why holidays connected to particular relationships can be so tough in grief and outline ideas for navigating both the lead-up and the day itself.  This episode originally aired in April 2015.  Other Grief Out Loud episodes related to mothers, mothering, and Mother's Day: Want to learn...

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Grief Out Loud

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Kailey Bradley about support for grieving a death loss, but also the more overlooked non-death losses, including chronic illness, infertility, shifting identities, and the futures we imagined but don’t get to live.  Dr. Bradley is a clinician and educator who specializes in working with children and families navigating grief and illness. Kailey shares her experiences growing up with chronic illness and being diagnosed with premature ovarian failure at age 12, and how those layered losses affected her at different life...

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Throughlines: Keeping A Connection With My Mom show art Throughlines: Keeping A Connection With My Mom

Grief Out Loud

Jeremy’s mom was a protector, an optimist, and someone who held onto a sense of lightness - even after a cancer diagnosis that led to her death just a few months later. In this episode, Jeremy shares what it was like to navigate such a short window between his mom's diagnosis and death, and how her outlook continues to shape him and his grief. From visiting her just before her death to to time spent in the woods bow hunting, he describes the ways he still feels connected to her. After her death, Jeremy's connection to nature and hunting became a foundation for staying close with his mom....

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Waiting for Dawn: Marisa Renee Lee on Living with Grief, Illness, and Uncertainty show art Waiting for Dawn: Marisa Renee Lee on Living with Grief, Illness, and Uncertainty

Grief Out Loud

What does it mean to live with uncertainty - especially when your body, your capacity, and your sense of self are all changing at once? In this episode, Jana is joined again by author and advocate . You may know Marisa from her first book, , or from her work helping people tell the truth about grief. In this conversation, she returns to share about her new book, Waiting for Dawn, and the realities of living with long COVID - an experience that has reshaped her daily life, her work, and her understanding of grief. Marisa reflects on the many losses she’s navigated over the years: the death of...

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While we usually talk about the grief associated with a diagnosis or a death, this episode focuses on meeting the needs of youth in the foster care system who are grieving non-death and death losses. Dr. Monique Mitchell, Ph.D., F.T., is the Director of Translational Research & Curriculum Development at The Dougy Center and Juliette Martinez, M.S.W., is the Coordinator of the L.Y.G.H.T. Program - which stands for Listening and Led by Youth in Foster Care: Grief, Hope, and Transitions. This peer support program for youth in the foster care system is based on The Dougy Center's grief support model. We discuss the unique needs of grieving youth in the foster care system, how the L.Y.G.H.T. Program works to address these needs, and the ways this work affects and inspires Monique and Juliette.
To learn more about L.Y.G.H.T, email lyght@dougy.org or visit www.dougy.org.