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Laurel Braitman Learns To Feel Her Feelings - What Looks Like Bravery

Grief Out Loud

Release Date: 04/14/2023

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Grief Out Loud

When Meghan Riordan Jarvis's mother died suddenly, just two years after her father died of cancer, she watched herself grieving from two perspectives. One as a daughter and the other as a trauma-informed therapist. As a daughter she was devastated and deeply impacted on all levels. As a therapist, she recognized in her grief signs of PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. The therapist part of her also realized she wasn't getting better on her own and needed the next level of care. Meghan's new book, , chronicles the unresolved trauma of her early life, how it resurfaced after her parents...

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Sonja was 15 when we recorded in the summer of 2023, but was just 10 when her father, Matt, died in September 2018 from injuries due to a car accident. Sonja, her mom, and two younger siblings lived in NYC at the time of his death. They eventually moved across the country to Portland, Oregon where they attended peer grief support groups at Dougy Center. Sonja shares what she remembers about hearing that her dad was in an accident, how their community showed up while he was in the hospital, and how they kept showing up after he died. We also talk about her dad and what it's like to...

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and her husband Shawn had a bit of a whirlwind life. They got married in 2018, had their son in 2019, and then in 2020 Shawn died of suicide. His death created a different type of whirlwind. The kind where Alexandra had to rebuild her life as a solo parent dealing with the intense swirl of guilt, sadness, anger, and confusion. As the shock wore off, Alexandra started to write down what she was going through and learning along the way. This led to her new book, , and her podcast, .  We discuss: Who Alexandra is in addition to her grief How Shawn lived as a husband and father The day...

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When her father died of cancer, a few days before her 18th birthday, Laurel Braitman started running. Running towards the academic and professional accomplishments her father pushed her to achieve and running away from the intense shame and guilt she carried about their last conversation. It wasn’t until her 30’s that Laurel stopped running long enough to face her greatest fear: feeling her feelings.  

Laurel’s newest book, What Looks Like Bravery: An epic journey through loss to love, chronicles her quest to connect with grief and how it led to the biggest adventure of all - opening up to love.  

In our conversation we delve into: 

  • Growing up with her father’s illness and the threat of him dying 

  • Running from guilt & shame in grief 

  • Overachieving as a coping mechanism 

  • Wanting to be a “geriatric kid” at Josie’s Place, a peer grief support program for children & families  

  • What Laurel learned about grief from being a volunteer facilitator in that program 

  • Learning a new way of being in the world & staying open to love 

  • Having a “cosmic do-over" in helping her mom at the end of her life 

  • The co-existence of love and sadness