The Widowed Parent Podcast

I had such a great discussion with David Kessler for this episode. David is one of the world's foremost experts on grief and loss. He's also had two very personal losses: the death of his mother when he was just 13, and the death of his younger son when his son was 21. David has just come out with a brand new workbook, Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief Workbook. In our discussion, he shares so much of his wisdom from this workbook, from his personal experiences as a griever, and from his lifetime of work as a grief professional. Plus: He shares how his first impressions about funerals came from watching Gilligan's Island as a child. I know you'll find David's insights worthwhile, and his workbook invaluable. Links & show notes The Widowed Parent Institute guides the journey of solo parenting after loss. Get free resources for widowed parents and for supporting grieving friends. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Michelle Glogovac for this episode. Michelle lost her dad when she was 7, and I'm so grateful that she was willing to come on and speak with us for this special discussion that is our first episode of this year's Children's Grief Awareness Month. It's kind of funny how I came to be speaking with Michelle for this. It's actually a melding of my two professional worlds. Listeners may know that in addition to being an author myself, I work with other nonfiction and memoir authors. Michelle has a new book for authors: all about how to pitch themselves as guests on podcasts, plus lots of other advice related to that topic. I picked up her book as part of that “other” side of my work, my work with authors – and I was surprised when I read early in the book that her dad had died when she was young. I knew I needed to reach out to her and see if she'd be willing to share her experience with us. I'm so glad she did – and I know you will be too. Links & show notes The Widowed Parent Institute guides the journey of solo parenting after loss. Get free resources for widowed parents and for supporting grieving friends. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Amanda-Lee Pitzer for this episode. Amanda-Lee is the author of the new memoir The Relieved Widow. “Relieved,” you say? Yes, the title is perhaps a bit jarring. But Amanda-Lee is doing readers a service by being open and honest about her story of losing her military husband to suicide when their boys were 8 and 10. She recalls that when her therapist friend pointed out that she seemed to feel relieved, her reaction was, “I'm not allowed to say that. No one can know.” By talking about her journey, Amanda-Lee gives us permission to talk about the things that are our own realities. She also shares practical tips for navigating the hard conversations with her boys – right after it happened, and in the years to come – that are I think important for all widowed parents to hear. Links & show notes The Widowed Parent Institute guides the journey of solo parenting after loss. Get free resources for widowed parents and for supporting grieving friends. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Jeanette Koncikowski for this episode. We first talked five years ago, when Jeanette was my guest way back in episode 10. I invited her back now because she's out with a brand-new book, Shipwrecked: A Memoir of Widowed Parenting and Life After Loss. It's a “teaching memoir,” in which Jeanette both shares her family's journey and explores themes, issues, and questions common to newly widowed parents. And like our last episode, this is a story where my guest had a complicated situation when their spouse died. Jeanette and her husband Mark had been separated for over a year; when he died, they were dating again and in couples counseling. One of the reasons Jeanette wrote this book and speaks at Camp Widow and other places is that she wants people to understand that not everyone had a perfect marriage when they were widowed. Plus: Jeanette gives us a gift toward the end of the book, where she interviews her now-teenaged children about their experiences losing their dad and reflecting on the decade since his death. Links & show notes The Widowed Parent Institute guides the journey of solo parenting after loss. Get free resources for widowed parents and for supporting grieving friends. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Jessica Waite for this episode. I've had a number of listeners recently asking for more discussions with widowed parents who have complicated situations. Or, as one listener put it, “the end-of-life stories that are really ugly.” One of the gifts Jessica is giving us with her new book is that she's writing about stuff that not everyone is willing to write about. When her husband died suddenly, she discovered that he was living a secret life. She found too many secrets – all at once – and asked herself: If he lied about all that, what else did he lie about? In the end, though, The Widows Guide to Dead Bastards is a love story, and it's about getting to a place of healing and reconciliation when facing the unthinkable. Links & show notes The Widowed Parent Institute guides the journey of solo parenting after loss. Get free resources for widowed parents and for supporting grieving friends. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Sara Wingerath-Schlanger for this episode. Sara is from Tuesday's Children, which was founded in the wake of 9/11 to serve families affected by that tragedy in 2001, including the 3,051 kids who lost a parent that day. Sara tells us they are one of only three nonprofits started because of 9/11 that are still operating today, and she fills us in on who they serve today and how. I think you'll be especially interested in the book Tuesday's Children put out in 2011, for the 10-year anniversary. The book is called The Legacy Letters: Messages of Life and Hope from 9/11 Family Members, and in it, there are letters from relatives of 100 of the individuals who died that day, including from teens and young adults who were kids when their parents died. It's a powerful way to hear directly from our young people (and others) about how the loss of their loved ones on September 11 has affected them over that first decade post-loss. I hope you enjoy my discussion with Sara Wingerath-Schlanger. Links & show notes The Widowed Parent Institute guides the journey of solo parenting after loss. Get free resources for widowed parents and for supporting grieving friends. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Lisa Keefauver for this episode. You may know Lisa from her popular podcast, Grief is a Sneaky Bitch, and now she has a brand new book out by the same name. In this episode, we talk all about ambiguous losses, disenfranchised grief, how the three most important rules of scuba diving also apply to life—and, of course, the origin of her podcast and its name. Lisa is a widowed parent and a therapist, and her book has “invitational” language, not “instructional” language. I invite you to check it out. And for the Grief Allies out there, Lisa reminds us to remove the words “at least” from our grief support vocabulary and that'll go a long way toward supporting our friends who are grieving. Links & show notes The Widowed Parent Institute guides the journey of solo parenting after loss. Get free resources for widowed parents and for supporting grieving friends. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Ryane Moates for this episode. I love what Ryane is doing with her YouTube channel, Ryane to the Rescue, where she educates on all things home repair, yard care, and more that widowed people find themselves responsible for after the death of their partners. Ryane herself felt so empowered after she started learning and doing all the things her husband used to do around the house – which was all new to her – and she knew she wanted to share this message of hope, healing, and empowerment with other widows. Check it out - and let me know which video is your favorite! -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Jordan Arogeti for this episode. Jordan and her company have a new tool called Support Now. It's a bit like a mashup of some tools you may be familiar with, such as CaringBridge, Go Fund Me, and online meal trains. But it's SO much more than that. In preparing to speak with Jordan, I had an “Ah-Ha!” moment: Support for the newest grievers is all about ORGANIZING and ORIENTING a widowed parent's own community. ORGANIZING: Support Now is a comprehensive tool that facilitates exactly this. Listen to my discussion with Jordan for a good overview. ORIENTING: I have LOTS of thoughts. Some of them you can find now at GriefAllies.com, where you can download my free tips & resources for supporting grieving people. (And stay tuned for more on this!) In the short term, a widowed parent's own community is going to be best positioned to help them with urgent and immediate needs. I'm working on ways to make that easier and less awkward. And then, of course, to introduce resources, books, experts, and more who can help after those immediate-term needs have been tended to. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Dr. Linda Shanti McCabe for this episode. We haven't tackled the topic of art and how it can help with grief on the show before, so I was excited to talk with Linda about that as well as her program called the Art of Grief which is starting soon. Linda is a widowed parent herself, and she's also a licensed clinical psychologist. Listen, too, as she shares the major change she made shortly after her husband's death, and what she's planning as her son prepares for his 13th birthday. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with child life specialist Jessica Correnti this week on the Widowed Parent Podcast. Jessica is the founder of a practice called Kids Grief Support. She is also the author of two picture books for young grievers, including her newest, The ABCs of Grief, which will be available in February 2024. In this discussion we dive deep on a number of topics, such as: the power of books to help kids see that they are not the only kid with a dead parent; the importance of being honest with kids; examples of clear language to help kids understand what it means when someone dies; what she looks for in a developmentally appropriate grief book for kids; and much more. So much of our focus at the Widowed Parent Institute is on helping parents learn about children's grief and how to support their own grieving kids. Today's guest has so much to share with us on this topic. Be sure to follow Jessica on Instagram, too, where she shares tips and resources about children's grief. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Dr. Katie Davis for this episode. This week we tackle a thorny parenting topic: screens. The pandemic period of online school, work, play dates, happy hours, fitness classes, therapy sessions, music lessons, and so much more has taught us that asking whether screens and screen time are “good” or “bad” are not necessarily the right questions anymore. Technology has become too central to our lives. Katie is a researcher at the University of Washington who directs the UW Digital Youth Lab and has a new book for parents called “Technology's Child: Digital Media's Role in the Ages and Stages of Growing Up.” Plus, she answers that question everyone with young kids want to know: if young kids aren't supposed to have screen time, what about facetime with grandparents who live 3,000 miles away? -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

Today's discussion is such an important one. For families who have been touched by suicide losses, for sure – and also for any parents of grieving teens from any death losses. Joanne tells us today about her new film, “Talking Out Loud - Teens & Suicide Loss: A Conversation.” I've seen it, and I have to say it's such a privilege to hear directly from teens about such a sensitive topic. They knew their parents were watching live during the filming, but they apparently all forgot about that and the cameras and they had a really honest, unfiltered discussion. I'd like to thank Joanne and her team for bringing us this incredible film, and also for coming here to speak with us about it this week. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I can't think of a better way to kick off Children's Grief Awareness Month than to share my recent discussion with Laurel Braitman, author of the new memoir What Looks Like Bravery. Longtime listeners will recall that I've often mentioned what a privilege it is to speak with grown-up grieving kids, and to hear firsthand their experiences and reflections after losing a parent at a young age. What Laurel gives us in this book is an incredibly intimate portrait of her life. She lets us inside, and she allows us to see how grief has affected one now-grown-up grieving child over the decades. Her book and today's discussion are full of beautiful insights - and I really can't say enough about how incredible her book is. I don't usually cry when reading books, but wow, I had a little trouble seeing the words on the last few pages through the tears that were welling up. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Azurae Johnson Redmond for this episode. Azurae is the founder of Young, Black & Widowed Inc and she is also the foreword writer for my new book, out this week: "Widowed Parents Unite: 52 Tips to Get Through the First Year, from One Widowed Parent to Another." I'm thrilled that Azurae and so many other contributing authors are part of this book. Widowed Parents Unite wouldn't be nearly what it is without each and every one of these moms and dads who decided to share their stories with those newer on this widowed parenting path. I know you'll learn so much from Azurae's story, and I hope you check out the resources offered by Young, Black & Widowed. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Mae Yoshikawa for this episode. Mae's boys were young when her husband died. One was 8 years old, and the other was just 5 months old. Listen in our discussion for the important question Mae asked her older son after her husband died: What if the question right now is not “Why?” This hearkens back to her own experience when her mom became gravely ill when Mae was a young adult. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Gina Moffa for this episode. Gina is a therapist specializing in grief and loss, and she has a brand-new book out this week: Moving On Doesn't Mean Letting Go: A Modern Guide to Navigating Loss. I was honored to read an advance copy and provide an endorsement for her terrific book. Perhaps the best way I can introduce our discussion is to share what I wrote about her new book: “If you don't have a therapist on speed dial—or even if you do—Gina Moffa's Moving On Doesn't Mean Letting Go will walk with you through the disorienting and devastating experience that is grief. Helpfully, she tackles both the inner grief journey and navigating the world at large while grieving. Moffa shares important information on the mind-body connection as it relates to the grief experience, helping us understand how important it is to listen to what our bodies are trying to tell us. An important chapter called ‘Grief's Sister, Trauma' is not to be missed. A must-read for those who are grieving the loss of someone close.” -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Phyllis Fagell for this episode. Phyllis just released a brand new book, Middle School Superpowers: Raising Resilient Tweens in Turbulent Times. We haven't specifically talked about middle schoolers on the show before, and I knew Phyllis would be just the right person to tackle this with. She's a parenting author and speaker – and I had to laugh when I saw on her website: “Phyllis has lived through middle school three times: first for herself, then with her kids, and now as a counselor.” She's a school counselor in Washington, DC, and her first book Middle School Matters could be likened to “what to expect when you're expecting a middle schooler.” -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Chris Buchanan for this episode. Chris has written a graphic novel for grieving teens and kids – something that is unique among the grief literature. She was inspired to write this book because of a death in her community, and she brought her many years of expertise as a speech-language pathologist to the task of writing this book in order to create a different type of resource for parents and professionals working with grieving children and teens. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Lynn Haraldson for this episode. She was widowed 40 years ago, at the age of 19—with an 11-day-old baby at home. I especially appreciated the longer lens she brings to the experience of being a widowed parent. Her journey has included many twists and turns, and she reflects on it all in her new memoir, An Obesity of Grief. Listen especially for Lynn telling us about her daughter's high school project, when she reached out to the newspaper in their former small town to learn about the father she never knew. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

We're trying something a little different today. Or actually: a lot different. We've got our first non-human guest on the show. No, I'm not interviewing either of my dogs, Daisy and Penny, although that could get interesting. Today I'm interviewing the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT. What is ChatGPT, you ask? I asked it to describe itself briefly, in a non-technical way, and this is what it said: “ChatGPT is like a digital helper that can talk and write in a human-like way. It's powered by a type of artificial intelligence, and it can help answer your questions, write emails, tutor in a variety of subjects, translate languages, and even write poetry. It's like having a very knowledgeable friend to help you out with all sorts of tasks. This tool was created by OpenAI, a research group focused on making AI technology that benefits everyone. ChatGPT was first made available to the public in 2021.” So I got to wondering recently whether ChatGPT might have anything useful to say to those of us who are widowed parents. Because if you're anything like me, you're trying to figure out how to raise kids after their other parent has died – and you're realizing this is hard. And – it's hard to know who can help us figure that out. This idea came up because a family member of mine has a podcast on a totally different topic, and she interviewed ChatGPT on her show. And my dad spotted it and said to me, hey, maybe there's something interesting here in relation to your show, too. So I listened to the discussion my aunt, Jo Ann Barefoot, had with ChatGPT on her show, which is called Barefoot Innovation – and it was fascinating. If you're at all interested in the banking industry, and especially in FinTech and financial regulation, I highly encourage you to listen to her interview with ChatGPT, and to her many other interviews as well. Anyway, I started to wonder: what would ChatGPT say to my listeners? If I asked it to suggest resources for widowed parents, would it have any? Would those resources be any good? Would it have advice on planning for Father's Day, for example, since that is right around the corner? Would it be well-versed on kids' understanding of grief at various ages and developmental stages? Perhaps most importantly: If I posed a bunch of questions, and I shared them on the show, would I have to interject over and over and let you know where its answers were unhelpful, or even incorrect or dangerous? I played around a little first, to get a sense of how to use it. And because I was sitting next to my dog when I signed up, my very first question to ChatGPT was: “can you tell me about Tibetan spaniels?” I asked a few more questions about topics that were top-of-mind: recovery from the type of shoulder surgery I recently had, and how to clean my new Trex decking. Then, it was time to think about what to ask ChatGPT about widowed parenting, and give it a go. Have a listen for yourself, and let me know what you think about how it answers. A note about the methodology and technology used in this interview. I used the most up-to-date version of ChatGPT, called GPT-4. Because it only takes text input, and answers with text replies, I conducted the interview by typing my questions and reading the answers as they came back. In order to share it with you today, I went back and recorded myself reading my questions out loud, and also fed ChatGPT's answers into a text-to-speech tool called NaturalReader (the commercial version). I picked a voice named “Aria” and chose the “friendly” option for her tone. I used another AI tool called DALL-E to generate a “headshot” for today's guest. I had to experiment quite a lot with what type of prompts to give the tool, in plain English, and get the type of image I wanted, and that was fun. As someone who spent 20 years in the tech world in my prior life, I have to say, this experiment was super interesting. I was blown away with how accurate and useful the answers were to the questions that I posed. I don't think that's necessarily always the case with AI tools, even this one. One criticism I hear is that these tools can create great-sounding answers that are entirely wrong. In this case, I'm able to review the answers before sharing them with you, and if any of the answers had been wrong or even dangerous, I would have addressed that. As AI tools become more and more widespread, I think it's important for those of us working in the grief world to realize that the grieving people we serve may begin turning to them for answers. I think it's important that we understand what's out there, what may be coming, and what the possibilities and limitations are. We can't afford to ignore AI – for better or worse, it will likely change the way we do our work in the world, and how grieving people are supported in the years to come. I hope you enjoy my interview with ChatGPT. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Talia Kovacs for this episode. We talked about an important topic: building resilience in our kids. Listen for Talia explaining what she means when she says resilience is learned, but it can't be taught. It's an important nuance that I hadn't thought about before, and Talia explains to us what this means for us as parents. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Heidi Carson for this episode. Heidi is a fellow widowed parent, and she lost her husband, Chad, when their kids were 12 and 14 due to complications related to a rare telomere disease. I so appreciate Heidi talking with us because I believe that hearing other people's stories helps us feel so much less alone. Listen for Heidi sharing how getting involved in volunteering and advocacy related to her husband's disease has helped her in her grief, and how writing fiction has helped, too. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Dr. Lisa Damour for this episode. I always love talking with Lisa, and her books and podcast are incredible resources for parents. I frequently recommend her book Untangled to parents of teen and tween girls, and she's got a brand new book out this week: The Emotional Lives of Teenagers. In addition to unpacking that topic, we talked about trauma, and also why one of Lisa's first questions when encountering someone in crisis is to ask whether they are able to sleep. We talked about some options to consider if your teen is refusing to go to therapy, and so much more. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Rabbi Steve Leder for this episode. So great that I may just have to have him back. We talked mostly about his second-most-recent book, The Beauty of What Remains, which I found fascinating and helpful and comforting, all in one. He describes it as both a memoir and a field guide. We talked about what he's learned working with a thousand grieving families in his thirty years at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, plus what he learned when he lost his own father. Even though Steve is a Rabbi, I found his wisdom applicable to those who practice any religion, or even no religion at all. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Whitney Kobrin for this episode. Whitney is herself widowed, and she really wanted to focus our discussion on giving hope to people who feel stuck. She's a love coach, but we didn't talk about dating or relationships—we talked about self-love and self-compassion. We also talked about the advice you may have heard to not make any major changes in the first year. That's come up on the show before, but we've not really explored it too much, and Whitney tells us about her experience with this. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Dr. Elena Lister and Dr. Michael Schwartzman for this episode. I'm going to keep this brief and make just one suggestion: If you're a widowed parent, buy this book. If you know a widowed parent, buy it for them. Seriously. The stuff the authors cover is exactly the sort of stuff I was wondering about when my husband, Dennis, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and my kids were 9 & 11. If you don't know what to say to your kids about death and grief—and let's be honest, who does?—then do yourself a favor and read Giving Hope: Conversations with Children About Illness, Death, and Loss. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Charlene Lam for this episode. Charlene said she'd like to share with my listeners why she believes we are all curators after a loved one dies. I thought that sounded intriguing, so I invited her on the show. Little did I know I'd end up with some new items on my to-do list! We brainstormed what to do with the pile of old DVDs I have – including all the seasons of Mad Men, which Dennis and I enjoyed together for many years. Listen for Charlene's reflections and tips for using our loved one's belongings as a source of connection and healing, and consider dropping into one of her monthly Grief Gallery gatherings on zoom. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Jon Lefrandt for this episode. As we close out Children's Grief Awareness Month, I'm really excited to share Jon's story and perspective with you. He lost his dad when he was just 24—and he had to step in and help care for his six younger siblings and help them with their grief, both short term and long term. I know you'll learn a lot from what Jon has to share with us. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Melissa Williams-Gurian for this episode. I'm grateful Melissa was willing to speak with me because she doesn't do this work professionally; she shares with us from her own personal experience of losing her mom when she was 15. Perhaps this is around the ages some of our kids were. Talking with people who lost a parent at a young age is always such a privilege. It puts things on my radar screen that I wouldn't have necessarily thought of. It helps raise my awareness and increase my understanding of what kids go through when they lose a parent, and what their experiences may be like. I hope it helps increase your awareness and understanding, too. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Sandra Began for this episode. Sandra lost her husband to suicide when their boys were nine and eleven. She was really open about just how difficult it is for survivors of suicide loss. This is an important discussion, both for widowed parents who lost their partners to suicide, and for those who love and support them in order to better understand just how hard it can be. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Erin Browning for this episode. It's Children's Grief Awareness Month, and we have a little different topic for you this week. We're talking about being a stepparent who has grieving stepkids when your spouse—their parent—dies. Erin is very thoughtful on this topic, because she's seen it from both sides: her dad died when she was in college and was married to her stepmother, and now she is stepmother herself to a grieving teen after her partner died. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Kelsey Chittick for this episode. Kelsey is a widowed parent, and in this episode she reflects on losing her husband suddenly. He actually died in front of their kids at the trampoline park, when she was out of the country. Be sure to listen for the part where she shares the most valuable lesson she learned: that she didn't have to try to fix everything for her kids, but instead she needed to be there and to listen. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Debbie Weiss for this episode. We talk about three different aspects of Debbie's grief experience: losing her mom at age 10; losing her husband at age 50; and dating in middle-age widowhood. Debbie is the author of the new book Available As Is: A Midlife Widow's Search for Love. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Allison Gilbert for this episode. Allison was my guest back in episode 35, where we talked about her book Passed and Present, and about ways to keep the memory of our loved ones alive. This week, we talk about her new book, which is called: Listen, World! It's a biography – and in our discussion we uncovered the important idea that biography is perhaps an under-appreciated tool in terms of grief support. Much like memoir, a great biography can be a window into other people's grief journeys. In our discussion, we look at how Elsie Robinson, the subject of Listen, World!, chose to build a life for herself in the face of much grief and hardship. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Barri Leiner Grant for this episode. One of the most important takeaways from our discussion is this: grief support comes in different forms, and it's important to understand some of the options so you can find something that feels right for you. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Meghan Riordan Jarvis for this episode. Meghan is a trauma therapist, and what she had to say about trauma and grief kind of blew my mind. This discussion is one of a special pair of episodes: Meghan and I talked twice in the same week — once for her show, once for mine — so do be sure to listen to both discussions. You can find my interview on Meghan's Grief is My Side Hustle podcast here. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Adam Carter of the National Alliance for Children's Grief for this episode. We talked all about how social media can be a helpful tool, plus tips and suggestions for parents when it comes to teen social media use as it relates to grief and grieving. Check out the word cloud, and then listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app! -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had a great discussion with Joseph James for this episode. I'm really glad that Joseph reached out to me about coming on the show, because this show is not just for moms. It's is very definitely for all widowed parents. And I think it's useful to hear a variety of perspectives, and a variety of styles of grieving, and parenting. And as Joseph tells us, he didn't feel like parenting came naturally to him, and he felt like he needed to learn how to be a better dad. Check out the word cloud, and then listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app! -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Paula Harris for this episode. Paula's financial planning firm specializes in working with widowed people, and she's also the author of Rise Up: A Widow's Journal. Check out the word cloud for this episode, and then listen to our full discussion! -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Lisa Valentine Clark for this episode. Lisa is a widowed mom of 5, and she lost her husband two years ago to ALS. Check out the word cloud for this episode, and then listen to our full discussion. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Zibby Owens for this episode. Zibby has a delightful podcast all about books & authors, and a thoughtful new memoir, Bookends, which dives deep into grief. Some topics Zibby and I discuss include: Zibby's podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books, and some of her favorite grief memoirs; Her own brand-new memoir, Bookends; Losing her best friend on 9/11, and the trauma and impact that had on her; The ‘grief brain' and brain fog she experienced; Losing people close to her who left behind young kids; Her family's experience with losing loved ones to covid; All about her grief platform & podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Grieve; Her thoughts on writing a memoir, including feeling vulnerable and having newfound compassion for memoir authors; Zibby's tips for aspiring memoir writers; and Her summer reading pick in case you'd like to distract yourself with a good book. I hope you enjoy my discussion with Zibby Owens. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Kristin Meekhof for this episode. Kristin is an author, and I invited her on the show because she is both widowed herself and is someone who lost a parent at a young age. Plus, this week we have a giveaway, where one lucky winner will get signed copies of both Kristin's book, A Widow's Guide to Healing, and my own book, Future Widow. If you're listening around the time this episode is released, you can enter now through June 11, 2022, at jennylisk.com/giveaway. Some topics Kristin and I discuss include: Being born in Korea and adopted by an American family as an infant; Growing up with her dad having cancer; Her dad dying when she was almost 5 years old; That first time her class was making Father's Day cards; Her mom getting remarried when she was seven, and being adopted by her step-dad; Having her last name change to her step-dad's name, which was her third last name as a young child; How disorienting and damaging it was for her as a child that her mother refused to talk her father's death; Getting to know her father through her uncle and grandmother; Being afraid as a child that her mother would die, too; Her own husband dying of cancer when she was 33, and how isolating this experience was; Why she decided to interview over 100 widowed people and write a book for newly widowed people; and Why sharing our stories is so important to our healing. I hope you enjoy my discussion with Kristin Meekhof. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Rebecca Soffer for this episode. Rebecca is not a widowed parent, but many widowed parents and others turn to her book and her community, Modern Loss, for support and connection. And now, Rebecca has a brand-new book: The Modern Loss Handbook. It's a beautiful, full-color book, and Rebecca calls it “an interactive guide to moving through grief and building your resilience.” Some topics Rebecca and I discuss include: When she and I met at an event at The Riveter in Seattle on her first book tour, back in 2018; How lonely and disorienting it was when both her parents died when she was in her early thirties; Why she founded Modern Loss eight years ago; Why it's important to normalize the conversation around grief and loss; Tips from the Modern Loss Handbook for finding support; Some ways that grief can impact friendships; Creating ‘bespoke holidays' to remember our loved ones; and Why we should all create our own ‘grief manifesto.' I hope you enjoy my discussion with Rebecca Soffer. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Kim Murray for this episode. Kim is a widowed parent, and we have so much in common. Her husband died of glioblastoma, as did mine. Her kids were 8 and 10 when he was diagnosed; mine were those ages, too. Most importantly, though, Kim gets real with us. She talks about things people aren't willing to talk about – including her son's struggles beginning a few years after his dad died, and the stories she was telling herself about her parenting because of his struggles. She also tells us about all the terrific resources she's put together over at her website, Widow 411, which I encourage you to check out. Some topics Kim and I discuss include: The shock of finding out that her husband had terminal brain cancer; Talking with her kids about their dad's diagnosis, and deciding when to tell them his cancer was terminal; Why she prefers the term ‘solo parent' rather than ‘single parent;' Taking her kids to a family grief support program; Her older son beginning to struggle in 8th grade, about 3 years after his dad died, including self-medicating in an attempt to handle his grief; Trying to find help for her son, and the doubt and shame she experienced because of his struggles; Why she started Widow 411; and The topics she tackles on Widow 411, ranging from grief, to money, to home maintenance and more. I hope you enjoy my discussion with Kim Murray. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Stacy Francis for this episode. Stacy is a certified financial planner who specializes in working with women going through transitions, including becoming widowed. I invited her on the show because this is such an important topic, and it's helpful to be able to ask an expert our questions about money, taxes, and social security. Some topics Stacy and I discuss include: Thinking about the first tax return as a widowed person; Some differences to know about filing statuses such as Qualified Widow(er), Head of Household, and Single; Tax breaks for widows that are important to know about; Why life insurance is an important financial tool; The importance of planning for retirement; Social security benefits that widowed people with children are eligible for; The free guides & checklists that Stacy has available on her website; Her nonprofit, Savvy Ladies, which offers free financial advice and services for women who need it; and What is important to know and ask when choosing a financial planner. I hope you enjoy my discussion with Stacy Francis. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Karen Phelps Moyer for this episode. I first learned of Karen's work because she founded Camp Erin, which is a camp for kids ages 6-17 who are grieving the loss of a loved one, and which runs camps in many locations across the US. Now, Karen is working with widowed people and others to reimagine love after loss. I had the pleasure of talking with her initially back in episode 51, and since dating and potentially looking for a “Chapter 2” is a topic that many widowed people grapple with at some point, I thought it would be a good time to have her back on the show to give us an update. Some topics Karen and I discuss include: Why it may be easier to think about “finding adult company” rather than “dating;” Sometimes it's helpful to “release and replace” thoughts that are not working for us; Why she believes that everyone can “reimagine love;” There's no need to take down your pictures just because you're bringing someone new into the house; Talking to your kids about dating; How zoom chats can help you get a better sense of a person that messaging online; and The importance of working on yourself as you begin considering reimaging love. I hope you enjoy my discussion with Karen Phelps Moyer. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Maria Vassiliou for this episode. Maria lost her mom when she was just two years old. As an adult, she's studied thanatology and started a podcast dedicated to exploring and expanding the conversation about death. Her podcast is called Philotimo Life. Some topics Maria and I discuss include: Maria and her dad moving in with her dad's parents a few years after her mom died; Why she avoided talking about death or about her mom for many years growing up; How hard it was as a child to deal with other people's pity and awkwardness when they learned about her mom's death; How much she appreciates that her dad talked with her teachers ahead of each new school year; Using some of the storylines in Disney movies to start conversations with your kids; Her thoughts on the conventional wisdom ‘kids are resilient'; Why she decided to study thanatology and to start a podcast talking about death; and Why she believes we need a human-centered approach to grief and bereavement. I hope you enjoy my discussion with Maria Vassiliou. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Audible - Get a FREE audiobook and 30-day free trial: www.audibletrial.com/widowedparent BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Blue Apron - Special offers for listeners of the podcast: jennylisk.com/blueapron Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Sherri Fisher for this episode. Sherri is a learning specialist who has worked both in schools and in private practice. I wanted to invite her to the show this week because she has so much wisdom and experience to share with us on the topic of support for kids who are struggling in school. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the world of education has gotten more complicated than when I was growing up. This is one of those episodes that is not grief-specific, but rather has general parenting information and support for us as parents. Some topics Sherri and I discuss include: Why the ‘effort myth' is a myth; What are the three gifts of motivation, and why each is important; Why kids may struggle in school despite having at least normal intelligence; Why trying harder isn't necessarily the answer; Challenges students have with organizing their work in today's digital school environment; Why we should not jump to the conclusion that kids are being lazy if they are not completing their work or not turning it in; Suggestions for coaching your own child; The importance of effective communication with your child's teachers, including tips for this; Five types of allies for your child; and The companion workbook for the Effort Myth, available at Sherri's website. I hope you enjoy my discussion with Sherri Fisher. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Audible - Get a FREE audiobook and 30-day free trial: www.audibletrial.com/widowedparent BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Blue Apron - Special offers for listeners of the podcast: jennylisk.com/blueapron Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Heather Stang for this episode. Heather is founder of the Mindfulness & Grief Institute, where she facilitates Awaken, a mindfulness-based online grief group, offers individual sessions, and hosts the Mindfulness & Grief Podcast. Even though we recorded this discussion some months back, I think it's a great time right now, with the new year having just started, to have a listen, and consider learning a bit about mindfulness and perhaps even adopting a mindfulness practice. Some topics Heather and I discuss include: Why she created a guided journal, and why it's helpful for grieving people; Her eight-step mindfulness and grief process; The physical experiences of grief; Intuitive grievers and instrumental grievers; Why her first goal in working with grieving people is to help them be able to sleep; What are mindfulness and meditation, and their relationship to one another; How mindfulness can help you learn to respond rather than react; and Why guided mediation can be helpful, especially if you're not sure how to get started. I hope you enjoy my discussion with Heather Stang. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Audible - Get a FREE audiobook and 30-day free trial: www.audibletrial.com/widowedparent BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Blue Apron - Special offers for listeners of the podcast: jennylisk.com/blueapron Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-

I had such a great discussion with Katarina Salisbury for this episode. This is the second episode in a two-part series with the Salisbury family—Katarina is with us this week, and last week we spoke with her mom, Leila. I hope you had a chance to catch that discussion—listeners are telling me it was a powerful one. Katarina is just 15 years old, and she lost her dad when she was 5. She's very articulate and she's passionate about helping grieving kids and teens. It was so great to hear her reflections and perspectives and to be able to share those with you today. It's such a privilege to be able to hear directly from a teen, and I hope it will help those of us who are widowed parents try to better understand our kids' experiences. Some topics Katarina and I discuss include: Learning that her dad died by suicide, rather than a car accident, when she was 8 or 9—a few years after his death; How much she appreciated the kids grief program she went to when she was younger; Feeling like her dad's suicide must have been her fault; Being labeled ‘the kid with the dead dad' at school; Feeling embarrassed and singled out when teachers would remind the whole class that her dad had died recently; Navigating telling people at her new school, after she moved to another state, about her dad; Losing her grandmother in middle school, and how that was much harder than she expected; Struggling at school because of her grief; Her plans to be involved in leading peer-to-peer teen grief support groups; How she and her mom have acknowledged her dad's birthdays and death anniversaries; Being upset that one year her dad's birthday passed without acknowledgment; Wishing that she had told her mom more about what she was going through; and Deciding that she wants to become an adolescent psychiatrist based on her experiences. I hope you enjoy my discussion with Katarina Salisbury. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Audible - Get a FREE audiobook and 30-day free trial: www.audibletrial.com/widowedparent BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Blue Apron - Special offers for listeners of the podcast: jennylisk.com/blueapron Grief Coach - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://grief.coach/jennylisk/ Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee -=-=-=-=-