Grief Is My Side Hustle

Ep. 37. Diana Kupershmit: A mother‘s grief-special needs and child loss.

Author of the memoir Emma's Laugh: The Gift of Second Chances, Diana Kupershmit takes us into the life of a mother struggling to accept and care for her daughter with special needs.

A Diana Kupershmit holds a Master of Social Work degree and works for the Department of Health in the Early Intervention program, a federal entitlement program servicing children birth to three with developmental delays and disabilities. She has published online in the Manifest Station, Power of Moms, Motherwell Magazine, Still Standing Magazine, and Her View From Home. On the weekends, she indulges her creative passion working as a portrait photographer specializing in newborn, family, maternity, and event photography. She lives in New York City with her family.

 

http://www.dianakupershmit.com

Ep 36. Barri Grant: Grief Coach and Creator of the Memory Circle

Barri Leiner Grant certified Grief Coach and Creator of the Memory Circle shares her experience with her beloved mother, Ellen Jane's death in 1993 and her "calling" to grief work.

 

Links from today's episode:

https://thememorycircle.com/about

https://live-evermore.org

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomteicholz/2021/01/11/life-death-and-rabbi-leder-the-beauty-of-what-remains/?sh=4441ab50754b

 

Ep. 35. Cheryl Jones: Good Grief Podcast Host, counselor and grief educator

Cheryl lets us into her world of loss as a clinician, podcast host, author, and bereaved spouse.  Cheryl's first wife died over two decades ago when her daughters were 14 and two.  She shares with us her personal experience, clinical knowledge, humor, and deep commitment to joy.

Also, we talk about my favorite grief movie, "Truly, Madly, Deeply."

Join us.

 

Cheryl Jones is a grief counselor, educator, and host of Good Grief, a podcast about transformation after loss. She is also the author of a novel, An Ocean Between Them. Cheryl’s work is informed by the ten years of her first wife’s life-limiting illness. Expected to live six months to a year, she lived with cancer for almost a decade. In the losses Cheryl has experienced since then she has been grateful for what she learned about facing loss and finding greater meaning in her life as a result. Cheryl lives in Oakland with her second wife and is grateful for three children, 3 grandchildren, and the wonder of living!

 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-grief-with-cheryl-jones/id761218884

Ep. 34. Double Parent Loss: with Counselor David Pope

David Pope has struggled with depression anxiety and suicidal ideation for most of his life and his battles with mental illness began at six years old.

He was relentlessly bullied throughout primary and secondary school and suffered a double bereavement when he was 25 years old, losing both his parents within a year of each other.

His constant battles with depression and anxiety fuelled his quest to find daily coping mechanisms and strategies to combat his mental illness. 

He subsequently became a private counselor specializing in bereavement, depression, and anxiety and he currently counsels clients over zoom and face-to-face.

David is passionate about sharing physical and cognitive techniques to deal with mental illness and launched an online video course called Depression A New Hope. He also has a guided meditation podcast. The website is healyourgrief.co.uk

 

Ep. 33 Rachel Levy Lesser: Author of Life‘s Accessories and Host of Blaze Baking with Rach

18 years after the death of her mother, author, baker, and all-round lovely human Rachel Levy Lesser joins the podcast to talk about living with loss over time and the ways in which she honors but does not dwell in her mother's death.

https://rachellevylesser.com

Ep. 32. Author Jessica Kantrowitz: Writing through and With Depression

Jessica Kantrowitz is the author of three books, The Long Night: Readings and Stories to Help You through Depression, 365 Days of Peace, and Blessings for the Long Night: Poems and Meditations to Help You through Depression. Her writing has appeared in Sojourners Magazine, The Good Men Project, and the Madeleine L’Engle blog, and she has worked as a storyteller for Together Rising. She also has many years of experience as an editor helping people convey their thoughts clearly and concisely.

 

website for the workshop is workshops.jessicakantrowitz.com.

 

Book I couldn't remember the name of and butchered the author's name:

https://www.marcbrackett.com

Ep. 31 Helkin Berg: The Loneliness of Leadership

Tech CEO Helkin Berg Talks to Meghan about what it's like to ascend to the top ranks in a field dominated by men.  Helkin talks about the challenge of feeling isolated as a leader, further isolated as a woman and the difficulty of trying to be an agent of change to get a wider diversity of voices at the table.

Ep. 30 Michele Benyo: Grieving Parent& Grief Recovery Specialist

Michele Benyo is a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist, parent mentor and founder of Good Grief Parenting, whose purpose is to support parents who are raising young bereaved siblings after child loss.  Her mission is to be a voice for the youngest of grievers and to help parents nurture and understand the unique needs of the children who have lost a sibling in early childhood.

https://www.goodgriefparenting.com/about

michele@michelebenyo.com

 

Ep 29. Matt Bays:Leather and Lace--A memoir

On the day of his sister’s funeral, while standing alone at her grave, Matt Bays tells the truth for the very first time; that he is gay. At forty-six years old, and with a highly religious worldview, Matt sets out on a powerful journey to grapple with this new reality and find the part of himself that was buried in his youth.

Together, Bays and his dead sister take to the open road, listening to 80s music and lying under the stars at the Grand Canyon. Her prevailing love had once given him the courage to come out. And now, after the heartbreaking end of a relationship he thought would go the distance, he is searching for her guidance once again.

https://leatherandlacememoir.com

Ep. 28 Una & Amit Basak

Parents of 18 year old sons with severe autism, Una and Amit Basak discuss the beauty and the challenge of children with disabilities, the community that supports them and the techniques they use to regulate stress, and stay resourced and hopeful.