Lisa Keefauver MSW and host of the popular podcast Grief is a Sneaky Bitch joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about what happens when we revisit our stories to more deeply understand what has happened in our lives, a look at ambiguous loss, the shoulds and shouldn'ts about grief we tell ourselves that can cause us unnecessary suffering, grief brain, memoir writing for insight and self-compassion, earning reader trust, deep mindfulness, pausing even when we have deadlines, and exercises to calm our nervous system from her new book Grief is a Sneaky Bitch.

Also in this episode:

-showing our full selves on the page

-soothing the nervous system

-how we speak to ourselves 

Books mentioned in this episode:

Fifty-Seven Fridays by Myra Sack

Finding the Words by Colin Campbell

What Looks Like Bravery by Laurel Braitman

When She Comes Back by Ronit Plank

Lisa Keefauver, MSW is a grief activist and the founder of Reimagining Grief. Lisa has more than two decades of professional experiences with grief and loss; working as a social worker, narrative therapist, and educator within multiple settings from non-profits to corporations and universities. Lisa's wisdom and understanding of grief is also embodied from her personal losses including the death of her husband in 2011.

Lisa's grief advocacy has inspired her to create and host the top-rated podcast, Grief is a Sneaky Bitch; serve as an adjunct professor of Loss and Grief at the University of Texas at Austin; act as an organizational consultant to facilitate grief-smart organizations; write/appear as a thought leader across media platforms. Watch her popular TEDx Talk, Why Knowing More About Grief Can Make it Suck Less. You can pre-order her heavily anticipated book, Grief Is A Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss now. It arrives in bookstores June 4, 2024.

Connect with Lisa:

Website: www.lisakeefauver.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisakeefauvermsw/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisakeefauvermsw/

Podcast on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grief-is-a-sneaky-bitch/id1474558908

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPQt3ARzpzeRl5ckN1k-h-g

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lisakeefauvermsw

Get the book on Bookshop

Get the book on Amazon

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Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book.

More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com

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Follow Ronit:

https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/

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Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography

Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers