Bereavement Room

Today's guest in the Bereavement Room is Chelsea Koomson, she joins Callsuma to talk about her mum who died unexpectedly in October 2018. Sharing her personal experiences and what it's like not knowing the cause of death. Chelsea is also the owner of the instagram page Griefluencer, helping raise awareness about grief & mental health. 

As always thanks for listening, to donate to Bereavement Room Podcast Community Fundraiser for a season 3 and to share it with your network please go to our gofundme page.

We are also on instagram, give us a follow for updates.

Your host,

Callsuma Ali

Today's guest is Priya, she has joined me during Baby Loss Awareness Week to talk about her son Shayen. Priya gave birth to Shayen at full term, he was born sleeping. 

Priya walks me through that harrowing moment she was told there was no heartbeat with her husband and family by her side. 

Diversity in loss is the entire fabric of Bereavement Room Podcast and what we often see is that the mainstream excludes the voices of the diaspora and our experience.

Priya and I discuss cultural barriers, the need for further education around pregnancy and statistics where women from Black and South Asian communities are disproportionately effected by baby loss and maternal deaths with Black women at risk the most. 

To donate to her fundraising page and help raise money for a bereavement suite please follow her on instagram.

To get in touch me you can find me on instagram and twitter.

As always thanks for listening. 

I am your host,

Callsuma Ali

Today's guest is Laura Marven, Laura graduated from the University of Leeds in 2019 majoring in Criminal Justice and Criminology. Laura has an interest in travelling despite Covid-19 and is a regular listener of Bereavement Room podcast, she has joined me to share her lived experience of grief and loss. Today we remember her mum who died in 2018 whilst on holiday in Mauritius, her native country. 

We also discuss dating in the age of social media and that it's ok to be vulnerable and not have it all together every minute of the day.

As always, thank you for listening.

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I'm your host,

Callsuma Ali 

Today's guest in the Bereavement Room is Baffour Ababio, a psychoanalytic intercultural psychotherapist and clinical supervisor in private practice and at Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy Centre. 

Baffour completed his training at University College London and the Guild of Psychotherapists and is a member of UKCP and BAPPS (British Association for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Supervision). Alongside his clinical role Baffour developed a career in managing mental health services integrating a community based response to support recovery from a broad range of mental health problems. He has written articles and co-edited a volume on psychotherapy: ‘Ababio, B. and Littlewood, R. (eds) (2019) Intercultural Therapy: Challenges, Insights and Developments. London: Routledge’.

In this episode Baffour reflects on his journey that lead him to therapy, his conflict with his majority and minority Ghanaian background, colonialism, Grenfell fire and frustration around representation in Psychotherapy.

There is poor racial representation across Psychotherapy and Counselling and I conclude this is related to financial inequality and discrimination, in order to be representative we need to find out how many ethnic minority students progress on to continue training after their foundation year and how many drop out and why. 

During our chat I couldn't help but think about shocking levels of economic and racial inequality that was revealed in The Colour of Money, a Runnymede report released in April 2020. For example, Black African and Bangladeshi households have 10 times less wealth than White British people. 

Recommendations from the report include strengthening discrimination law, as well as the need for targeted policies to tackle longstanding inequalities, and for ensuring racial inequalities are considered in thinking about how to design a fairer, more resilient economy. 

With this in mind we need to be mindful that this isn't about students giving up halfway through but individual circumstances that need to be taken into account why student's do not progress on with training for example financial hardships and experiences of racism during training that can force students to drop out. 

Training to be a Psychotherapist or Counsellor at a top school is the equivalent of a deposit on a property in London. (13k-25k) sometimes exc other costs such as being in approved therapy throughout the duration of the training. 

As always thank you for listening.

@bereavementroom on IG. 

@bereavementroom on twitter.

Your host

Callsuma Ali 

In today's episode of Why we do what we do I am joined in the Bereavement Room by the Co-founder of Talking Wellbeing App, James Boston.  Having heard James speak about Identity at a webinar I knew I just had to get him in the room!

James takes me through what lead to a meant to be partnership with Godfrid Bosse and the journey that continues. Packed with tips to train your mindset, podcasts, blogs and events to sign up to, you can tailor what you see in your feed by downloading the Talking Wellbeing App for free.

James and I discuss what identity means for us and the politics that can surround it, including how he started his journey into decolonising his mind to later in life teaching his fellow students about the transatlantic slave trade at the University of Gloucestershire. 

A master of Religion, Philosophy and Ethics, James takes me back to how loss impacted his life when his grandmother died in 2013 from hospital negligence. The great influence she had on his life growing up and the love that now lives on in his memory. 

We also speak openly about the problematic ways in which employers deal with bereaved employees and how this needs to change fast. 

James Boston on IG - @iam_jamesboston

Talking Wellbeing App on IG -  @talkingwellbeing 

Bereavement Room on IG  - @bereavementroom

As always thank you for listening.

Your host

Callsuma Ali

Welcome to Series 2 of @BereavementRoom Podcast! 

A little welcome back from me, I hope you had a peaceful summer!

In this episode I take you through what to expect, Series 2 is about Why we do what we do, the new theme in the slightly adjusted format. We all have a story, I certainly have a story that's why we are here. Of course we will still be running with the usual format of sharing our experiences of grief and loss too. I will be covering the ongoing conversations we need to have in order to drive change. 

I will be talking to guests about Grief, Loss, Racism, Identity, Religion, Culture and how our experiences have shaped us and lead us to where we are now and why we do what we do ending our conversations with our favourite challenge, Gratitude. 

A massive hello to our worldwide listeners!

As always you can find Bereavement Room on twitter and instagram just search bereavementroom. Since you're here please tap that star rating on Apple, leave us a review let me know what you are thinking. 

Thank you for listening. 

I'm your host,

Callsuma Ali x 

Today we release the final episode of Series 1 of Bereavement Room podcast. The first part of 2020 has been a journey, with the unexpected death of my father and then covid-19 followed by a global lockedown and now life slowly starting to resume it's new normal, it's been a rollercoaster. 

The final episode is part 2 of my own story, former guest Vaishnavi Ramu returns to host the space for Callsuma as she takes the guest seat once more. We talk openly about sibling loss, Callsuma's younger brother died of Leukemia in January 2018. We discuss what it means to grow up with a brother who is non verbal and autistic, grief in the workplace where compassionate leave is not very compassionate and the problem with people managers. 

Knowing that we are not born with empathy and compassion but are taught it, how do we learn our empathy and compassionate skills and do we use them enough? The importance of communicating with family members during difficult times, and the need for review of current structures of the Psychotherapy and Counselling world. 

Food for thought; can we truly grieve in the workplace? Is it realistic for workplaces to do more for mental health and bereavement? People of colour with disabilities face so many challenges in society, is the system working hard enough to understand the needs of our most vulnerable? Is the caring profession actually caring? Why are there so many white female therapists? Do we actively exercise our listening skills during the most crucial moments in our lives? 

In the final episode we also discuss the BAME poll results, is it time to dismantle BAME?

You can find Bereavement Room on twitter and instagram @bereavementroom 

Wishing you a peaceful summer, see you in September!

Thanks for listening.

Your guest Callsuma Ali

Your host Vaishnavi Ramu

We return to the Bereavement Room for the Penultimate episode of Series 1.

Former guest Lekhani Chirwa returns to the show to facilitate today's episode where host Callsuma Ali takes the guest seat. Callsuma goes back in time, 10 years since her Mother's death in December 2010. We discuss the challenges we face with healthcare, advocating for ourselves and our loved ones, the complexities of grieving in the workplace with 1 days compassionate leave and insensitive questions from friends that don't know what to say or do when when we grieve. The joy of solo travelling, and the lessons we learn that lead us to where we are today. 

I would like to thank everyone that wrote letters and dms to tell me how they feel about Bereavement Room Podcast, i appreciate you all so much.

I'm your guest, Callsuma Ali

I'm your host, Lekhani Chirwa

tweet us @bereavementroom 

Today's guest is British Ghanaian Linda , Linda is talking to Callsuma about her uncle who died of Cancer in 2017. Linda takes us through how she navigated her grief, thinking that her Uncle was getting better and coming home but in actual fact he was dying. We open up about the fact that all families are convoluted and how this adds to journey of grief that we experience. We also discuss the option of Linda moving back to Ghana after the recent events of the murder of George Floyd that has sparked worldwide outcry of the impact of systemic racism has on Black communities. We look at whether we can show our grief in the workplace and what this means about truly being ourselves, is it possible to grieve at work? Is counselling and therapy easily accessible for the communities of the diaspora in comparison to our white counterparts?

To find a therapist that works for you reach out to the following organisations that might be able to help with your needs and requirements;

Black, African and Asian Therapy Network

Nafsiyat

Aashna

MindworksUk

Muslim Counsellor and Psychotherapist Network

Please note the above are not endorsements, please ensure you do your own research in order to find what best suits your therapy needs. 

Thanks for listening and don't forget to give us a follow on twitter and ig @bereavementroom

Your host

Callsuma ali