By Sharon L. Spano, PhD
When a child diesโat any ageโlife does not return to what it was. Identity shifts. Meaning fractures. The future no longer looks the same.
๐๐ฒ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฎ๏ฟฝ
The podcast currently has 25 episodes available.
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In this episode of Beyond the Loss: Life and Identity After a Child Dies, I explore the often unspoken experience of moving through familiar relationships and environments while quietly feeling changed within them. Over time, many grieving parents begin to notice subtle shifts. Conversations may feel harder to enter. Certain relationships may no longer feel as natural or comforting. Even moments that once brought ease can carry a different emotional weight. In this conversation, we explore: How child loss can change our experience of connection and community Why grief often creates distance in relationships The tension between who we once were and who we are becoming How discomfort around grief affects meaningful connection A gentler way to understand identity after profound loss This is not a conversation about โmoving on.โ It is an invitation to recognize the ways grief reshapes us over timeโand how healing sometimes begins by allowing our full story to exist without explanation or apology. If you are grieving the loss of a child, walking beside someone who is, or seeking a deeper understanding of grief and identity, I hope this episode offers a space for reflection and compassion. Take gentle care. ๐ Connect and Subscribe: Website: https://sharonspano.com Podcast: https://sharonspano.com/podcast/podcast-beyond-the-loss/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SharonSpano-BeyondtheLoss-Host Substack: https://substack.com/@drsharon ๐๏ธ Interested in being a guest on the podcast? Youโre welcome to reach out and share your interest: https://sharonspano.com/podcast-guest-beyond-the-loss/ Transcript: Here Support the show
When a child dies, we expect grief. What we donโt often recognizeโฆ is how grief itself becomes judged. In this episode of Beyond the Loss: Life and Identity After a Child Dies, I explore what I call the moralization of griefโthe subtle, often unspoken ways we assign meaning, legitimacy, and even hierarchy to different types of loss. Over time, grief can become something that feels measuredโฆ comparedโฆ or even explained away. And for parents navigating child loss, this creates an added layer of complexityโone that can lead to isolation, disconnection, and the sense that grief must somehow be justified. Weโll talk about: The hidden hierarchy of grief Why certain losses (illness, accident, suicide, overdose) are perceived differently Cultural expectations around mourning and emotional expression The emotional impact of comparison among grieving parents A more compassionate way to hold griefโwithout judgment This is not a conversation about fixing grief. It is a conversation about understanding itโฆ and allowing it to exist without explanation. If you are living with the loss of a child, supporting someone through grief, or seeking deeper insight into grief, identity, and healing, this episode invites you into a different way of seeing. ๐ Connect & Continue the Conversation: Website: https://sharonspano.com Podcast: https://sharonspano.com/podcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SharonSpano-BeyondtheLoss-Host Substack: https://substack.com/@drsharon Take gentle care, and I'll see you in the next episode. Dr. Sharon Spano Support the show
Most people assume the hardest part of losing a child is the beginning. But many parents will tell youโitโs what comes after. In this episode, I want to sit with you in what I call the long afterโthat quiet space where the support has faded, life has moved on, and youโre left trying to make sense of who you are now. This is the part of grief that isnโt often named. The part where you may be functioning againโฆ showing upโฆ even appearing โokayโ to othersโ and yet, something inside you still doesnโt quite fit. If youโve ever found yourself asking, Why does this still feel so hard? Why am I not further along by now? I want you to hear this clearly: Nothing has gone wrong. What youโre experiencing is not something to โget over.โ Itโs the slow, often disorienting process of identity reorganizationโlearning how to live in a world that no longer feels the same. In this conversation, I explore the difference between acceptance and integration, and what it means to hold both sorrow and a sense of peace at the same timeโwithout needing to resolve either. Listen & Connect: Podcast: https://sharonspano.com/podcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SharonSpano-BeyondtheLoss-Host Substack: https://substack.com/@drsharon Website: https://sharonspano.com For inquiries or to connect directly: [email protected] If you are in the long after, this episode is simply here to meet youโwithout pressure, without expectation. You are not late. You are not doing this wrong. And you are not alone. Take gentle care, and Iโll see you in the next episode. Sharon #ChildLoss #GriefIntegration #BeyondTheLoss #DrSharonSpano #IdentityAfterLoss #BereavedParents Support the show
In this episode, I want to begin where many parents find themselvesโoften without language. When a child dies, we tend to talk about grief. But what is less often named is something more fundamental. Identity. For most parents, being a mother or a father is not something you do. It is something you are. It organizes your time, shapes your relationships, and gives meaning to your life. And when that structure breaks, it doesnโt simply return. You may still be a parent, and yet the role no longer functions in the way it once did. That tension can feel disorienting. At times, even invisible. In this conversation, I explore what I often call the loss beneath the lossโ the quiet disruption of identity that unfolds over time. This is not something to fix. And it is not something to rush. It is something that evolves. If something here resonates with you, know that you are not alone in the experience. Listen & Connect Podcast: https://sharonspano.com/podcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SharonSpano-BeyondtheLoss-Host Substack: https://substack.com/@drsharon Website: https://sharonspano.com For inquiries or to connect directly: [email protected] ๐ค CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION ๐๏ธ Interested in being a guest on the podcast? Youโre welcome to reach out and share your interest: https://sharonspano.com/podcast-guest-beyond-the-loss/ Support the show
This episode marks the beginning of a different kind of conversation about griefโone that does not center on the immediacy of loss, but on what unfolds over time. In Beyond the Loss: Life and Identity After a Child Dies, we explore the quieter, often unspoken terrain of life after the death of a childโwhere identity shifts, meaning changes, and familiar ways of understanding no longer hold. This is not a space for fixing grief, finding closure, or moving on. Instead, it is a reflective and integrative inquiry into what it means to live in what I call โthe long after.โ Rooted in adult human development and systems thinking, this podcast holds conversations that are thoughtful, measured, and grounded in lived experienceโoffering a deeper lens into grief, identity, and the ongoing reorganization of life. If this perspective resonates, youโre welcome to continue listening. โฑ๏ธ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 A Different Kind of Welcome 00:48 Naming What This Space Is (and Isnโt) 02:05 Why This Work Is Changing Direction 03:30 What Most Grief Conversations Miss 05:10 The Space Beyond Early Grief 06:45 Who This Conversation Is For 08:20 An InvitationโOr Not ๐ง LISTEN & CONNECT ๐๏ธ Podcast: https://sharonspano.com/podcast/ โถ๏ธ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SharonSpano-BeyondtheLoss-Host โ๏ธ Substack: https://substack.com/@drsharon ๐ Website: https://sharonspano.com ๐ค CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION ๐๏ธ Interested in being a guest on the podcast? Youโre welcome to reach out and share your interest: https://sharonspano.com/podcast-guest-beyond-the-loss/ Support the show
The podcast currently has 25 episodes available.