What you participate in and why is worth noting. We say: it's not about being great, or perfect, or how other's think you should show up. It's about the pure pleasure and discovery that can be found in participating without expectation. As D says - your magic works the way YOUR magic works, not the way somebody dictates your magic works. Practice. Participate. Engage. Take it from the top.

Welcome to Season 4! Now, we did in fact start recording in January of 2024 and here we are in September dropping our first episode, but what had happened was…life. Life happens, sometimes with a beating, grief currency is a thing, time is an illusion, and we are still showing up and getting back on the GADpod bike and making our own damn bread (gestures broadly).

Join D and Micki for a new season reveling in the Dark Arts of loss, survival, creation, mega-love, and all the deep and delicious things that keep us going here at Grief After Dark.

D and Micki end the season with another fun, open, stream-of-consciousness-style conversation that goes from Star Trek, to showing up for our own excellence, to allowing harm, to the limitations in our belief systems and in own damn narratives. So much of Season 3 was about the ties that bind. Humanity is the condition. Connection is the medicine. If you can dream it, go forth and we will cheer for you. Til next time, friends!

Shelley Leiphart is a psychologist and neuropsychologist working in healthcare ethics, and boy did she bring some expertise to the GAD party this episode. She explains part of the trauma experience as a loss of innocence, sense of self, goodness, safety and justice, and how therapy can help break apart thought and emotion vs. what is actually happening. Shelley is a huge advocate of pursuing psychotherapy as an avenue to process trauma, see your grief from a different perspective, and find a new path forward. Grief is hard. Help helps.

Kristi Gerhardt joins Grief After Dark today with a beautiful and honest perspective on living with clinical depression. Not being sad when things happen. Not good ol’ fashioned teen angst. We’re talking the deep dark hopelessness that is one of the most common and also most undiagnosed struggles in the US today. And…we still manage to laugh through the conversation! C’mon, join the party and let’s all have a really good time talking about really shitty shit so we can all finally normalize mental health issues.

Here's some words for you: Perfectionist, impostor syndrome, eggshells, praise kinks, flimflam artist. D and Micki’s 20 minute bonus episode ended up being 40 minutes because there was simply too much to talk about. How much can you relate, though?

Dr. Mekel Harris, butterfly chaser and licensed psychologist with a focus on grief counselling and education. We reflect on allowing space in our lives for what we want and need, bereavement leave and grief-informed care in the workplace, de-colonizing psychology with cultural curiosity, and good questions for a new therapist….JUST IN THE FIRST 30 MINUTES! That healing glow is a journey, not a destination. Join us on the path.

Follow Dr. Mekel on IG @drmekel

This week enjoy some both/and with D and Micki as they discuss The Plight of the Empath. What is empathy, and what is it to be an empath? Is it learned or inherited? Is being a highly sensitive person a blessing? Or is it a curse? Sometimes the best conversations are the ones where the answers just lead to more questions. And sometimes not-rapid-fire questions should not be publicly answered.

Sincere hardship and trauma vs. self-victimization. Small hurdles and big rewards. Moments of resilience. You know – just a little life catch-up, D and Micki style. Sometimes the hard shit is where it’s at. We are your cheerleaders, friends. Thank you for being here.  

This week Joshua Liberman joins D and Micki in a conversation about family estrangement. Because you all know how we do love a good difficult and vulnerable conversation amongst good friends! This reflection is truly a reminder of what true family and love looks like, unfortunately learned by experiencing the antithesis of those things. I would do anything for love...but I won’t do that.