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The fear of confronting grief keeps many of us trapped in a cycle of avoidance, creating the illusion of safety while actually deepening our suffering. This powerful episode unpacks why we become reluctant to face our grief and how this fear manifests as procrastination, distraction, and "staying busy" - all while our bodies continue carrying the weight of unprocessed loss.

As someone who's walked both sides of the grief journey - professionally as a therapist for nearly three decades and personally through losing my mother to Alzheimer's - I understand the protective mechanisms that make us hesitate to open those emotional doors. But what if I told you that fear isn't real? It's not tangible, it's future-based, and it's simply a story your mind creates to protect you from perceived threats.

The breakthrough comes in understanding that healing doesn't require the absence of fear - it requires moving forward despite it. I share the three essential components that transformed my own grief journey: establishing safety in my nervous system, rewiring my brain for resilience through hypnosis, and creating meaningful support connections. These pillars now form the foundation of my Resilient Life Academy, where clients learn to give their grief the attention it deserves without letting fear stand in their way.

Try this simple yet powerful exercise next time fear arises: pause and take deep belly breaths, remind yourself that fear is just a story (not fact), and take one small action toward healing anyway. Remember, your grief isn't a monster - it's your deep love for your person. Let it heal, give it room to breathe. Are you ready to take that first small step?

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This podcast is not medical advice, psychotherapy or counseling. It is for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you or someone you know is in crisis dial or text 988 for the suicide crisis lifeline.

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Grief can trap us in survival mode—that state where we're just going through the motions, staying desperately busy, or putting on a brave face while feeling broken inside. But what happens when survival mode becomes its own kind of prison?

When I attended a Christmas party four months after losing my mom, I found myself watching everyone from a distance, as if viewing a movie rather than participating. This detachment wasn't a failure—it was my body's protective mechanism kicking in when the pain felt too overwhelming. Maybe you've experienced something similar: the mental fog, the disconnection, or perhaps the opposite—filling every moment with activity to avoid quiet spaces where grief might catch up with you.

The truth is, survival mode serves a crucial purpose. It's your body's way of pacing you through grief, protecting you from experiencing too much pain at once. But it was never meant to be permanent. The frustration, exhaustion, and longing you might feel now are actually powerful signals—they're telling you you're ready for something more than just surviving.

Moving beyond survival requires three essential pillars: sparking hope and restoring balance to your nervous system, finding emotional freedom from what's keeping you stuck, and strengthening your resilience muscle through intentional practices. These pillars helped Esperanza transform her grief journey after losing her daughter, allowing her to honor her child while reclaiming joy and purpose in her own life.

Your healing journey won't look exactly like anyone else's because your grief is uniquely yours. But the path from survival to resilience is available to you too. By recognizing the cues that you're ready for change and engaging with these three transformative pillars, you can begin moving from merely surviving your loss to finding renewed meaning and connection. Ready to make that shift? Let's talk about how the Resilient Life Academy might support your next steps.

Ready to make the shift? Apply to The Resilient Life Academy 

Three Reflection Questions: (Are you ready to shift) 

1. What signs do you recognize in yourself that indicate you are in survival mode? 

2.  What cues have you noticed recently that show you are ready for something other than surviving? 

3. Ask yourself this: "If I didn’t feel _______ (sad, lonely, guilty or anxious, etc...) what would I want right now?"

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Access live grief training with me, checklists to support healthy grieving, and a compassionate community who gets you. 

Answer the 3 membership questions and you’re in! 

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This podcast is not medical advice, psychotherapy or counseling. It is for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you or someone you know is in crisis dial or text 988 for the suicide crisis lifeline.

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Grief doesn't wait for convenient moments. It strikes in grocery store aisles, during familiar songs, or at the sight of a stranger who reminds us of someone we've lost. These everyday moments demand tools that traditional therapy often doesn't provide.

In this powerful testimonial episode, we meet Esperanza Flury, a recent graduate of the Resilient Life Academy who sought help after the sudden loss of her daughter Jacqueline. Her journey illuminates the profound difference between treating grief as an illness versus recognizing it as a normal life condition requiring practical navigation skills. "My pain is not an illness," Esperanza explains, "it's a condition."

Through twelve weeks of coaching, Esperanza discovered how to honor her daughter's memory by completing Jacqueline's fashion collection—transforming raw grief into purposeful celebration. She learned to embrace joy again while acknowledging that grief becomes "braided into the tapestry of life" rather than eliminated. Most importantly, she acquired tangible tools to navigate what she beautifully describes as "the labyrinth of emotions associated with grief."

This episode highlights why grief coaching can be transformative when therapy falls short. While support groups and traditional therapy serve important purposes, they often lack the practical techniques needed for real-world grief management. The Resilient Life Academy empowers you to become your own grief expert, equipped with strategies for those unpredictable moments when emotions overwhelm.

Ready to discover a different approach to navigating loss? Book a complimentary 20-minute chat to learn more about the Resilient Life Academy. Your journey toward healing  and grieving with more freedom starts here.

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Access live grief training with me, checklists to support healthy grieving, and a compassionate community who gets you. 

Answer the 3 membership questions and you’re in! 

We’d be honored to have you join us. 

Click here to Learn more about working with me: Book A Call

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This podcast is not medical advice, psychotherapy or counseling. It is for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you or someone you know is in crisis dial or text 988 for the suicide crisis lifeline.

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Ever caught yourself talking to someone who's no longer here? Or wearing their watch, cooking their recipes, or keeping their photo as your phone wallpaper? These aren't signs you're "stuck" in grief – they're powerful micro-rituals that help maintain meaningful connections while healing.

One of the most common fears I hear from grieving clients is that healing somehow means forgetting their loved ones. As the initial raw pain subsides and good days start to outnumber bad ones, many worry they're losing their connection. This fear makes perfect sense – our brains have wired pain and remembrance together, making sadness feel like the only reliable link to those we've lost.

Micro-rituals transform this dynamic completely. These simple, sacred, everyday actions – saying "I love you" aloud, wearing their jewelry, tending their garden – create continuing bonds based on love rather than pain. They anchor us as we navigate the changed landscape of our lives, allowing us to move forward without leaving our loved ones behind. Whether private or shared with others (like sports teams honoring deceased players with jersey patches), these rituals provide consistent touchpoints of connection that strengthen rather than drain us.

The beauty of micro-rituals lies in their accessibility. They require no special equipment, training or time commitment – just intention and consistency. Many of you are likely already practicing some without realizing their therapeutic value. I'd love to hear what rituals have naturally emerged in your grief journey – send me a text through the podcast app and share what's working for you.

Ready to transform your relationship with grief? Book a complimentary chat to learn about my Resilient Life Academy, where I'll teach you to navigate those unpredictable waves of emotion with confidence and help you discover how to grieve with more freedom. Because healing isn't about forgetting – it's about remembering in ways that inspire rather than immobilize us.

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Access live grief training with me, checklists to support healthy grieving, and a compassionate community who gets you. 

Answer the 3 membership questions and you’re in! 

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This podcast is not medical advice, psychotherapy or counseling. It is for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you or someone you know is in crisis dial or text 988 for the suicide crisis lifeline.

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Anxiety is one of the most overlooked emotions in grief, yet it's a completely normal part of the grieving journey and must be addressed in order to navigate loss successfully. In this episode I discuss why anxiety can show up in the grief process and 3 strategies you can start using today to help you cope with it. 

Here are some of the reasons anxiety is felt during the grieving process:

• When attachment to a loved one is disrupted through death, our nervous system feels unsettled or unsafe
• The disappearance of our imagined future with our loved one creates uncertainty that manifests as anxiety
• Loss can destabilize our sense of identity and purpose, triggering anxiety about who we are without the relationship
• The grieving brain physically changes, making us more susceptible to anxiety

Listen to the episode to learn 3 powerful strategies to help navigate anxiety and regulate your nervous system. 
• All three strategies become more effective with repetition and consistent practice

Book a complimentary 20-minute chat to learn more about working with me 1:1 this summer.  As my client you'll  learn to be your own grief and anxiety expert who navigates emotions with peace and confidence. You'll also get access to my client only podcast. You can  find my calendar link in the show notes and in my Instagram bio.

Resource: 

"The Grieving Brian: The Surprising Science of How We Learn From Love And Loss," Mary-Frances O'Connor, PhD

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Access live grief training with me, checklists to support healthy grieving, and a compassionate community who gets you. 

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This podcast is not medical advice, psychotherapy or counseling. It is for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you or someone you know is in crisis dial or text 988 for the suicide crisis lifeline.

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Have you been trying to fit your grief journey into the famous five stages model, wondering if you're grieving "correctly"? It's time to set the record straight about one of the most misunderstood frameworks in grief support.

The five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—have been deeply misinterpreted by mainstream culture. As a grief therapist with nearly 30 years of experience, I'm pulling back the curtain on this model's origins, limitations, and how it's often misused. Dr. Kübler-Ross originally observed these emotional responses in dying patients, not in those grieving a loved one's death. Though later adapted for the bereaved, these stages were never meant to be followed sequentially or treated as required milestones.

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Access live grief training with me, checklists to support healthy grieving, and a compassionate community who gets you. 

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This podcast is not medical advice, psychotherapy or counseling. It is for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you or someone you know is in crisis dial or text 988 for the suicide crisis lifeline.

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Do you remember your first?

Hello everyone. Today we are going to take a fresh look at our earliest memorable loss and use it to shed some light on how we navigate grief now. 

How we navigated our earliest loss, can actually tell us some things. The emotions we felt, the beliefs we had, how we responded to the loss, and the support we may or may not have received are all stored in our memory files. 

The body remembers and the unconscious mind remembers. 

Our unconscious mind tends to repeat what it knows. It turns to the familiar, even if it isn’t what’s best for us.

Looking back can actually serve us quite well. 

 Listen to find out why! 

Here's to your beautiful resilience!

 ~Diane

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This podcast is not medical advice, psychotherapy or counseling. It is for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you or someone you know is in crisis dial or text 988 for the suicide crisis lifeline.

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In today's episode I talk about a specific type of grief that tends to be ignored, dismissed, and underestimated. It's grief that commonly surfaces during major life events like graduation.

Beginnings, endings, and changes are big opportunities for this type of grief to drop in unexpectedly.  You'll gain clarity about what this grief is and why this grief can be confusing and underappreciated. You'll also learn 3 impactful strategies to respond to it, so you're more confident and prepared.

We are just now entering the May, June graduation season. College, high school and maybe even preschool students will be walking across stages everywhere and flipping their tassels.  Let’s throw some weddings in there, job changes and location moves. We are in a season of milestones and change. 

I have 3 family members graduating this year, 2 from high school and 1 from college... a niece and 2 nephews. But it was only 2 years ago my youngest was flipping her tassel and walking across the stage at Mount Holyoke. I remember the grief amidst the excitement and joy of that time. 

Grief comes in many shapes and sizes, but it’s not always directly associated with death. Today I’m focusing more on graduation, but this information applies to many different kinds of beginnings, endings, and changes: 

Weddings, promotions, job changes, divorce, separation, moving to a new area, kids moving out, and the college launch.…just to name a few. 

In any of these life events, grief can remain just under the surface, at an almost undetectable level, or it can present itself with intensity. 

Let's dive in and explore this together! Here's to your beautiful resilience!

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Access live grief training with me, checklists to support healthy grieving, and a compassionate community who gets you. 

Answer the 3 membership questions and you’re in! 

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This podcast is not medical advice, psychotherapy or counseling. It is for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you or someone you know is in crisis dial or text 988 for the suicide crisis lifeline.

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In today’s episode, I’m going to share 7 strategies you can start using today to help you navigate the grief that Mother’s Day can bring up for so many of us.  This will be my second Mother’s day since I lost my mom. My grief is definitely present, but it feels different from last year. Last year, emotions were more raw. Grief changes and it’s really up to us to pay attention to what we need. 

Today I’m going to suggest that when it comes to grief and Mother’s Day, celebrating should be flexible and optional…here’s why and 7 powerful strategies to support the concept of flexibility.

 Let's dive in! Here's to your beautiful resilience!

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Access live grief training with me, checklists to support healthy grieving, and a compassionate community who gets you. 

Answer the 3 membership questions and you’re in! 

We’d be honored to have you join us. 

Click here to Learn more about working with me: Book A Call

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This podcast is not medical advice, psychotherapy or counseling. It is for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you or someone you know is in crisis dial or text 988 for the suicide crisis lifeline.