Let's Talk Death! ... a HealGrief® program

In this episode, Julie shares how her career as a medical device industry inventor sparked her interest in energetic healing and how that led her into the psychic world.

Julie Ryan is an inventor, entrepreneur, and author who learned to be a psychic and medical intuitive more than 25 years ago.

Julie can sense what medical conditions and illnesses a person has and facilitate energetic healings. She can tell how close someone is to death and can communicate with spirits, both alive and deceased. Julie can communicate with and medically scan animals, access people's past lives and remove spirits from homes and buildings.

Julie has authored Angelic Attendants: What Really Happens As We Transition From This Life Into The Next, Angel Messages For Kids, and Angel Messages For Dogs. She is a podcast host for, Ask Julie Ryan, with listeners from all over the world, many of whom call in to partake in Julie's "buffet of psychicness."

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In this episode, Bryan shares his story remembering back to nine when his father was shot and then confusion over his death just before his 11th birthday.

Bryan Jung is the Founder of 'This is Why,' a creative platform for individuals who have lost a parent as a child or teenager. His goal is to provide a safe space for individuals of all ages to share emotions, thoughts, and experiences with the option of anonymity. In turn, a community can be built with others who've undergone similar experiences. 

Bryan was born & raised around the Seattle area. He graduated from the University of Washington with a focus in Information Systems at the Michael G. Foster School of Business. He continues to live and work in Seattle.

In his free time, Bryan likes to produce and perform music. He also enjoys playing a variety of different sports, especially golf.

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In this episode, Barbara shares how she witnessed her friend, after being diagnosed with a terminal illness, living her fullest life. It was that experience that Barbara began to learn how to live with the end in mind.

Barbara Becker is the founder of EqualShot, a strategic communications consultancy specializing in strengthening the voice of the non-profit community, a writer, and an interfaith minister who has dedicated over 25 years to partnering with human rights advocates around the world in pursuit of peace, spirituality, and everyday mindfulness. 

She has worked with the United Nations, Human Rights First, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. She has participated in a delegation of Zen Peacemakers and Lakota elders in the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota.

Barbara lives in New York City with her interfaith family and is the author of Heartwood, the Art of Living with the End in Mind.

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In this episode, Kara speaks about the importance of diving deeper than just questioning what's wrong? Instead, she encourages an answer to the question, what happened to you? In that answer, healing begins.

Kara Bowman is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who specializes in grief and trauma. Years after achieving an MBA and a career in finance, Kara returned to school to earn a Master's in Counseling Psychology. She did her internships primarily in hospice grief counseling. Today, Kara is a Certified Grief Counselor, a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, and a Certified Thanatologist. Her passion is to help create a more compassionate and helpful culture toward those who are grieving.

Kara is dedicated to her career and community through her practice and volunteer work. Although she always uses empathy as a foundation for her grief work, she tries to individualize her approach to give each client what they most need at that moment in time. Her method includes ritual, poetry, meditations, and visualizations, along with talking.

Kara has a private practice in Scotts Valley, California. In the summer of 2020, the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists honored Kara's practice with a Spotlight in The Therapist magazine.

Kara is author of Heartbreak to Hope, Poems of Support for Grief and Loss.

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In this episode, Martha shares how her witnessing the terminal diagnosis and the end-of-life of her husband was an experience that was a mindful one. She shares her intimate story to show others how the conversation of death can be meaningful and powerful.

Martha Calihan is a Board Certified Integrative and Holistic Medicine Physician and a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner. She studied Mind-Body Medicine at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, DC, and she studied acupuncture at UCLA. Dr. Calihan is currently the Five Stones Healing Arts and Wellness Center owner and CEO in Leesburg, VA. She has a robust clinical practice and runs the not-for-profit Five Stones Institute, providing training and education in the balanced care of body-mind and spirit.

Dr. Calihan has a particular interest and experience in end-of-life care and is the author of the recently released book, A Death Lived. Through her unique vantage points of both physician and wife, she chronicles the story of her husband, Charles’ final illness and death, focusing on the incredible power and need to have the difficult conversations about death.

Dr. Calihan brings an element of the Spiritual to her work, both as an author and physician. She blends medicine with the mystical and science with the spiritual. She teaches meditation and offers workshops in both the US and Ireland.

She maintains a blog on her website, www.fivestoneswellness.com. And has an active social media presence.

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In this episode, Reid shares how surprised he was about the level of grief he experienced after his step-fathers death and how it brought to surface grief from his Dad's death from years earlier.

Reid Peterson achieved a Masters's Degree in Transpersonal Psychology at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in 2007. He was later trained by Dr. Alan Wolfelt from the Center for Loss & Life Transition. Reid's approach utilizes Dr. Wolfelt's Companioning philosophy, emphasizing presence, nature, spirituality, and heart-centered care for the bereaved. 

Reid is the 'voice' of Grief Refuge: narrating Podcast episodes and The Daily Refuge on the Grief Refuge App. Reid is also the facilitator to the Grief Refuge experiences.

Learn more about Reid and Grief Refuge

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In this episode, Coach Mercer shares how he thought his father was coming back at the age of six. It wasn't until he was ten that he realized he wasn't, and grief set in, and how then, sports became his grief therapy.

Anthony Mercer directed the Eastern North Carolina Basketball Exposure Camps for college basketball prospects from 2000 to 2010. In addition, he has directed the “Total Skills” Basketball Instructional Camps since 2003. These camps, conducted with NBA All-Stars Carmelo Anthony, Bradley Beal, Kemba Walker, John Wall, and many other professionals. Camps have been held in Eastern North Carolina, Northern Virginia, Washington D.C., and Maryland. He has trained players from middle school to the professional level.

In 2020 Coach Mercer published his book “Sports Heaven: Why sports is a haven for the fatherless/motherless child.” The book explains at age six after his father died how sports helped him succeed.

Anthony is a Desert Shield/Storm U.S. Army War Veteran and a P.E. teacher for many years. In terms of his career paths, he says his life has been like a real-life Forrest Gump.

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In this episode, Grace shares how her writing, The Rector Girls, about her and her mother's life was cathartic and painful at the same time, evoking hours of tears.

 Grace Rector is a graduate of Georgetown University and hopes to work in the field of education and facilitation. Grace believes that dialogue is key to relationships and work. She created a dialogue series at the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation to highlight vulnerability as a strength in the workplace, not a weakness.

A motherless daughter since the week before her 21st birthday, Grace found writing to be a coping mechanism for her grief. At 22 years old, Grace published The Rector Girls with the hope of memorializing her mother and honoring her legacy.

Her book is about the lifelong lessons and intimate bond between mother and daughter. The story reveals how life never goes according to plan but that the improvisations make it unique. Honest, heartfelt, and heartbreaking, Grace lets us into her world and her most vulnerable moments, inspiring readers to live their life with fullness and gratitude.

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In this episode, Jacob shares his near-death experience as a young child of three years old and how that experience led him into his career and writing.

Jacob Cooper, a Clinical Social Worker, Certified Reiki Master, and Certified Hypnotherapist who specializes in Past Life Regression Therapy, works privately with clients through online services. 

Inspired by his childhood near-death experience and transformative experiences, he facilitates spiritual awareness and empowerment through life-changing seminars. He also works closely to provide insightful seminars assisting those dealing with issues in mental and physical health, grief, end-of-life issues, and marginalized populations.

He is the author of the recent release “Life After Breath,” How a Brush with Fatality Gave me a Glimpse of Immortality. 

Jacob currently resides and practices in Long Island, NY.

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In this episode, Dr. Black shares how life after his father's death had no color. Until one morning, he remembered his dream of having a loving and peaceful exchange with his father. Life was full of color again.

Dr. Black is a grief researcher, speaker, author, consultant, online course instructor, and host of the Grief Dreams Podcast. He has focused all his MA and Ph.D. research in psychology on investigating dreams in bereavement, also known as grief dreams, and continuing bonds from many types of loss, including prenatal loss and pet loss. Most of his academic research and publications have been explicitly on dreams of the deceased.

Due to the lack of academic research in this field, Dr. Black has focused his efforts on raising awareness on grief dreams by doing talks and interviews and developing an online Grief Dreams Workshop and the Grief Dreams Podcast. Additionally, he developed a grief dreams website and hosts two Clubhouse conversations called Grief Dreams and Grief Cafe.

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