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

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In this episode, Renee talks about her experience as a 7th grader knowing that her mother was going to die and the journey of her grief, before, during and after her mom's death.

While in 7th grade, Renee’s mom was diagnosed with ALS. Fighting through depression and anxiety, after Renee’s mom died, she decided to rise against adversity and work towards success.

Renee, now 18 years-old is senior student in high school. She was chosen captain of her field hockey team, president of the link crew program and was chosen to be her school’s Rising Star of the month, October of her senior year.

Renee had a published article titled, I Was Already Dealing With My Mom's Death. And now a global pandemic has taken away my senior year.

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Katherine Shear, M.D.

In this episode, Dr. Shear shares her journey into the field and speaks about the method used in diagnosing and treating what some commonly refer to as complicated grief.

Dr. M. Katherine Shear is the Marion E. Kenworthy Professor of Psychiatry and the founding Director of the Center for Complicated Grief at Columbia School of Social Work.

Dr. Shear is a clinical researcher who first worked in anxiety and depression. For the last two decades she has focused on understanding and treating people who experience persistent intense grief. She developed and tested complicated grief therapy (CGT), a short-term targeted intervention and confirmed its efficacy in three large NIMH-funded studies. CGT is strength-based and focused on fostering adaptation to loss.

Dr. Shear is widely recognized for her work in bereavement, including both research and clinical awards from the Association for Death Education and Counseling and invited authorship of articles for Uptodate and the New England Journal of Medicine.

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In this episode, Joyal shares how after spending more than a decade to improve the health and wellbeing of all Americans, Joyal encountered few support systems before, during, and after the death of her daughter. Given the significant hardships families face, Joyal shares her hopes, and efforts to change the landscape for bereaved families because losing a child…changes everything.

Joyal Mulheron is a Washington, DC policy veteran with more than 15 years of service to the nation’s governors, White House, and some of the most distinguished nonprofit ventures. Joyal has served both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and worked with corporate America and advocates alike.

Before her work advising the Obama White House, Joyal spent several years at the National Governors Association (NGA), including advising former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee during his NGA chairmanship.

Joyal started her career at the American Cancer Society in Washington, D.C., managing emerging science and trends, building its genetics portfolio, and coordinating legislative policy priorities across states. During this time, she concurrently worked for the Institute of Medicine, taught biology at community colleges, and earned her Masters in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University. Joyal is a graduate of Virginia with degrees in both Biochemistry and English and a minor in Chemistry.

Today, Joyal is the founder of Evermore, a nonprofit, making the world a more livable place for bereaved families.

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In this episode, Kelly talks about a calling she and her husband had to create a fictional motion picture based on personal experience. Her hope is to bring a universal message of hope and forgiveness.

Kelly Pascuzzi is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, mom to “my three sons,” and a life and business coach.

Kelly and her husband Robert are working side by side with Bob Proctor -- the Chairman of Proctor Gallagher Institute, a legendary human

performance expert and star of The Secret. Kelly Pascuzzi serves as a leadership and management consultant to individuals and business teams everywhere.

Kelly Pascuzzi helps people develop the leader within, which parlays to every aspect of improved leadership in their lives. Today, more than ever, a true leader is anyone -- people in all walks of life who have chosen to focus on developing themselves, consciously honing their strengths, and learning how to leap higher and higher because of the confidence and trust they’ve learned to place in themselves.

Kelly is the co-producer of "The Ravine" and an award winning Inner Circle Proctor Gallagher consultant and Thinking Into Results Certified Consultant. Kelly Pascuzzi combines her own leadership and management success tips with two globally renowned programs, Thinking Into Results and the new Lead The Field.

More about The Ravine

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Creative Living Facebook

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In this episode, Robert talks about a calling he had to author the novel, The Ravine and how it developed into a fictional motion picture. He spoke about his journey creating the film and how amazingly each actor was able to portray the true grief experience through the various characters throughout the film.

In a decade’s time, Robert Pascuzzi went from having no money in the bank – actually paying his mortgage with a credit card – to starting and building a 401(k) management division from zero dollars to more than $2.5 billion in assets under management (AUM).

While being a Partner & Director of the Corporate Retirement Plan division at Creative Planning in Leawood, Kansas, Robert’s division oversaw more than 1,500 corporate-sponsored retirement plans with more than 100,000 plan participants. At the time, Creative Planning Inc. managed $48 billion in assets with clients in all 50 states.

Pascuzzi has co-authored the best-seller, Get Tough, Retire Rich, is author of the book Go For It! Start Getting What You Want in Your Finances, Career, Health & Relationships.

Robert Pascuzzi offers his own day-long conference, Live Rich Today! and coaches and consults a personal cadre of international clients.

A “Living Rich” example, Robert has been married to his wife, Kelly, for 25+ years, and the couple has three children. He has competed in two Iron Man competitions and is also the co-producer and author of the best-selling novel “The Ravine,” currently in development as a Hollywood-release feature film.

Learn more about Robert and view his book collection at RobertPascuzzi.com.

Learn more about The Ravine

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In this episode, Peggy shares her story about her beloved daughter and how forgiveness played such an essential role in her grief journey. Forgiveness allowed her to begin her journey to heal after her daughter was killed in a fatal boating accident.

Peggy is the founder and Executive Director of The Pink Star Foundation, a non-profit 501(c), that she formed to honor the memory of her daughter. Peggy is also the co-founder of the Steel Magnolia Mommas Group, for women who have suffered and are trying to survive a child’s death.

Peggy with husband Ron have been married for 37 years and live in Taos, MO. They have two children, a son, Brian and daughter, Corrie who is forever 25 after being killed in a boating accident on July 5, 2014.

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In this episode, Mary shares about her father’s death and the traumatic events that followed. And how she and her brother, teens at the time, down a path of challenging behaviors. She said, “We are not bad kids; we were just sad kids.”

Mary Robinson, MA, CT, is the Executive Director of Imagine, A Center for Coping with Loss located in Mountainside, NJ and the Founder and former Executive Director of Good Grief located in Morristown. She has over 35 years of business, management, technical, and training expertise in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. Leaving the corporate world in 1997 to volunteer and work full-time in the field of children’s grief support, Ms. Robinson is committed to creating communities where children coping with loss get the support they need to thrive, be resilient and grow up emotionally healthy. Working and volunteering in the field of children’s grief support grew out of Mary’s own personal experience of loss as a child. Her commitment is to ensure that no child grieves alone and that children in grief grow up emotional healthy, resilient and able to lead meaningful and productive lives.

Mary has a BA in English, an MA in Applied Psychoanalysis and is a Certified Thanatologist. She is a member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and The National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Alliance for Grieving Children, and is President of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of Clinical and Applied Psychoanalysis. Mary was one of the Ten CNN Heroes for 2019.

Prior to working in the field of children's grief support Mary spent 14 years at Prudential Financial, first as a System Analyst and then for five years worked in Corporate Community Relations where she managed the company's volunteer programs and helped give away money to nonprofits as Chair of the Employee Grant Making Committee for the Prudential Foundation

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In this episode, Jason shares his story about the day he learned of his father’s suicide. He speaks about how “just” being heard had an impact on his ability to move forward and how the birth of his firstborn set him on a personal mission of instilling positive affirmation and self-worth into the daily lives of youth he now works with.

Growing up in Taos, Missouri, Jason Holzer was raised in a loving family that gave him every chance to succeed. His parents were supportive and provided everything this 17-year-old boy desired. That is until his life changed forever on May 8, 2003, when his dad unexpectedly passed away by suicide leaving him, his mother and two younger sisters behind.

Through hard work, dedication and practicing a strong faith in God, Jason is now a certified teacher, accomplished basketball coach, inspiring author and transformational speaker. His dedication to positively impacting the lives of those around him inspired the hashtag #ACT2IMPACT which serves as a reminder that we all can make a difference. Jason is a Missouri State alum, who is dedicated to being a loving husband and father. He strives to help others overcome the lasting effects of suicide.

Jason sits on the board for the USSI (United Suicide Survivors International) alongside world-renowned entrepreneur and innovator in social change and suicide prevention, Dr. Sally Spencer Thomas. Along with others around the world, they are raising awareness that suicide doesn’t stop life from getting worse, it eliminates it from ever getting better.

Wanting to share his story and to inspire others, Jason self published a book, Shattered by Suicide, Renewed by Resilience: How to move forward after being left behind

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