How To Deal With Grief and Trauma

Send us Fan Mail A week ago, on 2 November, it was my mother Eliane's birthday: the fifteenth birthday without her. In this personal episode, I share what that day is like for me almost fifteen years after her death, and offer a wide range of ways to celebrate the birthday of someone who has died, from visiting a grave to cooking their favourite meal, writing a letter, or choosing not to mark the day at all. I also speak about birthdays after suicide loss, and about grieving mostly on your ow...

Send us Fan Mail Some losses arrive suddenly. This one is arriving in slow motion. My guest has been on the podcast twice before: in episode 39, on grieving a father when the relationship was difficult, and in episode 97, on the trauma of the California wildfires. This time she returns with a breast cancer diagnosis and a double mastectomy scheduled for one week after we recorded. We talk about grieving something before it is gone: the week before surgery, the part of her body she is saying g...

Send us Fan Mail Today, 15 October, is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. In this episode I move beyond what to say and focus on how to build support around a grieving family, and how to keep it going over time. For grieving parents, I share practical questions to help you find the right support for yourself, ways to support each other as a couple when you grieve differently, and how to include and protect your other children. For grandparents, aunts and uncles, I introduce the Circle...

Send us Fan Mail October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and most of what we see is about early detection and survival. Both matter. But there is a side of breast cancer that rarely makes it onto a poster: the grief and the trauma. The losses that happen long before, and very often without, any death. The fear that stays in the body after treatment ends. And the quiet exhaustion of the people standing beside someone who is ill. In this episode, I map out how many people are affected worldwi...

Send us Fan Mail 31 Days PAIL Companion: Start here October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, and on 15 October, families worldwide light a candle at 7 pm for the International Wave of Light. In this episode, I look at where this month came from, why pregnancy and infant loss remains one of the most silenced losses, and what both grieving parents and their supporters can do differently. I bring together the 2025 Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness mini-series (episodes 142 to 157)...