When her father died of cancer, a few days before her 18th birthday, Laurel Braitman started running. Running towards the academic and professional accomplishments her father pushed her to achieve and running away from the intense shame and guilt she carried about their last conversation. It wasn’t until her 30’s that Laurel stopped running long enough to face her greatest fear: feeling her feelings.
Laurel’s newest book, What Looks Like Bravery: An epic journey through loss to love, chronicles her quest to connect with grief and how it led to the biggest adventure of all - opening up to love.
In our conversation we delve into:
Growing up with her father’s illness and the threat of him dying
Running from guilt & shame in grief
Overachieving as a coping mechanism
Wanting to be a “geriatric kid” at Josie’s Place, a peer grief support program for children & families
What Laurel learned about grief from being a volunteer facilitator in that program
Learning a new way of being in the world & staying open to love
Having a “cosmic do-over" in helping her mom at the end of her life
Ep. 151: Resources To Support Grieving Children & Families - An Update From The New York Life Foundation
Ep. 150: Love, Anger, & Grief - Supporting Children After A Murder
Ep. 149: Integrating Grief - Mari Gonzalez
Ep. 148: Wrongful Death - A Grieving Mother's Story (Paula Becker)
Ep. 147: Grief & Mother's Day - A Teen's Take
Ep. 146: Reflection - A Mini-Episode
Ep. 145: Speaking Grief - Lindsey Whissel Fenton
Ep. 144: A Grieving Father Turned To Words - Jayson Greene
Ep. 143: A Full-Time Other Mother - Step-Parenting Grieving Children
Ep. 142: Suffocated Grief & Supporting Black Youth - Dr. Tashel Bordere
Ep. 141: You Can't Give From Empty - Grief Professionals & COVID-19 With Megan Devine
Ep. 140: Supporting Widowed Dads - Dr. Justin Yopp
Ep. 139: Grief & Coronavirus/COVID-19 - Leslie Barber
Encore Ep. 106: Grief & Anxiety - Claire Bidwell Smith, LCPC
Ep. 138: Running Home - Katie Arnold
Ep. 137: Grief & The Foster Care System - A Personal Story
Ep. 136: L.Y.G.H.T. - Supporting Grieving Youth In The Foster Care System
Ep. 135: The Worst News - An Update
Ep. 134: Breath, Movement, Sound - Grief Yoga With Paul Denniston
Ep. 133: Widowed Parenting - Jenny Lisk
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