Pique Podcast: [Facing death, dying, + grief head on with Danielle Strouse (S2 E4)]

Trigger warning: We cover parental death, suicide, cancer, and grief in this episode. 

I’ve been wanting to talk about death and dying on the podcast since the very beginning, so I was thrilled when Danielle Strouse, a licensed therapist, reached out to me to offer herself up as a guest.

• Danielle’s integrative counseling work with her clients -- including existential therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

• The benefit of facing your mortality and finiteness head on 

• The ways in which we avoid the reality of death by overdrinking, using drugs, or overworking

• How Danielle’s personal experience with grief has influenced her work as an existential therapist 

• How to work with -- not against -- our death anxiety by asking “What scares me about death?” 

• How Danielle has made unconventional life choices driven by her awareness of her finiteness  

• Why it’s so important as practitioners to face our own darkness

• A beautiful story about rippling -- which “refers to the fact that each of us creates—often without our conscious intent or knowledge—concentric circles of influence that may affect others for years, even for generations.” 

I am so struck by Danielle’s vulnerability and immersive storytelling, and I know you will be, too. 

Resources mentioned:

• Book: Staring at the Sun by Irvin D. Yalom

• The Pique Podcast: Acceptance, commitment, + mindfulness with Holly Moses + Holly Yates

• Death over Dinner

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