What if grief isn’t just something that happens after someone dies?
This week, we’re joined by our friend Kaili Van Waveren, a thanatologist, grief counselor, and Executive Director at ThorpeWood, for a wide-ranging conversation about grief, death, and all the ways loss changes us.
Kaili helps us explore why grief can come from so many different kinds of loss, what “grief brain” really means, and why there’s no single right way to mourn. We also talk about the importance of naming what we’re experiencing, finding ways to process it, and continuing to make space for the people and things we’ve lost.
We get into:
- The many forms grief can take beyond the death of a loved one
- Why naming grief can be such a powerful first step
- Death cafés and getting more comfortable talking about mortality
- Why grief can affect our brains, emotions, memory, and ability to function
- Journaling and creative ways to process grief
- The difference between grief and mourning
- Continuing bonds and maintaining relationships with people we’ve lost
- How to support someone who is grieving without trying to “fix” their pain
- Practical ways to show up when someone we love is hurting
- Talking honestly and age-appropriately with children about death
- Why allowing children to see us grieve can actually help them understand their own emotions
And throughout the conversation, Kaili reminds us of something that can be easy to forget: grief isn’t something we simply finish. It’s something we learn to carry.
Next time, we’ll continue the conversation with two incredible women sharing their own experiences with loss, with Kaili helping us hold space for their stories.
Links:
Umbrella Project at ThorpeWood
Book Resource: Bereaved Children and Teens by Earl Grollman
Recorded in the Such-N-Such Media Studios at Liberty Plaza in downtown Winston-Salem, we are produced by Tim Beeman for Such-N-Such Media. Theme music is by Doug Davis.
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