Life With Grief Podcast | Grief Support Podcast

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I first connected with Korie Leigh at GriefTastic and I knew I had to get her on the podcast, because we don't talk nearly enough about what it actually looks like to build grief-informed spaces, especially in the workplace.

Korie's background is truly incredible. She started as a child life specialist in pediatric hospitals before going on to get her master's in thanatology and her PhD in transpersonal psychology. In this conversation, she opens up about how she learned to manage vicarious trauma and burnout through reflective practices, supervision, rituals, and understanding her own stress capacity—lessons that apply just as much to grievers as they do to the helpers supporting them.

This episode is packed with practical guidance, too. How to actually show up for someone who's grieving (hint: stop asking "let me know if you need anything" and just help), why saying the deceased's name matters more than you think, and why you don't need to expect a response every time you reach out.

What we covered:
✨ How Korie's path from pediatric child life specialist to thanatologist shaped her understanding of grief
✨ Managing vicarious trauma and burnout as a grief professional (and what that teaches the rest of us)
✨ Why compartmentalizing helps in a crisis, and hurts when it becomes permanent
✨ Cultivating nervous system safety and regulation after loss
✨ The archaic bereavement policies most workplaces still operate under
✨ The inequities around pregnancy loss that don't get talked about enough
✨ How grief-informed leadership starts with understanding grief's cognitive and physical impact
✨ What actually helps a griever
✨ Korie's book, "When Everything Changes: Parenting Through Loss and Grief", as a practical resource for families

Connect with Korie:
https://www.korieleighphd.com/
https://www.korieleighphd.com/books
https://www.instagram.com/drkorieleigh
Learn more about Letters of Light 💌✨ https://lossesbecomegains.com/letters
Support the show
NEW! Letters of Light 💌✨ https://lossesbecomegains.com/letters

Support the podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/lifewithgriefpodcast

📖 Life Beyond Grief Substack: https://taraaccardo.substack.com/

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lossesbecomegains/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifewithgriefpodcast/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/losses.become.gains
Website: https://lossesbecomegains.com/
Work with me one-on-one: https://lossesbecomegains.com/work-with-tara
Shop the LBG Daily Journal: https://lossesbecomegains.com/journal

By accessing this Podcast, I acknowledge that the entire contents are the property of Tara Accardo, or used by Tara Accardo with permission. Except as otherwise provided herein, users of this Podcast may save and use information contained in the Podcast only for personal or other non-commercial, educational ...

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Why does happiness feel scary after you've lost someone? If you've ever caught yourself waiting for the other shoe to drop right in the middle of a genuinely good moment, this episode is for you. I'm unpacking why joy can feel unsafe after loss—especially after compounding or back-to-back losses—and what to actually do about it.

I lost my mom and dad within six months of each other, both to cancer, and less than a year later I lost my 19-year-old dog, Princess. After that kind of loss, your nervous system doesn't just grieve the person or thing you lost, it changes how safe the whole world feels. That's what today's conversation is all about: naming the hypervigilance, understanding why your brain does this, and learning how to let good things in again without needing a guarantee they'll stay.

✨ What "bracing for joy" actually is, and why it's a form of hypervigilance, not negativity or ingratitude
✨ Why compounding or back-to-back losses make this fear so much louder
✨ The difference between "something bad is about to happen" and "I'm having a thought that something bad is about to happen"
✨ Why pattern-matching your past losses isn't a prediction of your future
✨ 5 mindset shifts to help you start trusting joy again

If this resonated, I'd love to hear about it! Send me your own "waiting for the other shoe to drop" moment on Instagram or in the reviews. And if you know someone who's been white-knuckling their way through good moments since their loss, this one's for them, too.
Learn more about Letters of Light 💌✨ https://lossesbecomegains.com/letters
Support the show
NEW! Letters of Light 💌✨ https://lossesbecomegains.com/letters

Support the podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/lifewithgriefpodcast

📖 Life Beyond Grief Substack: https://taraaccardo.substack.com/

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lossesbecomegains/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifewithgriefpodcast/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/losses.become.gains
Website: https://lossesbecomegains.com/
Work with me one-on-one: https://lossesbecomegains.com/work-with-tara
Shop the LBG Daily Journal: https://lossesbecomegains.com/journal

By accessing this Podcast, I acknowledge that the entire contents are the property of Tara Accardo, or used by Tara Accardo with permission. Except as otherwise provided herein, users of this Podcast may save and use information contained in the Podcast only for personal or other non-commercial, educational ...

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In this episode I sit down with Amanda Lentz, host of Who We Become: Life Beyond Change, to talk about something we don't say out loud enough: that surviving a life-threatening illness comes with its own kind of grief.

Amanda found out she was BRCA-positive at 28. She felt a lump in 2020, and at 34 (in the middle of COVID), she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. In this conversation, she takes us through six months of chemo, a double mastectomy, six weeks of daily radiation, and a later hysterectomy to lower her risk. And, the layers of loss underneath all of it: facing her own mortality, grieving her body, going through menopause at 35, and missing years of her kids' childhood while she waited for her recurrence risk to drop.

Amanda is five years in remission now, and she's honest with me about what's still there. The intrusive thoughts, the therapy, the community that held her, and how movement and intentional living have become part of how she heals. If you've ever felt like grief isn't just about death—if you're grieving a body, a version of yourself, a timeline you thought you'd have—this episode is for you.

In this episode, we cover:
✨ Amanda's BRCA-positive diagnosis at 28 
✨ Being diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer at 34, during COVID
✨ What treatment really looked like
✨ The layered grief of mortality, early menopause, and body changes
✨ Grieving missed time with her kids while living in "wait and see"
✨ Life five years into remission—intrusive thoughts, therapy, and community
✨ How movement and intentional living became part of her healing
✨ How to support someone going through cancer treatment (patient or caregiver)

Amanda's podcast, Who We Become: Life Beyond Change, digs into exactly this — who we become on the other side of change we didn't choose. Go find her show after you listen here.
Connect with Amanda:
https://www.amandalentz.com/
https://www.instagram.com/lifebeyondchange
https://www.youtube.com/@lifebeyondchange
Learn more about Letters of Light 💌✨ https://lossesbecomegains.com/letters
Support the show
NEW! Letters of Light 💌✨ https://lossesbecomegains.com/letters

Support the podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/lifewithgriefpodcast

📖 Life Beyond Grief Substack: https://taraaccardo.substack.com/

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lossesbecomegains/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifewithgriefpodcast/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/losses.become.gains
Website: https://lossesbecomegains.com/
Work with me one-on-one: https://lossesbecomegains.com/work-with-tara
Shop the LBG Daily Journal: https://lossesbecomegains.com/journal

By accessing this Podcast, I acknowledge that the entire contents are the property of Tara Accardo, or used by Tara Accardo with permission. Except as otherwise provided herein, users of this Podcast may save and use information contained in the Podcast only for personal or other non-commercial, educational ...

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Surprise! I'm popping in with a bonus episode, and I am SO excited about it! 🥹

Today I'm officially introducing you to something I've been quietly working on for months and cannot wait to get into your mailbox. It's called Letters of Light, and it's a monthly letter set created specifically for grievers. And in this quick bonus episode, I'm walking you through everything. The story behind it, the why, and exactly what you'll find inside every single envelope.

This idea was born from so many places. From years of coaching grievers and noticing how much we all crave to truly feel seen. From finding old letters my dad wrote to my grandparents when he was in the Army in his early 20s. From being a millennial who grew up watching the internet come to life and now finds herself deeply craving something slower, more intentional, and more human. And, from becoming a mom and realizing how desperately I want to slow down time.

In a world that is noisier and more digital than ever—and where AI seems to be everywhere—I wanted to create something that was the complete opposite of all of that. Something real, tangible, and that shows up for you every single month in your actual mailbox, from an actual human who has genuinely been there.

✨ The personal story behind Letters of Light
✨ Why I believe the grief space has been missing something really important (and why Letters of Light fills that)
✨ A full walkthrough of everything inside your Letters of Light envelope
✨ The letter: written entirely by me, handwritten first, then printed on beautiful linen cardstock, and signed personally by me with a note just for you
✨ The reflection card: a gentle monthly prompt to sit with, centered around that month's theme
✨ The affirmation card: printed on linen cardstock with a seasonal photo on one side, and a detailed affirmation on the other
✨ Why every single detail was chosen with complete intention
✨ How my background as a grief and soul purpose coach is woven into every piece
Visit https://lossesbecomegains.com/letters for more information and to join us 💌✨ 
Support the show
NEW! Letters of Light 💌✨ https://lossesbecomegains.com/letters

Support the podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/lifewithgriefpodcast

📖 Life Beyond Grief Substack: https://taraaccardo.substack.com/

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lossesbecomegains/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifewithgriefpodcast/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/losses.become.gains
Website: https://lossesbecomegains.com/
Work with me one-on-one: https://lossesbecomegains.com/work-with-tara
Shop the LBG Daily Journal: https://lossesbecomegains.com/journal

By accessing this Podcast, I acknowledge that the entire contents are the property of Tara Accardo, or used by Tara Accardo with permission. Except as otherwise provided herein, users of this Podcast may save and use information contained in the Podcast only for personal or other non-commercial, educational ...

Drop me a message or voice note!
Sally's mum Rose died suddenly in November 2019 from a prolonged seizure. No warning, no goodbye, just a 6am phone call that flipped her world upside down. She and her now co-host, Imogen, met at a support group for motherless daughters and turned their shared grief into Good Mourning, a podcast built on honesty, humor, and refusing to make grief feel taboo.

In this episode, we get into:
✨ Sally's story of sudden loss and how she and Imogen built Good Mourning from the ground up
✨ Grieving styles—the difference between "instrumental" (doing) grievers and "intuitive" (feeling) grievers, and why neither is wrong
✨ The physical side of grief nobody warns you about: exhaustion, brain fog, immune changes, and more
✨ How COVID complicated (and in some ways deepened) both of our grief journeys
✨ The special kind of hell that is "deadmin"—settling an estate while your heart is in pieces (plus a story involving a cake tin that will make you laugh out loud)
✨ The mind-body connection, breathwork, and one simple technique you can use anywhere to calm your nervous system
✨ Why the second (or third!) year of grief can hit harder than the first, and why that doesn't mean you're going backwards
✨ Sally's best advice for anyone in the thick of it right now

Sally is proof that you can build a full, joyful life alongside your grief, not after it. I know this one's going to make you feel so seen.

Connect with Sally:
https://www.instagram.com/sallydouglasgrief/
Learn more about Letters of Light 💌✨ https://lossesbecomegains.com/letters
Support the show
NEW! Letters of Light 💌✨ https://lossesbecomegains.com/letters

Support the podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/lifewithgriefpodcast

📖 Life Beyond Grief Substack: https://taraaccardo.substack.com/

Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lossesbecomegains/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifewithgriefpodcast/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/losses.become.gains
Website: https://lossesbecomegains.com/
Work with me one-on-one: https://lossesbecomegains.com/work-with-tara
Shop the LBG Daily Journal: https://lossesbecomegains.com/journal

By accessing this Podcast, I acknowledge that the entire contents are the property of Tara Accardo, or used by Tara Accardo with permission. Except as otherwise provided herein, users of this Podcast may save and use information contained in the Podcast only for personal or other non-commercial, educational ...