Nathalie Himmelrich

Inspiring Hope | Finding healthy ways of Grieving | Writer

child loss

Nathalie with Rachelle Spencer on Being Proud on Who You’ve Become | Episode 23

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Rachelle Spencer

Today on the podcast I have the honour to dive deep into loss and trauma with Rachelle Spencer, who I’ve known since 2016. She has experienced multiple miscarriages and an abusive, toxic relationship. Rachelle is proud of who she has become not because but despite of her grief and trauma.

Rachelle found the support of a therapist instrumental in her healing and in making healthy decisions:

I know you mentioned therapist, but that was hugely instrumental for me to have a safe place, a sounding board. I don’t want to underestimate how big that was because I was figuring things out and learning to make decisions on my own. There was one person that completely supported whatever decision I made and trusted me to figure it out.

Rachelle Spencer

About this week’s guest

Rachelle Spencer is an entrepreneur and mom in Baltimore, Maryland (USA). She started her handmade jewellery business after she lost 4 children to early miscarriage. She now has a son, daughter, and another little one on the way. She spends most of her time doing photography, reading children’s books, or trying her hand out at a new creative outlet.

Rachelle’s links:

Website: www.rachelle-isms.com

Instagram: @rachelle. isms

Topics discussed in this episode

  • Multiple miscarriages
  • Toxic relationship leading to divorce
  • Educating children, helping them understand how to deal with emotions, consent, trauma etc
  • Co-parenting and parenting as a blended family
  • The value of therapeutic support
  • Secondary losses

Resources mentioned in this episode

Links

–> For more information, please visit Nathalie’s website.

–> Subscribe to the newsletter to receive updates on future episodes here.

–> Join the podcast’s Instagram page.

Thanks for listening to HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA. If you’d like to be updated on future episodes, please subscribe to my newsletter on Nathalie Himmelrich.com

If you need grief support, please contact me for a FREE 30 min discovery session.

HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA is produced and edited by me, Nathalie Himmelrich.

Support this Podcast

To support this podcast, please rate, review, subscribe to, or follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.

Remember to keep breathing, I promise, it will get easier.

Nathalie with Brooke Carlock on If This Wasn’t Enough Already | Episode 22

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Brooke Carlock

Today on the podcast I’m speaking with Brooke whose story could be one that movies are made of. She has experienced loss after loss culminating in a series of devastating and traumatic losses within the past 12 months. 

Listening to Brooke telling her life story is both devastating and shocking, at the same time as hope-inspiring in the way she’s living her life after loss with fierce resilience at the same time as grieving. 

She speaks candidly about the dark places she went through while grieving and how she got help when she was suicidal. 

The truth is that there are people like Brooke who have no choice but to live with multiple traumatic losses. The question is: how do we meet them? How do we enable ourselves to hold space for someone and their situation? 

Regarding the people who helped Brooke the most, she says:

I want to be strong, and I want to keep going and find meaning in things. I’m just like a go-go-go person and the most helpful thing for me was people saying: ‘Slow down and breathe. You need to feel this and not rush through it, not ignore it, not medicate it. 

Brooke Carlock

About this week’s guest 

Brooke Carlock has experienced more grief and loss in her lifetime than most. The deaths of her grandparents, sister, cousin, and sister-in-law before she turned 35, along with her extensive coursework in Human Development and Psychology, taught her the power of resilience. However, nothing would prepare her for the devastation to come in her 40s. In a span of four months, Brooke lost her father to an unexpected heart attack, her stepmother to suicide, and her beloved 10-year-old daughter, Libby, in a horrific car accident.

As a teacher and freelance writer, her daughter’s death led Brooke to relentlessly study the fields of grief, loss, trauma, and resilience in order to survive her own experiences. Currently, she is pursuing her Grief Educator certification.  

Brooke is the founder of LiveLikeLibby.org, a nonprofit organization that provides dance scholarships in her daughter’s honor, as well as the creator of Grieving Mommy, where she blogs about her experiences as a grieving mother.

Brooke’s links:

Topics discussed in this episode

  • Loss of her favourite grandfather when Brooke was 10-year-old 
  • Loss of her sister leaving behind young children, and multiple losses in the close family
  • Divorce
  • Most recently her father (heart attack), closely followed by her stepmom (overdose) and dealing with both funeral arrangement
  • News of the terminal illness of her mother
  • Loss of her daughter Libby through a car accident
  • Dealing with the dark places in early grief and suicidal thoughts

Resources mentioned in this episode

Links

–> For more information, please visit Nathalie’s website. 

–> Subscribe to the newsletter to receive updates on future episodes here.

–> Join the podcast’s Instagram page.

Thanks for listening to HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA. If you’d like to be updated on future episodes, please subscribe to my newsletter on Nathalie Himmelrich.com

If you need grief support, please contact me for a FREE 30 min discovery session.

HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA is produced and edited by me, Nathalie Himmelrich. 

Support this Podcast

To support this podcast, please rate, review, subscribe to, or follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.

Remember to keep breathing, I promise, it will get easier. 

Nathalie with Sharna Southan on the Changes Needed in Pregnancy Loss Support | Episode 21

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Sharna Southan
Sharna Southan

Today on the podcast I’m speaking with Sharna who I’ve come to appreciate as a force for change in regard to the support offered to women in dealing with their pregnancy loss, a passion we have in common.

Talking about her missed miscarriage Sharna shares:

…never experienced contractions before so I didn’t know that’s what I was experiencing until I got to the hospital until they told me then what was going on. They also told me that one in four pregnancies ends in loss and I was like: “Well, then why do I feel like I’m the only one? Why is there not enough information? Why does no one talk about this?” I felt like I was living under a rock, like where have I been my whole life to not know about this?

Sharna Southan

About this week’s guest

Sharna Southan is an ICF-certified coach, a mum to her rainbow baby, a business owner and a wife. She followed her heart and soul into business after her own pregnancy loss in 2017. Sharna firmly believes that our adversity gives us an opportunity to grow.

She founded The Institute of Healing through Pregnancy Loss supporting loss parents with her transformative Pregnancy Loss recovery method and teaching her signature Pregnancy Loss Practitioner™️ Certification Program.

Check out Sharna’s Instagram here.

Topics discussed in this episode

  • Dealing with the loss of her father at the age of nineteen, led to depression, anxiety, panic attacks
  • Missed miscarriage and the trauma of miscarrying
  • Feeling isolated in not knowing that 1 in 4 pregnancies ends in loss
  • Lack of information and support on what miscarriage means emotionally, and physically and what it may require in care
  • Finding help through professional support

Resources mentioned in this episode

Links

–> For more information, please visit Nathalie’s website.

–> Subscribe to the newsletter to receive updates on future episodes here.

–> Join the podcast’s Instagram page.

Thanks for listening to HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA. If you’d like to be updated on future episodes, please subscribe to my newsletter on Nathalie Himmelrich.com

If you need grief support, please contact me for a FREE 30 min discovery session.

HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA is produced and edited by me, Nathalie Himmelrich.

Support this Podcast

To support this podcast, please rate, review, subscribe to, or follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.

Remember to keep breathing, I promise, it will get easier.

Nathalie with Katja Faber on Continuing Living While Grieving After Homicide Loss Part 2 | Episode 20

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Katja Faber

Today on the podcast I have the pleasure to delve deeper with Katja Faber, who has been a guest on the Podcast in Season 1. If you haven’t already, go check out her episode which has been one of most downloaded and listener showed a clear interest to know more.
Among other things, today Katja and I speak about the important topic of victim blaming and defamation, the changes in personality due to dealing with such a traumatic loss and the loss of innocence.

Katja shares:

I cannot image that however much I have come to accept the reality, that I’m a loss mother I will ever accept that Alex is dead. These are just two things that I can know for myself that this is something I am now. That my son does not live anymore, I still struggle with. And I always will.

About this week’s guest

Katja Faber is the mother of three children. Following her 23-year-old son’s murder in Switzerland, she used her legal training to work closely with lawyers and the State Prosecutor to secure justice for her dead son. Through her writing at Still Standing Magazine and other grief-related publications she hopes to break the taboo of homicide loss and child loss. She runs her own fruit farm and is an advocate of ecotherapy as a means of finding healing following traumatic loss. Katja is a certified Compassionate Bereavement Care® counselor through the Center for Loss and Trauma in partnership with the MISS Foundation and the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Family Trust.

Make sure to listen to the podcast to the very end as there are some gems to be found there. I am sure you will enjoy and learn from today’s episode.

Katja’s Links:

Topics discussed in this episode

  • The challenges of being in court, both as a grieving mother and as a plaintiff
  • The invaluable support of friends and family
  • Victim blaming and defamation
  • The changes in her personality
  • The loss of innocence

Links

–> For more information, please visit Nathalie’s website.

–> Subscribe to the newsletter to receive updates on future episodes here.

–> Join the podcast’s Instagram page.

Thanks for listening to HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA. If you’d like to be updated on future episodes, please subscribe to my newsletter on Nathalie Himmelrich.com

If you need grief support, please contact me for a FREE 30 min discovery session.

HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA is produced and edited by me, Nathalie Himmelrich.

Support this Podcast

To support this podcast, please rate, review, subscribe to, or follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.

Remember to keep breathing, I promise, it will get easier.

Nathalie with Lisa Boehm on the Loss of Her Teenage Daughter | Episode 16

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Lisa Boehm
Lisa Boehm

Lisa Boehm heard a knock at the door just as she had gone to bed, and it was the police coming to let her know that her teenage daughter had died in a head-on collision.
Lisa tells us how she picked up the pieces of her shattered life and how she found ways to thrive and not just survive. From getting support from other moms in her community she now offers support to grieving moms.  

Lisa says:

I think I learned a lot from other grieving moms who were further down the path. Sometimes it was just little snippets that they would say or different things… They gave me hope and I think learning that everybody copes with grief differently, that little nugget right there was enough to carry us through.

Lisa Boehm

About this week’s guest

Lisa K. Boehm’s life changed forever when her daughter died suddenly in a car accident. She quickly discovered that our society struggles with death, loss, and grieving and has made it her mission to change that. In her book Journey to HEALING: A Mother’s Guide to Navigating Child Loss, she shares her experience with grief and how it intensified her love for her daughter. Now she focuses on gratitude and living intentionally as a way to honour her daughter’s memory. Lisa is an author, speaker, and certified grief educator who helps bereaved moms move beyond the pain to find peace and purpose.

Website: www.griefsupportformoms.com

IG @griefsupportformoms

Topics discussed in this episode

  • The loss of her teenage daughter Katie
  • Suicidal thoughts and anger
  • Surrounding herself with other women in the community
  • Journaling as a resource to deal with grief
  • Differences in grieving styles among family members
  • Teenager’s grief/sibling’s grief

Resources mentioned in this episode

Links

–> For more information, please visit Nathalie’s website.

–> Subscribe to the newsletter to receive updates on future episodes here.

–> Join the podcast’s Instagram page.

Thanks for listening to HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA. If you’d like to be updated on future episodes, please subscribe to my newsletter on Nathalie Himmelrich.com

If you need grief support, please contact me for a FREE 30 min discovery session.

HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA is produced and edited by me, Nathalie Himmelrich.

Support this Podcast

To support this podcast, please rate, review, subscribe to, or follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.

Remember to keep breathing, I promise, it will get easier.

Nathalie with Amie Lands on Child Loss, Cancer, and Life’s Trauma | Episode 15

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Amie Lands Podcast
Amie Lands

Today I speak with Amie where she shares how her life started with the loss of connection to her father due to mental illness and the challenging relationship with her alcoholic mother.

Amie then became pregnant for the first time, but her daughter Ruthie died after 33 days.
At 36 years, Amie was diagnosed with neck cancer which was successfully treated. She then shares how they moved across the States and their truck caught fire with many of their belongings including Ruthie’s memories gone.

Dealing with all those extreme situations, Amie learned and practiced one thing:

I live in this moment. I try not to think too much ahead of what’s to come next or what so many call future tripping. I don’t put myself in what could happen and so I really truly live today. I have a calendar and plan ahead, but I really just try and be in this moment.

Amie Lands

About this week’s guest

Amie Lands is the author of Navigating the Unknown, Our Only Time, Perfectly Imperfect Family, and the Tending to Your Heart series. She is a cancer survivor, founder of The Ruthie Lou Foundation, and a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist®. Since her daughter’s brief life, Amie’s passion is offering hope and providing support to bereaved families. Amie lives in South Carolina, United States with her husband and their two sons.

Amie’s website: www.amielandsauthor.com

Instagram: @amielandsauthor

Topics discussed in this episode

  • Early loss of her father through mental illness
  • Early child loss and pregnancy after loss
  • A neck cancer diagnosis at the age of 36
  • Moving across the States and a fire that destroyed many personal belongings
  • How to love somebody that isn’t part of your life
  • Learning to ask for help

Resources mentioned in this episode

  • The Me You Can’t See (show on mental illness, Apple TV)

Links

–> For more information, please visit Nathalie’s website.

–> Subscribe to the newsletter to receive updates on future episodes here.

–> Join the podcast’s Instagram page.

Thanks for listening to HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA. If you’d like to be updated on future episodes, please subscribe to my newsletter on Nathalie Himmelrich.com

If you need grief support, please contact me for a FREE 30 min discovery session.

HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA is produced and edited by me, Nathalie Himmelrich.

Support this Podcast

To support this podcast, please rate, review, subscribe to, or follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.

Remember to keep breathing, I promise, it will get easier.

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    Nathalie Himmelrich

    I accompany people therapeutically as a holistic counsellor and coach.

    I walk alongside people dealing with the challenges presented by life and death.

    I’m also a writer and published author of multiple grief resource books and the founder of the Grieving Parents Support Network.

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