‘I wish to be ok with it if for no other reason than I owed it to myself and I owed to my still-living children and those that care about me. Because they have a right to have a full and beautiful life, and having a mother that’s traumatised and overwhelmed by something that she has no control over is not doing anybody any favours.’
Katja’s story is extraordinary and has made waves in the media worldwide. Since the recording of this episode a few weeks ago the court case has taken place at the high court in Zurich, and the killer was convicted. We are planning to do Part 2 of this interview in a few weeks so stay tuned.
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 a 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.
Topics discussed in this episode
- Homicide loss – how a parent deals with the loss, the grief, the trauma, and the legal system
- Self-care, writing, nature, family support, support groups
- Siblings’ grief, mothering living children who grieve their brother
- Dealing with the media and the added pain caused by media coverage
- Judgment or misunderstanding of the surroundings
- Re-traumatizing the victim’s family through ongoing trials
- The aspect of grief being to some degree public due to trials
- How to continue living with the fact that the killer is still out there alive
- The importance of accountability
Resources and links mentioned in this episode
- Nathalie’s book Surviving My First Year of Child Loss: Personal Stories From Grieving Parents
- The Compassionate Friends Facebook Groups
Links
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HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA is produced and edited by me, Nathalie Himmelrich.
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Remember to keep breathing, I promise, it will get easier.
