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This Club Suuucks

Written by: Melissa Monroe
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  • Summary

  • Welcome to This Club Suuucks: Grief Support for Parents After the Lasagnas Are Long Gone. These episodes are recorded from the weekly #ChildLossChat on Twitter Spaces hosted by Melissa Monroe, aided and abetted by co-host Alexandria Szeman. Melissa has supported hundreds of bereaved folks through her work as a doctor and teacher of acupuncture. Her understanding of grief became more personal after her two-year-old daughter Alice died in her sleep of unknown causes* just eleven days after her second birthday in 2013.

    No one wants to be in the bereaved parents club, but here we are.

    After Alice died, Melissa found immense healing in many forms including EMDR therapy, writing, and – in Alice’s memory—helping others deal with grief and trauma. In addition to starting her blog “Mothering in Memoriam,” Melissa founded the Agastock concert to benefit the Southern California Counseling Center’s Trauma and Resiliency Training Program so that more therapists could be trained in EMDR and other trauma modalities. In 2018, this incredible sliding-scale Center was able to open a second location in the underserved Watts community, where they dedicated a room to Alice’s memory. She also developed grief and trauma continuing education courses for acupuncturists at eLotus.org. She continues to treat patients in her Los Angeles clinic and has recently completed a memoir about her path to healing after Alice’s death.

    Dr. Alexandria Szeman is the award-winning author of New York Times Book Review’s Notable Book and Top 100 Books of the Year, The Kommandant’s Mistress, which also won the Kafka prize “for the best book of prose fiction by an American woman.” She won the Elliston Poetry Prize for excerpts from two of her books: Where Lightning Strikes: Poems on the Holocaust, and Love in the Time of Dinosaurs. She is a childhood sexual abuse survivor and advocate, and she frequently writes about migraine. She co-hosts #ChildLossChat, #SexAbuseChat, and #BookMarketingChat.

    This Club Suuucks aims to destigmatize grief and trauma through open discussion around issues facing the bereaved. Whether you are bereaved, want to support the bereaved, or realize that learning to cope with grief and trauma in all its forms leads to a more meaningful life, we will be holding space for you after the lasagnas are long gone.

    For more information on Melissa’s work, visit https://www.melissamariemonroe.com/

    *Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) is a category of death assigned when no cause of death can be identified after a thorough autopsy and death investigation. Though relatively rare, SUDC is the fifth leading cause of death in toddlers.
    Copyright Melissa Monroe
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Episodes
  • Prolonged Anticipatory Grief with Karen DeBonis, Author of "Growth"

    Prolonged Anticipatory Grief with Karen DeBonis, Author of "Growth"
    Jun 2 2023
    May 24, 2023 Prolonged Anticipatory Grief with Karen DeBonis, Author of the memoir “Growth."

    Anticipatory grief can occur for days, months, or even years before an impending loss and is experienced by many people whose loved ones suffer from chronic and/or degenerative diseases. Today’s guest Karen DeBonis, author of “Growth: A Mother, Her Son, and the Brain Tumor They Survived” spoke with us about her journey…which, gratefully, has a happier ending than most of my guests. From years of misdiagnoses, medical gaslighting, overcoming people-pleasing behavior, patient advocacy, and balancing work with caring for two boys—one of whom was finally diagnosed with a brain tumor, Karen tell us about the unique journey parents face when their child has a potentially deadly condition, and the post traumatic growth that can occur after your child fights a brain growth.

    You can purchase Karen’s book here:

    https://karendebonis.com/

    You can purchase Melissa’s new book, “Mom’s Search for Meaning” here:

    https://geni.us/MomsSearchForMeaning
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    32 mins
  • Grief Following Suicide with Norine Vander Hooven, LCSW

    Grief Following Suicide with Norine Vander Hooven, LCSW
    Jan 3 2023
    Dec 22, 2022 Grief Following Suicide with Norine Vander Hooven, LCSW

    Loved ones of those who died by suicide have a uniquely difficult grief journey. Todays guest Norine Vander Hooven, LCSW, is a counselor in Westlake Village, CA, an EMDR Approved Consultant, the Former Chair of Youth Suicide Prevention Committee for the American Association of Suicidology. Today we discuss how we can support ourselves and others following death of a loved one by suicide. We also discuss some simple anxiety hacks we can all use to improve our mental health, and signs to look for if we suspect someone may be suicidal.

    If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal ideation call 988 in the US or go to: https://988lifeline.org/

    You can learn more about Norine and her work here: https://www.norinevanderhoovenlcsw.com/about.
    For more information on Our House Grief Support Center go here: https://www.ourhouse-grief.org/
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    37 mins
  • Crisis in Faith During Grief with Stephanie Herrman, M.Theology

    Crisis in Faith During Grief with Stephanie Herrman, M.Theology
    Jan 3 2023
    DEC 15, 2022 Crisis in Faith During Grief with Stephanie Herrman, M.Theology

    Tragedy, grief and trauma can lead us to question even our deepest held beliefs, often resulting in additional guilt and shame. Stephanie Herrman, M. Theology – and long-time bodyworker and Pilates teacher – joins us today to provide a non-judgmental space to discuss what we can do for ourselves when we find ourselves questioning everything we thought we knew.

    To find out more about Blue Christmas https://nationaltoday.com/blue-christmas/
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    46 mins
Psychology Hygiene & Healthy Living
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