55. Ashley Nelson: Moving Through Grief + Identity After Loss

Ashley Nelson became a two-time widow before the age of 35. She also said “goodbye” to ten other relatives and friends in between those drastic losses. These deaths, alongside her 10-year career in the health and death-care industry, gave her deep insight into life after loss that led to her becoming a certified grief specialist. Today, Ashley leads ‘Learning About Grief’ - an organization that offers loss-specific groups, one-to-one private grief sessions, and free education to over 25,000 people from 50+ countries.

In today’s episode we ask her about the stages of grief and how to move through them, as well as support people going through them. She sheds light on the research that led to the well-known ‘5 Stages of Grief,’ but shares that these stages were well-documented only with respect to those who were dying. However, we know that grief not only affects the dying but the ones who have survived their death.

If the colloquially known 5 Stages of Grief have never resonated with you as a person who has lost a loved one, and experience them more in waves, this conversation will leave you feeling more seen and heard.

Carrying grief is human, and you are exactly where you are meant to be.

No matter what season of grief you are in, or even if you have never lost a loved but want to support those that have, this conversation will help you ease pain and feel more connected.

Episode highlights:

-The 5 Stages of Grief (what it gets right + what it gets wrong)

-Celebrating someone’s life while simultaneously grieving them

-Why we resist the ‘acceptance’ phase for so long

-Comparing your grief or attempting to justify it

-The guilt of joy (Survivor’s Guilt) experienced after losing loved one

-Finding a new identity after loss

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