The Widowed Parent Podcast Jenny Lisk

Today’s discussion is such an important one. For families who have been touched by suicide losses, for sure – and also for any parents of grieving teens from any death losses. Joanne tells us today about her new film, “Talking Out Loud - Teens & Suicide Loss: A Conversation.” I’ve seen it, and I have to say it’s such a privilege to hear directly from teens about such a sensitive topic. They knew their parents were watching live during the filming, but they apparently all forgot about that and the cameras and they had a really honest, unfiltered discussion. I’d like to thank Joanne and her team for bringing us this incredible film, and also for coming here to speak with us about it this week.
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Thank you sponsors & partners:
Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk
BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent
Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee
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I can’t think of a better way to kick off Children’s Grief Awareness Month than to share my recent discussion with Laurel Braitman, author of the new memoir What Looks Like Bravery. Longtime listeners will recall that I’ve often mentioned what a privilege it is to speak with grown-up grieving kids, and to hear firsthand their experiences and reflections after losing a parent at a young age. What Laurel gives us in this book is an incredibly intimate portrait of her life. She lets us inside, and she allows us to see how grief has affected one now-grown-up grieving child over the decades. Her book and today’s discussion are full of beautiful insights - and I really can’t say enough about how incredible her book is. I don’t usually cry when reading books, but wow, I had a little trouble seeing the words on the last few pages through the tears that were welling up.
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Thank you sponsors & partners:
Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk
BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent
Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee
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I had such a great discussion with Azurae Johnson Redmond for this episode. Azurae is the founder of Young, Black & Widowed Inc and she is also the foreword writer for my new book, out this week: "Widowed Parents Unite: 52 Tips to Get Through the First Year, from One Widowed Parent to Another." I’m thrilled that Azurae and so many other contributing authors are part of this book. Widowed Parents Unite wouldn't be nearly what it is without each and every one of these moms and dads who decided to share their stories with those newer on this widowed parenting path. I know you'll learn so much from Azurae's story, and I hope you check out the resources offered by Young, Black & Widowed.
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Thank you sponsors & partners:
Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk
BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent
Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee
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I had such a great discussion with Mae Yoshikawa for this episode. Mae’s boys were young when her husband died. One was 8 years old, and the other was just 5 months old. Listen in our discussion for the important question Mae asked her older son after her husband died: What if the question right now is not “Why?” This hearkens back to her own experience when her mom became gravely ill when Mae was a young adult.
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Thank you sponsors & partners:
Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk
BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent
Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee
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I had such a great discussion with Gina Moffa for this episode. Gina is a therapist specializing in grief and loss, and she has a brand-new book out this week: Moving On Doesn’t Mean Letting Go: A Modern Guide to Navigating Loss. I was honored to read an advance copy and provide an endorsement for her terrific book.
Perhaps the best way I can introduce our discussion is to share what I wrote about her new book:
“If you don’t have a therapist on speed dial—or even if you do—Gina Moffa’s Moving On Doesn’t Mean Letting Go will walk with you through the disorienting and devastating experience that is grief. Helpfully, she tackles both the inner grief journey and navigating the world at large while grieving. Moffa shares important information on the mind-body connection as it relates to the grief experience, helping us understand how important it is to listen to what our bodies are trying to tell us. An important chapter called ‘Grief’s Sister, Trauma’ is not to be missed. A must-read for those who are grieving the loss of someone close.”
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Thank you sponsors & partners:
Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk
BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent
Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee
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I had such a great discussion with Phyllis Fagell for this episode. Phyllis just released a brand new book, Middle School Superpowers: Raising Resilient Tweens in Turbulent Times. We haven’t specifically talked about middle schoolers on the show before, and I knew Phyllis would be just the right person to tackle this with. She’s a parenting author and speaker – and I had to laugh when I saw on her website: “Phyllis has lived through middle school three times: first for herself, then with her kids, and now as a counselor.” She’s a school counselor in Washington, DC, and her first book Middle School Matters could be likened to “what to expect when you’re expecting a middle schooler.”
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Thank you sponsors & partners:
Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk
BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent
Support the show - Buy Me a Coffee
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