How To Deal With Grief and Trauma
You can't go through life without experiencing loss and trauma the question is how do we deal and live with the grief and pain? Join Nathalie Himmelrich, grief expert and author, talking to people who have experienced grief and trauma first-hand. If you want to be inspired by others who traveled through their grief and trauma, found that healing is possible, and came out the other end knowing they can survive and thrive in life after loss. For more info: www.nathaliehimmelrich.com
How To Deal With Grief and Trauma
Breast Cancer Awareness Month: The Hidden Grief and Trauma of Breast Cancer | 206
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October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and most of what we see is about early detection and survival. Both matter. But there is a side of breast cancer that rarely makes it onto a poster: the grief and the trauma. The losses that happen long before, and very often without, any death. The fear that stays in the body after treatment ends. And the quiet exhaustion of the people standing beside someone who is ill.
In this episode, I map out how many people are affected worldwide, including men, and then look at breast cancer through two lenses. As grief: the losses of body, hair, trust, fertility, intimacy, identity and an assumed future. And as trauma: the "before and after" moment of diagnosis, medical trauma, fear of recurrence, and why your nervous system is protecting you, not failing you.
I speak to people who have been diagnosed, to partners, families and friends, to those living with metastatic breast cancer, and to those who have lost someone to breast cancer.
"You can be deeply grateful to be alive, and deeply sad about what you have lost. Both are true. Both are allowed."
Who this is for: Anyone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, at any stage, women and men. Partners, children, parents and friends walking alongside them. People living with metastatic breast cancer. Anyone grieving someone who died of breast cancer. And professionals who support them.
In this episode:
- How many people breast cancer affects worldwide, including men
- The losses no one calls grief
- When a diagnosis becomes trauma, and fear of recurrence
- You don't have to be brave all the time
- For partners, families and friends: what helps
- Living with metastatic breast cancer
- If you have lost someone to breast cancer
- A short grounding practice
Chapters:
- 00:00 Intro Breast Cancer Awareness
- 01:19 Welcome
- 04:01 The Statistics
- 06:15 Grief and Trauma
- 07:37 The Losses No One Calls Grief
- 11:45 When a Breast Cancer Diagnosis Becomes Trauma
- 14:01 What Does Trauma After Breast Cancer Look Like
- 15:57 SSP Safe and Sound Protocol
- 16:25 You Don't Have to be Brave All The Time
- 17:51 If You Are Supporting Someone With Breast Cancer
- 20:57 Men Experiencing Breast Cancer
- 21:30 People With Metastatic Breast Cancer
- 23:26 If You Have Lost Someone Through Breast Cancer
- 1528.7208321528.72083225:29 Closing Exercise
- 27:30 Where To Go From Here
- 29:22 Where to Find Support
- 30:12 If You Are Affected
Episodes mentioned: 15 Amie Lands, 72 Hope Edelman, 74 Diana Richardson, 75 David Kessler, 106 Friendship After Grief and Trauma, 111 Anticipatory Grief, 114 Disenfranchised Grief, 117 Secondary Loss Grief, 134 Identity-Related Grief, 136 Non-death Loss, 163 When the Body Learns Danger, 170 Single-Incident Trauma, 171 Medical and Birth Trauma, 190 Mourning Someone Who Is Still Alive, 197 Deb Dana, 201 Grief and Time, 207 Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness (next Wednesday). Full archive: nathaliehimmelrich.com/episode-overview-latest-episode-first/
Support lines:
- Switzerland, KrebsInfo 0800 11 88 11
- Germany, Krebsinformationsdienst 0800 420 30 40
- UK, Breast Cancer Now 0808 800 6000
- USA, American Cancer Society 1-800-227-2345 (24/7)
- Australia, Cancer Council 13 11 20
Access free resources: nathaliehimmelrich.com/free-resources-hub
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https://nathaliehimmelrich.com/grief-trauma-support/ - 💜 For Supporters – Supporting someone https://nathaliehimmelrich.com/supporters-resources/
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