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
Episodes
219 episodes
Grief Presumptions: The Assumptions We Make About Loss (Part 3) | 185
When someone is visibly grieving, the people around them quickly conclude, usually without adequate evidence. She isn't crying, so she must be coping. He went back to work, so he must be over it. They seem angry, not sad — that can't be grief.<...
Collective Grief and War Trauma: How Populations Heal with Dr Imke Hansen | 184
What happens when an entire nation is traumatised? How does collective grief differ from personal loss, and what does healing actually look like at that scale?In this episode, I speak with Dr Imke Hansen, trauma therapist, scholar of Eas...
Grief Preconceptions: Beliefs You Bring Before Loss (Part 2) | 183
Before a loss happens, most people already hold a set of beliefs about what grief will look like. These are not myths absorbed from the culture in general — they are something more personal: internalised convictions, absorbed through upbringing...
When Grief Equals Love: Loss and Continuing Bonds with Lizzie Pickering | 182
HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA is completely self-funded, produced, and edited by me, Nathalie Himmelrich.Consider making a small donation to support the Podcast: bit.ly/SupportGTPod...
8 Common Grief Myths That Keep People Stuck (Part 1) | 181
Grief myths are everywhere. They show up in condolence cards, in workplace bereavement policies, in the advice given by well-meaning friends and family and, often, inside the grieving person themselves. They feel like common sense. They are not...
News About the Upcoming Season | S18 Trailer
HOW TO DEAL WITH GRIEF AND TRAUMA is completely self-funded, produced, and edited by me, Nathalie Himmelrich.Consider making a small donation to support the Podcast: bit.ly/SupportGTPod...
How Trauma Affects the Body | The Many Faces of Trauma | 180
Trauma isn’t only a story in the mind—it’s also physiology, sensation, and nervous system patterning. In this final episode of the Many Faces of Trauma series, we explore how trauma can show up in the body through hyperarousal (fight/flight), h...
Dissociation: The Mind's Emergency Exit | The Many Faces of Trauma | 179
Dissociation is often misunderstood, but for many people it’s a protective nervous-system strategy—a way the mind and body reduce overwhelm when something feels too much to stay present for. In this intro-level episode, we explore dissociation ...
Complex Trauma and C-PTSD Explained | The Many Faces of Trauma | 178
Complex trauma forms through repeated or prolonged exposure to threat or chronic stress—often in contexts where escape isn’t possible and where relationships or systems meant to provide safety are also part of the problem. In this intro-level e...
Secondary and Vicarious Trauma for Helpers and Partners | The Many Faces of Trauma | 177
When you support someone through trauma—professionally or personally—your nervous system is not a neutral observer. Secondary traumatic stress can create trauma-like symptoms through exposure to others’ distress, while vicarious trauma can grad...
Community Shock: Trauma After Disasters and Public Events | The Many Faces of Trauma | 176
Community shock happens when a public tragedy or disaster disrupts a community’s sense of safety and predictability, creating a ripple of nervous-system activation far beyond those directly involved. This episode is the Trauma Types companion t...
Migration and Displacement Trauma: Losing Home and Self | The Many Faces of Trauma | 175
Migration and displacement can be traumatic not only because of what prompted the move, but because the nervous system loses multiple safety cues at once—home, language, social rules, community, and familiar identity. In this episode, we explor...
Poverty, Insecurity and Social Exclusion: Society-Shaped Trauma | The Many Faces of Trauma | 174
Chronic scarcity and instability can shape the nervous system in ways that look like anxiety, irritability, shutdown, or “burnout,” even when a person is working incredibly hard to survive. In this episode, we explore poverty, insecurity, and s...
Discrimination and Minority Stress: Society-Shaped Trauma | The Many Faces of Trauma | 173
Discrimination and minority stress can create a chronic nervous-system load: not only dealing with the moment, but also anticipating bias, managing risk, and constantly scanning for safety and belonging. In this episode, we explore minority str...
Chronic Stress Without an Exit: When the Environment Is the Threat | The Many Faces of Trauma | 172
Not all trauma comes from a single event. Sometimes the trauma pathway is the environment itself—ongoing pressure, instability, or threat with little realistic ability to escape or recover. In this episode, we explore “chronic stress without an...
Medical and Birth Trauma: When Help Hurts | The Many Faces of Trauma | 171
Medical and birth trauma can happen when care meant to help also involves fear, helplessness, loss of control, or violations of consent and dignity. In this episode, we explore why “routine” experiences can still leave lasting nervous system im...
Single-Incident Trauma: When Before and After Split | The Many Faces of Trauma | 170
Single-incident trauma can create a sharp “before and after” in the nervous system—where an overwhelming event leaves the body stuck in protection long after it’s over. In this episode, we explore how trauma memories can be stored as sensory fr...
Betrayal Trauma: When Trust Becomes Unsafe | The Many Faces of Trauma | 169
Betrayal trauma can be uniquely disorienting because it not only breaks trust—it can disrupt your sense of reality and self-trust. In this episode, we explore betrayal trauma as a nervous system injury that often leads to hypervigilance, rumina...
Intergenerational Trauma: What Gets Carried Forward | The Many Faces of Trauma | 168
Intergenerational trauma is what happens when the impact of trauma is passed down through families and communities—through nervous system patterns, emotional rules, family roles, and the stories we inherit about safety, trust, and worth. In thi...
Developmental Trauma: A Brief Map | The Many Faces of Trauma | 167
Developmental trauma often forms through chronic, repeated stress during childhood—especially when safety, support, and repair are inconsistent. In this episode, you’ll get a clear, non-overwhelming map of what developmental trauma is, why it a...
Attachment and Relational Trauma: The Wound in the Bond | The Many Faces of Trauma | 166
Attachment and relational trauma can be hard to name because it often doesn’t come from one dramatic event—it forms through patterns over time: inconsistency, emotional absence, unpredictable caregiving, chronic criticism, or rupture without re...
Preverbal Trauma: Wounds From Before Words | The Many Faces of Trauma | 165
Preverbal trauma can be hard to name because it often isn’t stored as a clear story. In this episode, we explore how early experiences, which occur before language development, can shape the nervous system through implicit memory and felt sense...
Small t, Big T Trauma and the Missing Middle | The Many Faces of Trauma | 164
“Small t” and “big T” are common trauma terms meant to validate, but they can also trigger comparison, minimisation, or shame. In this episode, you’ll learn what these labels usually mean, why they sometimes backfire, and how to replace ranking...
What Trauma Is and Isn't: When the Body Learns Danger | The Many Faces of Trauma | 163
Trauma isn’t only about what happened—it’s about what happened inside your nervous system when an experience was too much, too fast, too soon, or too long, without enough support, choice, or protection. In this episode, we clarify...
The Trauma Map: How This Series Works | The Many Faces of Trauma | 162
Welcome to the first episode of my new series “The Many Faces of Trauma.” In this opening episode, I share why I’m creating this series and how I’ll guide you through different trauma types in a way that’s clear, gentle, and not overw...
