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Sherry Cassedy and Faith Freed: Spirituality and Healing

Posted on August 12, 2015 - by Sherry Cassedy

The Grief Relief Show’s 33rd episode features Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley interviewing Sherry Cassedy and Faith Freed on surviving a crisis. Cassedy is a lawyer who’s been in mediation and law for 30 years, and has her own private judging practice in Silicon Valley. She also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Sofia University as well as in the Religious Studies Department at Santa Clara University. After losing two nephews as well as her son, Timothy Sullivan, she’s found that spirituality has been the greatest blessing. Her son died unexpectedly in 2010 during a skateboarding accident. Freed has […]

Roberta Moore on the Power of Near Death-Experiences

Posted on August 11, 2015 - by Heidi Horsley

Author, speaker and filmmaker Roberta Moore talked with Dr. Heidi Horsley at the 2015 Association for Death Education and Counseling conference about grief, loss and near death experiences. Having a near-death experience can change how people deal with grief and loss. For Moore, she had a near death experience at 13 years old, which led to a spontaneous out of body experience. In her 30s, she had an “experience of the light,” which she recalls as wonderful. Dr. Horsley relates, having had her own experience of the light after being in a head-on collision. She passed out, went into the […]

Nina Impala: Grief, Loss of Our Parents

Posted on August 11, 2015 - by Dr. Gloria and Dr. Heidi Horsley

As a spiritual grief counselor, Nina Impala depends on her personal experience with grief to help others through their own journey. She uses HeartSight in her therapy sessions. She’s also the author of Dearly Departed: What I Learned About Living from the Dying, and spends some time discussing her work with Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley. Located north of San Diego, Impala uses her own stories about handling hospice care and the dying process in her guidance. Impala lost her parents and says “I had no idea the impact a parent death can have on a (adult) child,” and that’s […]

Elizabeth Heineman: Mourning a Stillbirth

Posted on August 10, 2015 - by Elizabeth Heineman

A stillborn birth is a loss and trauma that’s relatively rare, which can make getting support a little more challenging. In this episode of The Open to Hope show, Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley discuss still births with Elizabeth Heineman, who lost her son Thor in a still birth. This loss prompted journaling and eventually the publication of a book, Ghostbelly. It was a planned pregnancy, and Heineman had an older child (16) with a previous partner who was a woman. Now in a new relationship with a man who didn’t have any children, but wanted them, Heineman and her […]

Christa Scalies: Healing Grief Through Laughter

Posted on August 10, 2015 - by Christa Scalies

Christa Scalies is interviewed by Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley during this special episode of The Open to Hope Radio show. Scalies lost two friends to suicide, which is the foundation for her book Suicide Sucks, available to download for free. In her book, Scalies outlines ten steps to help with holistic recovery after losing a loved one to suicide, including mental, spiritual and physical nurturing. Scalies is adamant that learning to laugh once again is paramount, but that’s an occurrence that can make survivors feel guilty. She established the website GiggleOn to help others recover from their grief. She […]

Hospice in the Latino Community with Deborah Gonzalez

Posted on August 9, 2015 - by Gloria Horsley

Dr. Gloria Horsley connected with Deborah Gonzalez during the 2015 Association for Death Education and Counseling conference, where they discussed the relationship between hospice systems and the Latino community. What kind of cultural effect does hospice have on this demographic? Gonzalez notes that the Latino community is under-served in hospice care, and she works diligently to bridge that gap. “I think that culture has to do a lot with it, especially because when we talk about hospice it sounds like being doomed,” she says. Gonzalez believes that education and information are critical to helping the Latino community understand that a […]

Sibling Loss and The Compassionate Friends with Stephen Stott

Posted on August 9, 2015 - by Heidi Horsley

Stephen Stott, a Columbia University graduate and one of Dr. Heidi Horsley’s former students, is in the field of sibling loss after losing his own sister in 2002. Stott’s mother started attending The Compassionate Friends meetings immediately, but it took Stott over a decade to join. His mother asked if he felt comfortable going, and for the first time since his sister died, he said yes. “I think the experience was great, but I was nervous,” he says. He didn’t know what to expect, he didn’t know the people, but found it was helpful to be around people who had […]

Positive Psychology with Dr. Judith Stillion

Posted on August 8, 2015 - by Gloria Horsley

At the 2015 Association for Death Education and Counseling conference, Dr. Gloria Horsley spoke with Dr. Judith Stillion about how to balance a positive life while in grief. It’s all about consciously choosing positive acts for yourself every day, with Dr. Stillion suggesting art or reading as a positive approach to healing. However, it may take some trial and error to find the positive approach that works best for you. Re-tapping into old, favorite hobbies as well as trying new ones can be a way to challenge yourself and re-direct your energy and thoughts into a more positive realm. “Positive […]

Delayed Guilt: An Unwelcome, Unproductive Feeling

Posted on August 8, 2015 - by Harriet Hodgson

I wasn’t prepared for the thoughts I had the other day, guilty thoughts that suddenly surfaced in my mind. Although guilt can cause positive change, for the most part, I think it’s a non-productive feeling. Guilty feelings can tug a bereaved person backwards on the recovery path, when the goal is to move forward. Guilt is a component of grief. Often our guilty feelings begin with the words “I wish.” My guilty feelings were associated with my elder daughter, who died in 2007. Some of my thoughts: I wish I had known sooner. I wish I had more knowledge. I […]

Susan Anderson: Recovery from the Ultimate Abandonment

Posted on August 7, 2015 - by Dr. Gloria and Dr. Heidi Horsley

Susan Anderson is interviewed by Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley for The Open to Hope foundation radio show. Anderson has extensive personal experience with loss and works as a psychotherapist helping others address their own grief hurdles. She’s also a speaker and author, as well as the founder of the Abandonment Recovery Movement. “Abandonment issues are primal feelings of loss from childhood,” Anderson explains. It’s that same feeling of “mommy’s not coming back to the crib” that people never really outgrow. Losing a loved one can definitely feel like abandonment at the primal level. When Anderson was married for 18 […]