12. When Loss is Tangled: Is it grief, trauma, or both?

Today, Kate delves into the messy, entangled nature of loss. What’s trauma, what’s grief and where do they intersect? In a self-help culture that has commodified “trauma healing” as the sexy, most self-aware thing you can do, she also digs into why we tend to run from really knowing our grief, more than we run from our trauma, and how embodied grief work just might be the most important work you’ve done yet.

Kate explores:

• How to tune into the language of loss in your body; through the lenses of grief, trauma, traumatic grief and PTSD 
• A current trend around normalising trauma - even more so with social media and armchair experts - yet grief is often overlooked,  dismissed or misunderstood
• How trauma work has become commodified and therefore more easily definable. More people are willing to “do the work” as it feels like there’ll be an outcome at the end - and grief work feels amorphous and shadowy - with no distinct timeline or quantifiable structure to it
• The truth, that grief work that leans into embodiment and alchemy as opposed to only the psyche and pathology, relies on community and creativity. This asks people to be vulnerable above and beyond walking into a therapist’s office.
• How to discern between grief and trauma in the body and how to honour them both equally

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Resources mentioned in this podcast:

• Scott Mellis - our epic podcast producer! Follow him here
• Grief Resources:
  • The Wild Edge of Sorrow - by Francis Weller
  • The Anatomy of Grief - by Dorothy P. Holinger 
  • Call of the Wild : How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use It For Good - by    Kimberly Ann Johnson
• Embodied Grief Alchemy Coaching - inquire for info
• Creative Feminine Leadership Coaching - inquire for more info
• SensuAlchemy School of Embodied Grief & Pleasure (The school)
• Leave a podcast review on iTunes here
• Thought or reflection to share? Leave a comment on Instagram here

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Find Kate on the following platforms:

Website: http://kateleiper.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kate.leiper

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thekateleiper

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