Full-Time Grievers

Ep. 32 Karen Hollenbeck: At the Intersection of Life and Death

As a paramedic for over 15 years, and now as a sound therapist and Reiki practitioner – Karen Hollenbeck supports those near death and those having to survive their loved one’s death. She's also a fellow Full-Time Griever, navigating the death of two brothers, among others close to her, all passing within a few years. In this conversation, Karen and Nathan talk about what it's like to support others through catastrophe and loss while carrying your own grief. They get into what grief actually does to the nervous system; what practices like sound therapy and Reiki can reach that talking and thinking can't; what her years in emergency medicine taught Karen, and how she managed when loss hit home. They also go deep on what we keep getting wrong about supporting grievers, what it would look like to actually do it well, and what Karen now believes about grief that our culture hasn't caught up to yet. You can download your free grief journal ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://subscribepage.io/7XSyMY]. Send your Grief Confessional ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://forms.gle/rBE4o8kdL7v3pBAm6]. And contribute to the show ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/HZXABFM2X58KS]. You can find out more about Karen’s work here [https://www.wavecrestwellness.com/about].

Ep. 31 The Invisible Concussion of Grief

In this episode, Nathan describes the functional parallel between the experience of acute grief and the documented symptoms of traumatic brain injury. The cognitive fog. The bone-deep exhaustion. The emotional volatility, the strange relationship to time, the inability to make decisions or hold a conversation – all of it has a neurological basis. Drawing on the neuroscientific research of Mary-Frances O'Connor, Lisa Feldman Barrett, and others, Nathan walks through what's actually happening in the brain during acute loss — why it disrupts everything from memory to social cognition to sleep — and closes with seven practical, science-grounded strategies for caring for the grieving brain without abandoning yourself in the process. This is an episode about understanding what happened to you. And about treating yourself, finally, with the same patience and care you'd give someone with a visible injury. You can download your free grief journal ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://subscribepage.io/7XSyMY]. Send your Grief Confessional ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://forms.gle/rBE4o8kdL7v3pBAm6]. And contribute to the show ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/HZXABFM2X58KS].

Ep. 30 Grief Confessional: I Miss My Brother

Sometimes grief feels like reality glitched — and you’re the only one who noticed…  The Grief Confessionals is a new minisode format. Raw pieces of grief – written by real people and read without commentary or advice. Just truth being witnessed. In this first confessional, Nathan shares a reflection from “the Broken-Hearted Twin” on losing their brother, and the strange, persistent sense that reality itself has somehow misfired. No brightsiding. No fixing. Just unfiltered grief, spoken out loud. Listeners are invited to submit their own Grief Confessional – anonymously or with their name – for the private collective archives of Full-Time Grievers. Some will be read (with permission) in upcoming Grief Confessional minisodes. If there’s something in your grieving process that you’ve never been able to say anywhere else, you’re welcome to share it with us. Here’s the link: https://forms.gle/rBE4o8kdL7v3pBAm6 [https://forms.gle/rBE4o8kdL7v3pBAm6] Because, often, the most powerful thing we can do for our grief is simply be witnessed.

Ep. 29 You’re Not the Same — and You’re Not Supposed to Be

Grief doesn’t just hurt – it changes who we are. In this episode, Nathan names an experience most grievers have, but very few expect — after loss, you may not recognize yourself. Your values and priorities shift. Your capacity changes. Your motivation gets weird. Your sense of belonging rearranges. And on top of everything else, our culture pressures us to “get back to normal” – as if we’re supposed to return to who we were before. (And, of course, we may long for that too…) But we’re *not* the same after loss, and we’re not *supposed* to be. This is a conversation about where grieving becomes identity shift – without pathologizing normal experience – and about how to live forward without betraying our love, who we were with them, or the person we’re becoming. You can download your free grief journal ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠ [https://subscribepage.io/7XSyMY]. Send your Grief Confessional ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠ [https://forms.gle/rBE4o8kdL7v3pBAm6]. And contribute to the show ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/HZXABFM2X58KS].

Ep. 28 Minisode: Sitting with Grief

In this minisode of Full-Time Grievers, Nathan M. McTague offers a different approach — not a solution, not a lesson, but a gentle invitation to be with what’s already here. This is a quiet, grounding episode for anyone who needs permission to be with their grief, just as they are. You can listen while resting, walking, or going about your day — and return to it anytime you need a reminder that you’re not alone, and you’re not doing grief wrong. You can download your free grief journal ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ [https://subscribepage.io/7XSyMY]. Send your Grief Confessional ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ [https://forms.gle/rBE4o8kdL7v3pBAm6]. And contribute to the show ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ [https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/HZXABFM2X58KS].