Grieving With More Freedom

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Diane Bonilla, MA, LPC

9 episodes

2 months ago

Send us a text The fear of confronting grief keeps many of us trapped in a cycle of avoidance, creating the illusion of safety while actually deepening our suffering. This powerful episode unpacks why we become reluctant to face our grief and how this fear manifests as procrastination, distraction, and "staying busy" - all while our bodies continue carrying the weight of unprocessed loss. As someone who's walked both sides of the grief journey - professionally as a therapist for nearly three...

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Episodes (9/9)

Grieving With More Freedom

The Courage to Face Your Grief When You're Scared to Begin

2 months ago

11 minutes

Grieving With More Freedom

Recognizing When You're Ready to Move Forward After Loss

Send us a text Grief can trap us in survival mode—that state where we're just going through the motions, staying desperately busy, or putting on a brave face while feeling broken inside. But what happens when survival mode becomes its own kind of prison? When I attended a Christmas party four months after losing my mom, I found myself watching everyone from a distance, as if viewing a movie rather than participating. This detachment wasn't a failure—it was my body's protective mechanism kick...

2 months ago

14 minutes

Grieving With More Freedom

Bonus Episode! From Pain to Purpose: Esperanza's Journey Through Loss and Healing (A Client Testimonial)

Send us a text Grief doesn't wait for convenient moments. It strikes in grocery store aisles, during familiar songs, or at the sight of a stranger who reminds us of someone we've lost. These everyday moments demand tools that traditional therapy often doesn't provide. In this powerful testimonial episode, we meet Esperanza Flury, a recent graduate of the Resilient Life Academy who sought help after the sudden loss of her daughter Jacqueline. Her journey illuminates the profound difference be...

3 months ago

15 minutes

Grieving With More Freedom

Sacred Everyday Actions: Moving Forward Without Forgetting

Send us a text Ever caught yourself talking to someone who's no longer here? Or wearing their watch, cooking their recipes, or keeping their photo as your phone wallpaper? These aren't signs you're "stuck" in grief – they're powerful micro-rituals that help maintain meaningful connections while healing. One of the most common fears I hear from grieving clients is that healing somehow means forgetting their loved ones. As the initial raw pain subsides and good days start to outnumber bad ones...

4 months ago

14 minutes

Grieving With More Freedom

Anxiety: The Grief Emotion No One Talks About

Send us a text Anxiety is one of the most overlooked emotions in grief, yet it's a completely normal part of the grieving journey and must be addressed in order to navigate loss successfully. In this episode I discuss why anxiety can show up in the grief process and 3 strategies you can start using today to help you cope with it. Here are some of the reasons anxiety is felt during the grieving process: • When attachment to a loved one is disrupted through death, our nervous system fee...

4 months ago

15 minutes

Grieving With More Freedom

Your Grief Doesn't Follow a Roadmap: Debunking the Five Stages

Send us a text Have you been trying to fit your grief journey into the famous five stages model, wondering if you're grieving "correctly"? It's time to set the record straight about one of the most misunderstood frameworks in grief support. The five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—have been deeply misinterpreted by mainstream culture. As a grief therapist with nearly 30 years of experience, I'm pulling back the curtain on this model's origins, limitation...

4 months ago

10 minutes

Grieving With More Freedom

Your First Loss: Why It’s Important

Send us a text Do you remember your first? Hello everyone. Today we are going to take a fresh look at our earliest memorable loss and use it to shed some light on how we navigate grief now. How we navigated our earliest loss, can actually tell us some things. The emotions we felt, the beliefs we had, how we responded to the loss, and the support we may or may not have received are all stored in our memory files. The body remembers and the unconscious mind remembers. Our unco...

5 months ago

13 minutes

Grieving With More Freedom

Graduation, Life Events, & Grief

Send us a text In today's episode I talk about a specific type of grief that tends to be ignored, dismissed, and underestimated. It's grief that commonly surfaces during major life events like graduation. Beginnings, endings, and changes are big opportunities for this type of grief to drop in unexpectedly. You'll gain clarity about what this grief is and why this grief can be confusing and underappreciated. You'll also learn 3 impactful strategies to respond to it, so you're more confid...

5 months ago

21 minutes

Grieving With More Freedom

7 Strategies to navigate Mother's Day and Grief

Send us a text In today’s episode, I’m going to share 7 strategies you can start using today to help you navigate the grief that Mother’s Day can bring up for so many of us. This will be my second Mother’s day since I lost my mom. My grief is definitely present, but it feels different from last year. Last year, emotions were more raw. Grief changes and it’s really up to us to pay attention to what we need. Today I’m going to suggest that when it comes to grief and Mother’s Day, ce...

6 months ago

12 minutes