
Trigger warning: We cover parental death, suicide, cancer, and grief in this episode.
I’ve been wanting to talk about death and dying on the podcast since the very beginning, so I was thrilled when Danielle Strouse, a licensed therapist, reached out to me to offer herself up as a guest to talk about death anxiety.
The topics that we discuss:
- Danielle’s integrative counseling work with her clients — including existential therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
- The benefit of facing your mortality and finiteness head on
- The ways in which we avoid the reality of death by overdrinking, using drugs, or overworking
- How awakening experiences show us our values
- How Danielle’s personal experience with grief has influenced her work as a therapist
- How to work with — not against — our death anxiety by asking “What scares me about death?”
- How Danielle has made unconventional life choices driven by her awareness of her finiteness
- Why it’s so important as practitioners to face our own darkness
- A beautiful story about rippling — which “refers to the fact that each of us creates—often without our conscious intent or knowledge—concentric circles of influence that may affect others for years, even for generations.”
I am so struck by Danielle’s vulnerability and immersive storytelling, and I know you will be, too.
Resources mentioned:
- Book: Staring at the Sun by Irvin D. Yalom
- The Pique Podcast: Acceptance, commitment, + mindfulness with Holly Moses + Holly Yates
- Death over Dinner
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