The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations

Suicide loss changes everything. The Leftover Pieces® Podcast explores life after suicide through honest conversations with survivors, experts, and grieving parents learning to live forward after unimaginable loss. Parents, partners, siblings, and friends share what it means to keep living when the world has been forever changed.

Hosted by Melissa Bottorff-Arey, whose 21-year-old son Alex died by suicide in 2016, the show blends intimate conversations with survivors, healers, and mental health professionals with short solo reflections you can actually use. Together we explore child loss, trauma and nervous-system care, anniversaries and seasons, stigma, faith and meaning, legacy, and the everyday practices that help make life livable again.

At its heart, this podcast is about learning to live forward after loss. We never move on from the people we love, but we can learn to carry the grief differently. This road can feel incredibly lonely—but you are not alone here.

For supporters, educators, and professionals, these conversations also offer insight into the realities of suicide grief and what genuine, non-fixing support can look like.

If you’d like to share your story or expertise, you can request to be a guest through Melissa’s website.

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Content Note
This podcast speaks candidly about grief and suicide loss and may feel activating for some listeners. We avoid graphic descriptions and discussion of suicide methods. Please care for yourself as needed. Melissa is not a doctor or licensed therapist, and nothing shared here should be considered medical or mental-health advice.

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Episoder(330)

Wrap Pt 1: Hope in the Hollow + Healing in Motion After Suicide Loss

Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! CLICK HERE TODAY --We started by finding light you could actually hold, then practiced repairs small enough to repeat. Journal prompt: “What I’m kee...

29 Okt 20255min

A Letter to November-You: Carry Grief Forward, Gently

Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! CLICK HERE TODAY --When the road tilts, leave breadcrumbs for the you who has to walk it. Journal prompt: “If Future-Me spoke up today, she’d ask me...

28 Okt 20255min

Grief Season Prep: Permission Language That Travels

Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! CLICK HERE TODAY --Holidays and anniversaries come with scripts you didn’t write. Permission language lets you carry your truth into rooms that may ...

27 Okt 20255min

Edit Your Grief Practices: Review, Keep, Drop, Adjust

Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! CLICK HERE TODAY -- Integration is mostly editing—conserving what helps, quietly retiring what doesn’t. Journal prompt: “If I gave my energy a budge...

26 Okt 20255min

Carry Their Memory Gently: Legacy Touchstones for This Season

Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! CLICK HERE TODAY -- Touchstones let love travel with you without making every minute heavy. Journal prompt: “What I’m keeping from this month is…” C...

25 Okt 20255min

Reacting vs. Responding in Grief: Your Nervous System Needn't be the Enemy

Reacting vs. Responding in Grief — Life After Suicide Loss Today I’m “down the rabbit hole,” teasing apart reacting vs. responding after traumatic loss—not to shame reactions (they’re human), but to w...

24 Okt 202531min

Suicide Loss & Holiday Anxiety: Pacing the Calendar with Opt-Outs, Early Exits, and Allies

Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! CLICK HERE TODAY -- The season gets crowded. Capacity isn’t disloyalty—it’s logistics for a heart carrying a lot. Journal prompt: “A boundary that m...

24 Okt 20255min

Grief After Suicide: Threshold Rituals to Open, Be In It, and Close

Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! CLICK HERE TODAY -- When grief spikes—anniversaries, rooms that hold their echo—having a beginning and an ending lets your body know you’re not trap...

23 Okt 20254min