Living Through the Unimaginable: Grief, Motherhood & Healing with Malisa Hepner

⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains sensitive discussions around child loss, accidental overdose, grief, trauma and bereavement. Please listen with care.

This was an incredibly moving and meaningful conversation with Malisa Hepner, LCSW, author, podcast host and speaker, and I cannot thank her enough for joining me and sharing so openly.

At the heart of this episode is Malisa’s beautiful son, Jake, who tragically died at just 18 years old following an accidental overdose. Malisa speaks about Jake, motherhood and navigating unimaginable grief with such love and honesty. I am incredibly grateful to Malisa and her family for allowing us to hear part of Jake’s story and for using their experience to raise awareness and help others.

We also explore motherhood, mum guilt, spirituality, trauma, healing, perfectionism, self-compassion and what it means to keep moving through life when your world has fundamentally changed.

Unfortunately, technology was absolutely NOT on our side! One of our connections struggled throughout the interview, resulting in several technical difficulties, and after around 52 minutes we eventually had to admit defeat. 😂 We gave it everything we had, though, and what we managed to capture was far too important and beautiful not to share.

Malisa, thank you profusely for your patience, your honesty and your willingness to share such a deeply personal part of your life with AuDHD and Then Some.

We hold Jake, Malisa and her family in our thoughts, and I sincerely hope Malisa will come back for another conversation. Next time, preferably with the internet behaving itself! 💜

🎧 AuDHD and Then Some
Conversations about neurodivergence, trauma, grief, mental health, motherhood, healing and the beautifully complicated reality of being human.