Podcast
Restorative Grief with Mandy Capehart
Hosted by Mandy Capehart · EN
Explore the raw and unseen sides of loss and healing with stories, reflections, and real-life guidance on navigating grief—whether it’s a deep personal loss, an identity shift, or life’s inevitable heartbreaks. Each conversation offers practical tools to integrate healing in mind, body, and spirit. Join for support, growth, and a compassionate community that understands. For bonus content, visit Patreon.com/MandyCapehart. Interested in sharing your story as a guest? Reach out at MandyCapehart.com/PodMatch.
11episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
244. Avoiding Advice When You Walk Beside Grievers
5d ago00:10:24Tap to summarizeHave you ever sat with someone who is grieving and felt completely unsure what to say?If so, you're in good company! This week, let's talk about how the awkward silences you fear are an offering of solace and care for your beloved grievers. Get comfortable with the uncomfortable; that's where the magic is!Links + Resources from this episode:Learn more about Stanier's workListen to Emily Kasriel's interview on Restorative GriefJoin the Restorative Grief CommunityBecome a PatronSubscribe to the Restorative Grief NewsletterWork with Mandy
Transcribe →243. Becoming a Grief Ally with Aly Bird
2w ago00:35:43Tap to summarize“Becoming a grief ally isn’t about having the perfect words—it’s about cultivating the humility, courage, and self-awareness to show up with compassion when someone you love is living through loss.”When grief enters the life of someone we care about, many of us freeze. We worry about saying the wrong thing, doing too much, or not doing enough. In this conversation, Aly Bird—life coach and author of Grief Ally—invites us to rethink what meaningful support really looks like. After the sudden death of her husband Will while hiking alone, Aly discovered that much of the common advice about grief support didn’t quite fit her experience. What grew from that realization was a deeply thoughtful framework for becoming a healthier, more compassionate presence for those who are grieving.Together we explore how grief allies can move beyond quick fixes or performative care and instead practice the steady, intentional support that grieving people actually need.We talk about:Why becoming a grief ally begins with self-awareness and self-compassionThe difference between reacting to grief and learning to accompany itWhat it means to “wait in the wings” and offer long-term supportHow active listening helps us honor the nuance of someone’s griefWhy grief allies must resist minimizing grief or rushing someone toward “strength”How to repair missteps and stay present even when we feel uncertainThe importance of flexibility, humility, and courage when supporting someone through lossLinks + Resources from this episode:Follow Aly on Instagram: @thealybirdPurchase Grief Ally wherever books are soldConnect with MandyGet the workbook / Become a Patron
Transcribe →242. Why Your Enneagram Type Didn't Prepare You For This
3w ago00:13:10Tap to summarize"What will you do when all your self-awareness isn't making a difference?"This is more common than you suspect, because learning alone doesn't move the needle in our search for the path toward wholeness.This week, we're talking about how the Enneagram is a helpful tool for language of what we're experiencing, and then we'll learn how to start integrating that language and awareness into our actions so we stop knowing and start healing in an intentional and sustainable way.Links + Resources from this episode:Become a Patron/Get the WorkbookLearn more about Restorative Grief and Enneagram CoachingConnect on Instagram/Threads
Transcribe →241. How Stories Shape Grief and Identity with Kaitlin B. Curtice
4w ago00:44:50Tap to summarize“Sometimes grief isn’t just about losing a person. It’s about losing the story we thought our life would follow.”The stories we inherit shape who we are, but they aren’t always meant to stay. In this conversation, Kaitlin B. Curtice, author of Everything Is a Story: Reclaiming the Power of Stories to Heal and Shape Our Lives, invites us to notice the narratives we carry, grieve the ones that no longer fit, and begin cultivating new ones.We talk about:How stories shape identity, faith, and belongingGrieving the narratives we’ve outgrownRecognizing loving, liminal, and lethal storiesCommunity, connection, and collective healingDiscovering the “medicine” you bring to the worldLinks + Resources from this episode:Learn more about Kaitlin and her workPurchase Everything Is a StoryThe Liminality Journal on SubstackConnect with MandyGet the workbook / Become a Patron
Transcribe →240. Living With Grief: Transforming Loss Into Awareness and Healing
May 1700:09:04Tap to summarize“Grief is not something to get over. It is something to carry with awareness, intention, and openness to transformation.”In this episode, we explore what it means to live with grief rather than move past it. Through a restorative framework of sight, insight, action, and healing, we consider how grief becomes a guide for self-awareness, intentional living, and deeper connection.We also reflect on the importance of communal care, the role of identity in grief, and how learning to carry loss can shape the way we show up for ourselves and others.Links + Resources from this episode:Become a PatronConnect with MandyLearn more about Restorative GriefJS Park's workFrancis Weller's workAlua Arthur's work
Transcribe →239. Above The Clouds with Jon Hill
May 1000:49:41Tap to summarize“There’s a moment in grief when you realize the story didn’t end… it just changed shape.”In this episode of Restorative Grief, Mandy is joined by filmmaker and Emmy-winning producer Jon Hill, whose feature film Above the Clouds was born from the loss of his father and shaped over thirteen years of quiet persistence. What began as heartbreak slowly became a creative path toward meaning, connection, and unexpectedly laughter.Together, we explore what it looks like to honor someone we love through art, why humor can coexist with deep sorrow, and how creative expression can help us move through grief without trying to rush past it. Jon shares the personal roots of his film, the long road to bringing it into the world, and the gentle hope he carries for anyone walking their own healing journey.This conversation is an invitation to hold grief with honesty, to stay open to moments of lightness, and to remember that restoration often arrives in ways we don’t expect.In this episode, we discuss:Turning personal loss into meaningful creative workThe surprising role of humor in the healing processWhat thirteen years of persistence can teach us about griefBalancing tenderness and levity when telling hard storiesHelping grieving people feel less alone in their experienceLinks + Resources from this episode:Learn more about Above the Clouds: https://www.abovethecloudsfilm.com/Learn about Jon's work: https://www.jonhilldirects.com/Learn more about Restorative Grief: https://www.mandycapehart.com/Become a Patron of the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/mandycapehart
Transcribe →238. Staying Present Without Drowning: Grief in an Age of Doomscrolling
May 300:13:55Tap to summarize“Much of what we experience while scrolling the news is actually grief trying to move through the body.”How do we stay present to the world’s suffering without being swallowed by it? In this episode, we explore the very real tension of living everyday life while absorbing constant global distress. From doomscrolling and body tension to the quiet pressure to stay informed, this conversation names what so many are feeling but struggle to articulate.We talk about how grief shows up physically in the body, why your nervous system responds the way it does to ongoing crisis, and how to practice what I call responsible distance. You’ll walk away with simple, grounded ways to stay compassionate and engaged without overwhelming your capacity to keep showing up.Links + Resources from this episode:MandyCapehart.com/coachingAround the Circle: National GriefPolyvagal Theory overview with Deb DanaGet the workbook for more on doomscrolling management
Transcribe →237. For the Weary with Becky McCoy
Apr 2600:39:32Tap to summarize"I was in survival mode, and I needed to be really honest about it."What if the reason your spiritual life feels impossible right now is because you’ve been handed tools that were never designed for your grief?Today’s conversation is a tender one. I’m joined by my friend Becky McCoy - writer, spiritual director, and someone who understands firsthand what it means to live inside deep loss while still reaching for gentle hope.We talk honestly about what faith and spiritual practice can look like when you are simply too tired to perform your way through healing. Becky’s upcoming book, In the Company of the Weary, offers compassionate, doable spiritual practices for people living in grief, burnout, and emotional exhaustion. This conversation brings that same gentle permission into real life.If you’ve ever felt like you’re failing at grief, failing at faith, or simply too weary to keep up, this episode is for you.In this episode, we talk about:How grief reshapes our spiritual livesWhat “weariness” really means (and why it matters)Why traditional spiritual practices often stop working in seasons of lossThe difference between gentle and performative faith practicesTrauma-informed spirituality in everyday lifeWhat the church and helping communities often misunderstand about griefWhere to begin when you feel spiritually numbOne gentle permission for the bone-deep tiredLinks + Resources from this episode: Pre-order In the Company of the Weary: https://amzn.to/3ZYbVTBConnect with Becky on IG: https://www.instagram.com/beckylmccoyFollow Mandy on IG: https://www.instagram.com/mandycapehartBecome a Patron/Get the Workbook: https://www.patreon.com/mandycapehart
Transcribe →236. Why Making Sense of Grief Can Make It Harder
Apr 1900:11:15Tap to summarizeOur safety doesn't come from certainty. When grief breaks the story we thought we were living in, our minds naturally go looking for explanations. In this episode, we explore why we reach for certainty when life stops making sense—and how that instinct can lead us into stories that promise safety but don’t always deliver it.Together, we’ll look at narrative fallacy, the human tendency to create tidy explanations for painful or chaotic experiences, and consider what it might mean to loosen our grip on certainty while we grieve.This episode also includes a gentle grounding practice to help us reconnect with safety in the present moment—without needing answers first.Links + Resources from this episode:Become a PatronConnect with Mandy
Transcribe →235. Holding Space at the Edge of Goodbye with Darnell Lamont Walker
Apr 1200:41:26Tap to summarize“There is something sacred about being with someone at the end of their life. It’s like standing at the edge of the ocean, being pulled in and out by the tide, knowing that something larger than yourself is at work.”In this episode of Restorative Grief, we’re joined by death doula and storyteller Darnell Lamont Walker for a deeply human conversation about presence, love, and what it means to show up in life’s most vulnerable moments. Drawing from his book Never Can Say Goodbye, Darnell invites us to reimagine death not as something to fear, but as something to face with courage, compassion, and grace.Together, we explore how storytelling can be a path to healing, why being present matters more than having the right words, and how everyday people already carry the capacity to sit with grief...their own and others’. This conversation is not about dying well as much as it is about living fully, loving deeply, and honoring the threads that connect us all, even as we prepare to say goodbye.In this episode, we discuss:Death as a sacred threshold rather than a failure or fearPresence as an emotional and spiritual practiceStorytelling as dignity, healing, and closureGrief as a path to growth and connectionLiving with fewer regrets by staying close to what mattersLinks + Resources from this episode:Order Darnell's book, Never Can Say GoodbyeConnect with Darnell on social mediaLearn more about Restorative GriefBecome a Patron of the podcast
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