BTM64-Care and Support for Grief and Loss
Show Summary
On this episode, we feature a conversation with Kristin Meekhof, loss survivor of her veteran husband's terminal cancer illness and wellness expert who uses her own experience to help others overcome grief and loss.
About Today’s Guest
Kristin A. Meekhof is an author, life coach, writer and obtained her M.S.W. from the University of Michigan. She has more than 20 years of clinical experience. A nationally recognized expert on resiliency and gratitude, her best-selling book, A Widow’s Guide to Healing, was inspired by her own personal experience with widowhood, grief, and healing. A Korean-American adoptee, she was left on the streets of Korea as an infant. She came to the US in 1974 and became a naturalized citizen. She is a life- coach with clients throughout the United States. As a confidential advisor, she privately works with some of the most influential people in media and politics. Kristin graduated from Kalamazoo College with a BA in psychology, and received her master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan.
In September of 2021, Kristin created a mental health video for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. In March of 2020, Kristin created a wellness guide for Katie Couric’s newsletter to help keep people calm during this time of social distancing. The guide is available on Katie Couric’s YouTube Channel and on Kristin’s Medium profile. Also, for Katie, Kristin wrote “8 Ways to Manage Your Coronavirus Related Anxiety” which was featured in CNN’s Newsletter as well. Kristin was interviewed as a wellness expert on CNN’s New Day morning show (live) on March 19, 2020. Later that year, she contributed video content to the PIxar/ University of Michigan Coursera collaboration.
Kristin created and curated content for Deepak Chopra’s 31- Day Gratitude Journal and was named an “Architect of Change” by Maria Shriver. Kristin has spoken at Harvard Medical School, the United Nations and the University of Michigan Medical School. She was a panelist at the Parliament of World Religions.
PsychArmor Resource of the Week
The PsychArmor Resource of the Week is the PsychArmor course, Good Grief. This is a course that can help those experiencing grief and loss; Grief is not only experienced with death, it can also occur with job loss or severe changes to physical well-being. The purpose of this course is to recognize loss and identify what is learned as a result of that loss. You can find a link to this course through this link: https://learn.psycharmor.org/courses/good-grief
Links Mentioned In This Episode
Theme Music
Our theme music Don’t Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.
This Episode Sponsored By:
This episode is sponsored by PsychArmor, the premier education and learning ecosystem specializing in military culture content. PsychArmor offers an online e-learning laboratory with custom training options for organizations.
Producer and Host Duane France is a retired Army Noncommissioned Officer, combat veteran, and clinical mental health counselor for service members, veterans, and their families. You can find more about the work that he is doing at www.veteranmentalhealth.com
