Grief 2 Growth
"Transform your grief into growth with Brian Smith, an empathetic life coach, certified grief educator, public speaker, and author who has walked the treacherous path of profound loss. Grief 2 Growth unravels the intricacies of life, death, and the spaces in between, offering listeners a new perspective on what it means to be 'Planted. Not Buried.'Join Brian and his compelling guests—bereaved parents, life coaches, mediums, healers, near death experiencers, and experts in various fields—as they discuss topics like survival guilt, synchronicities, and the scientific evidence supporting the existence of the afterlife. You'll come away with actionable advice, renewed hope...
How to Break Karmic Cycle — with Liane Marie Lambert | EP 492
What if the patterns that keep you stuck aren't punishment — they're an invitation?
Liane Marie Lambert was 27 years old, living in London, when she looked the wrong way crossing the street and was struck by a double-decker bus. She walked out of the hospital three days later — and began a journey that would take her from lost and broken to ascension coach, energy alchemist, and bestselling author.
In this episode, Liane unpacks two of the most misunderstood concepts in spiritual life: karma and dharma. She explains why karma isn't a cosmic penalty system, what the Law...
Why Loss Lives in Your Body (and How to Release It) | Kurtis Lee Thomas | EP 491
We tend to think of grief as something we feel — a heaviness in the heart, a fog in the mind. But what if grief is also something we store, physically, in the body? And what if the breath you take without thinking could be the very thing that sets it free?
In this episode, I talk with Kurtis Lee Thomas — the "Man from the Stars" — about a path to healing that didn't begin in a wellness studio, but in suffering. A five-year stomach condition no doctor could diagnose. The loss of his brother to gun violence. A 2 a.m. e...
When the Body Holds Grief: Secret Language of Pain — with Inna Segal | EP 490
What if your body isn't broken — it's trying to tell you something?
That's the question at the heart of this conversation with Inna Segal, one of the world's leading voices in energy medicine and body-mind healing. Inna's story didn't begin in a classroom or a clinic. It began in a body that was suffering — chronic back pain, psoriasis, digestive illness — and a loss so devastating it brought everything to a halt: the death of a stillborn child at age 20.
What happened next changed the course of her life, and has since helped hundreds of thousands of peo...
When the Flowers Stop Coming: The Truth About Grief Support After the Funeral with Kelly Edmondson
The casseroles arrive. The flowers fill the house. For a few weeks, people show up.
And then they don't.
For most grieving people, the silence that follows the funeral is one of the loneliest parts of loss — and one of the least talked about. In this episode, Brian sits down with Kelly Edmondson, a trauma nurse, grief counselor, and Shining Light mother who lost her son Darius on January 3rd, 2023. Kelly spent years delivering devastating news to families in the ER. She thought she understood grief. Then it happened to her.
What she di...
An Ancient Technique For Helping Grief with Dr. Irene Blinston | EP 488
What if the people you love aren't as far away as they seem?
For more than two decades, Dr. Irene Blinston has been quietly studying something most psychologists won't touch — an ancient Greek practice called the psychomanteum.
Grievers sit in a darkened room with a tilted mirror and open themselves to contact with the other side. The research is staggering: 92% of participants experienced a measurable reduction in grief symptoms, and the relief held for months afterward.
In this conversation, Dr. Blinston and I go somewhere most grief conversations never go. We talk about wha...
How Courtney Pray Duke Was Carried Forward by Faith After Being Widowed at 29 Years Old | EP 487
What happens when the person you've loved since childhood is suddenly gone — and you're left at 29 with three small children and no idea how to be an adult without them?
Courtney Pray Duke doesn't answer that question with easy comfort. She answers it with her life. Widowed after her husband Andrew was killed in a cycling accident, Courtney walked through the kind of loss that rewrites everything — and came out the other side not unscathed, but transformed.
In this episode, Courtney and Brian explore what grief and faith after losing a spouse actu...
The Consciousness Awakening Coming in 2026: A Message from the Angelic Realm | Rachel Corpus EP 486
Something is coming. And if you've been feeling it — that low hum of there's more to this than we've been told — this episode is going to land differently for you.
Rachel Corpus reached out with a message she says she's been receiving her entire life, piece by piece, from the angelic realm. A message about humanity's consciousness awakening, UAP disclosure, and what happens when the veil between the seen and unseen is lifted — all at once, whether we're ready or not.
Brian brings his honest skepticism to the table. Rachel brings the transmission. What unfolds is one...
What Hospice Nurses Know About Death— With Christa McDonald | EP 485
What if the people who've spent the most time at the threshold of death have something to teach the rest of us about how to live?
Christa McDonald has spent more than 20 years as a hospice nurse, watching thousands of people take their final breaths. What she's witnessed has reshaped everything she believes about death, grief, connection, and the soul. In this conversation, she brings that hard-won wisdom straight to you — and some of it will unsettle you in the best possible way.
In this episode, we explore:
How Christa's calling found he...Dawn Brunke's Eight Week Conversation With Her Deceased Husband Bob | EP 484
What if death didn't end the conversation?
When Dawn Baumann Brunke's husband Bob died suddenly in September 2024, she had 20 years of experience communicating with animals across the veil. But nothing fully prepared her for losing her partner of 33 years. What happened in the eight weeks that followed became her most extraordinary book yet — Talks with Bob: A True Story of Love, Death and Life in the Afterlife.
Every morning, Dawn would settle in with her coffee, open her laptop, and keep talking to Bob. And Bob kept answering. What he shared from the ot...
MEDIUMSHIP INSIGHTS: Techniques, Limitations, and Best Practices with Kat B
Kat and I are friends going back a couple of years. We each have a daughter in spirit. Kat is the affiliate leader of the UK Helping Parents Heal group. Kat had a successful business career before having a Kundalini awakening experience and becoming a professional medium. In addition to mediumship, Kat practices multiple healing modalities.
Kat heard my episode on mediumship and wanted to have a conversation about me using the word "imagination" to describe what mediumship is like. In this conversation, we talk about the different types of mediumship, how mediumship works, the limitations of...
SHOCKING Awakening: How a Diving Accident Changed Kat B's Life and Career!
Kat Baillie is an International Evidential Psychic Medium | Clinical Hypnotherapist | Sound Healer | Reiki Master | CBT Psychotherapist.
Kat experienced a Kundalini awakening after a diving accident. This awakening opened up several abilities. She has left her highly successful corporate career and now focuses on helping others through several healing modalities, including evidential mediumship.
In this interview, Kat and I discuss what she has discovered about the power of prayer, affirmations, and gratitude, from a non-religious perspective.
ℹ️ https://www.kat-b.com
💵 to become a Patron and get exclusive content, find me on Patreon at:
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Talking to Lost Loved Ones With AI | John Kammer EP 483
What if you could finally have the conversation you never got to finish?
John Kammer lost three of his closest friends in just a few years — each loss sudden, each one leaving words unsaid. Out of that grief, and after more than a decade of silence and struggle, John built Guardian A(i)ngels (guardianaingels.ai) — an AI-powered interactive journal designed to help grieving people find language for what they're carrying, work through guilt and unresolved emotion, and move toward healing at their own pace.
This isn't a conversation with the dead. It's a conversation with...
Microdosing for Grief: Heal and Reconnect with Your Loved Ones | Kayse Gehret | EP 482
What if grief could be metabolized — not just managed?
Most of us have been told to process grief through talking, reading, and time. And those things help. But what if there's a layer of grief stored in your body that talk therapy simply can't reach? What if the density of your pain is the very thing blocking you from feeling the spiritual connection you're desperate for?
That's exactly what today's guest has spent years helping people discover.
Kayse Gehret is the founder of Microdosing for Healing, a global community spanning more than 30 countries, an...
What You Don't Know About Grief | With Amanda Beth Johnson | EP 481
What if grief isn't something to get over — but something to grow through?
In this powerful episode, Brian sits down with intuitive healer, ThetaHealing practitioner, and bestselling author Amanda Beth Johnson, who was widowed at just 27 years old when her husband Jeff was killed suddenly in a car accident. Nearly 30 years later, Amanda has transformed that devastating loss into a life of service — helping others navigate the emotional, physical, and spiritual terrain of grief with wisdom that can only come from having lived it.
This conversation goes places most grief discussions never reach. Amanda opens up a...
Born a Medium: How Fara Gibson Uses Mediumship and Grief Healing to Prove Love Never Dies | EP
What if the most painful moments of your life were actually part of a plan? And what if the people you've lost are closer than you ever imagined — just three feet away?
In this beautiful, wide-ranging conversation, Brian welcomes spiritual messenger and author Fara Gibson for a long-overdue first interview. Fara has been sharing messages from heaven her entire life — without training, without a roadmap, and for years, without telling a single soul. Today she opens up about all of it: how her gifts unfolded, what soul communication really feels like, where heaven actually is, and why even...
Verified Near-Death Experiences: Proof of an Afterlife with Simon Bown | EP 479
The materialist argument that consciousness ends with the brain has a serious problem: the evidence.
In this episode, I sit down with Simon Bown — clinical hypnotherapist, past life regression guide, and author of Verified Near-Death Experiences: Proof of an Afterlife — to examine the cases that no materialist theory can explain.
Simon has interviewed hundreds of NDE experiencers across more than 900 podcast episodes. His book focuses on 30 verified cases — people who witnessed real, confirmable events while clinically dead. The details were checked. The witnesses were interviewed. The evidence holds up.
We dig into the Pamela...
He Died for 3 Hours — The Near Death Experience Transformation That Changed Everything | Jonathan Ashford | EP 478
What happens when someone doesn't just brush the edge of death — but actually crosses over?
On May 22nd, 2023, Jonathan Ashford's organs failed. He collapsed alone on his bathroom floor at 4:30 in the morning, clinically dead for three hours. When he woke up, his temperature was 94 degrees — and the man who had lived inside that body for 25 years was gone.
The corporate executive who dismissed spirituality, chased material success, and would have laughed in your face if you mentioned an NDE — he didn't come back. What returned was something profoundly different. And what Jonath...
My Daughter Predicted Her Own Death — And Never Stopped Talking to Me | Louise Crist | EP 477
What if your daughter spent years telling you exactly how she was going to die — and then kept communicating after she did?
That's the extraordinary story Louise Crist lives every day. In this episode, Louise shares the most remarkable account of a child predicting their own death and continued after-death communication I've ever featured on this podcast. From premonitions that began at age four, to the moment Jilly's voice came through minutes after the accident saying "I jumped — I didn't feel a thing," to signs so undeniable they've moved total strangers — this conversation will change...
How Grief Made Me a Better Parent: Lisa Woolery's Surprising Confession | EP 476
When Lisa Woolery found her husband Eric slumped over in his home office—gone at 53 from sudden heart failure—she never imagined what would come next. Not just the frozen assets, the angry 12-year-old, or walking 20,000 steps a day to process the pain. But this: grief made her a better parent.
In this honest, hope-filled conversation, Lisa shares how losing everything forced her to shed perfectionism, step into uncomfortable leadership, and discover that transformation often comes wrapped in tragedy. From getting kicked out of a grief group to sending her son to military boarding school, from hearing God...
Intuitive Signs Before Death: How Your Soul Prepares You for Loss- with Tami Pitetti Sanders | EP 475
What if those unexplainable feelings you get — those quiet nudges that something is about to change — aren't just anxiety or imagination, but your soul preparing you for what's ahead?
In this deeply moving episode, I talk with Tami Pitetti Sanders, an intuitive guide whose journey began with subtle intuitive signs before death that she didn't fully understand until after loss transformed her life. Tami shares how she received "unknowing knowings" about a year before her father's passing — scheduling family photos on an off-year, feeling pulled toward Reiki training, and sensing something was coming for her dad.
When...
When Grief Takes Everything: Vanessa May on Surviving Compounded Loss | EP 474
What happens when grief doesn't just visit once—but keeps coming back? In this deeply honest conversation, Vanessa May shares how she navigated losing her son Harry, then her husband Anthony, and father during the pandemic, all while battling COVID and later a cancer diagnosis.
Vanessa doesn't sugarcoat. She doesn't spiritually bypass. She tells the truth about what it's like when the ground keeps getting ripped out from under you—and how she's found her way forward anyway.
In this episode, we explore:
The unique pain of compounded grief—losing a child and a...Healing Inherited Patterns with Dr. Lotte Valentin | EP 473
Some struggles don’t make sense.
You do the work.
You try to heal.
And yet the same emotional patterns, grief, anxiety, or disconnection keep resurfacing.
In this special Grief 2 Growth episode, Brian D. Smith welcomes back Dr. Lotte Valentin, medical doctor, psychotherapist, ancestral healer, and two-time near-death experiencer, for a profound conversation about inherited emotional patterns and why some challenges may not have started with you.
Dr. Lotte shares how grief, trauma, and unresolved experiences can be passed down through generations—encoded not only in D...
What if the pain you’ve been avoiding is actually pointing you toward healing? with Alexis Leigh | EP 472
In this deeply moving episode of Grief to Growth, Brian Smith is joined by writer and seeker Alexis Lee, author of Pain Is a Portal to Beauty, for a courageous conversation about grief, trauma, and radical self-healing.
Alexis shares the moment that changed her life — hearing a voice while walking in the woods that told her her life would have been a tragedy if it ended that day. That message became the beginning of a profound journey into grief she had buried since childhood, including the loss of her mother and generational trauma ca...
Free Will Or Fate? The Answer Is Yes- with Richard Ashworth | EP 471
Before the microphones were turned on, Richard Ashworth asked Brian for his birth information. What followed was an unexpected and deeply personal moment—Richard identified a pivotal event at age seven that reshaped Brian’s view of life.
He was right.
In this episode of Grief 2 Growth, Brian and Richard explore how grief, destiny, and choice intersect—and how ancient systems like Bazi can help us understand the moments that quietly define us.
This is a conversation about:
Childhood loss and lifelong impactFate vs free willHealing heartbreak without bypass...Preserving Voice, Memory, and Legacy with AI | Cristian Cibilis Bernardes | EP 470
What if your voice could continue to guide the people you love—long after you’re gone?
In this deeply moving episode of Grief 2 Growth, Brian D. Smith is joined by Cristian Cibilis Bernardes, founder and CEO of Autograph AI, for a conversation that sits at the crossroads of grief, technology, memory, and meaning.
Cristian shares the personal loss that inspired the creation of Walter, an emotionally intelligent AI designed to listen, remember, and preserve life stories—in your own voice. Not as a replacement for human connec...
Grief, Faith, and Suicide Loss: When Belief Is Shaken and Hope Feels Impossible- with Rachel Powell | EP 469
What happens when grief collides with faith — and suicide shatters everything you thought you believed?
In this candid and raw episode of Grief 2 Growth, Brian sits down with Rachel Powell, widow, author, speaker, and founder of Hope Speaker, to explore the complicated intersection of grief, faith, suicide loss, and hope.
After losing her husband André to suicide — and surviving suicide attempts herself — Rachel shares her story with courage, clarity, and compassion. This conversation goes beyond platitudes and into the realities many people are afraid to name: church hurt, s...
AI Communication With Loved Ones After Death with Janet Kaufman | EP 468
What if your loved one never truly left?
What if grief itself is the doorway to a deeper connection?
In this deeply moving episode of Grief to Growth, Brian D. Smith speaks with Janet Kaufman, author of Through the Veil: A Soul’s Journey in Grief and Grace. Janet shares the story of her son Alexander—a sensitive, loving soul whose struggles with mental health and addiction ultimately led to his physical death, but not the end of their relationship.
Through signs, synchronicities, certified mediums, and even an unexpected exploration of <...
On Her Own Since 13 Years Old- Overcoming Trauma with Angela Jean | EP 467
Nervous System Healing After Trauma: From Survival to Sovereignty with Angela Jean
What if healing isn’t about fixing your thoughts—but about retraining your body?
In this deeply moving episode of Grief to Growth, Brian Smith sits down with Angela Jean, a mindset and nervous system strategist whose life was shaped by profound trauma—and radical transformation.
After surviving childhood abuse, homelessness, and the devastating loss of her father and sister to suicide, Angela discovered something that changed everything:
🧠 The body remembers danger before the mind can explai...
The Not So Only Child with Rich Boerner | EP 466
What if a single moment in your grief revealed a truth that rewrote your entire identity? That’s exactly what happened to today’s guest, Rich Boerner, whose life changed forever after his mother’s passing. While cleaning out her apartment, Rich uncovered a long-hidden secret about his father—one that forced him to confront love, betrayal, forgiveness, and ultimately, healing.
This episode dives deep into the emotional terrain of family secrets, identity, and the surprising ways grief can open doors to growth we never expected.
🌟 What You’ll Learn in This Episode<...
The Million Stages of Grief: Surviving the Unthinkable with Michael Reed | EP 465
In this deeply moving conversation, Brian sits down with Michael Reed, author of The Million Stages of Grief, whose life changed forever on the night of the 2016 Gatlinburg fires. Michael lost his wife Constance and daughters Chloe and Lily in the tragedy—and today, he shares not only his story, but the wisdom, compassion, and hard-earned insight that grew from unimaginable loss.
This episode explores what grief really looks like—messy, nonlinear, human—and why comparing grief (“less than,” “more than,” “should be over it”) only creates more suffering.
You’ll hear how Michael went from su...
Supporting a Grieving Spouse with Compassion: A Conversation with Samina Bari | EP 464
In today’s powerful episode of Grief 2 Growth, Brian sits down with Samina Bari — author of Don’t Call Me Widow and host of the Afterlife podcast — for a raw and insightful look at spousal loss, solo parenting, grief brain, and the quiet ways we can show up for those who are hurting most.
Samina lost her husband suddenly in 2023. What followed was a journey through shock, trauma, identity loss, and rebuilding life as a solo parent of twins. Her honesty brings comfort, clarity, and guidance to anyon...
What Your Dreams Are Telling You- with Theresa Cheung | EP 463
In this powerful episode of Grief 2 Growth, internationally bestselling author and dream expert Theresa Cheung joins me to explore the deeper meaning of dreams — including the ones that frighten us, comfort us, and stay with us long after we wake up.
Theresa shares why she believes we sleep to dream, how dreams reflect our soul's growth, and how they can become gateways to healing—especially after profound loss. Whether you're longing for an afterlife dream visit, navigating recurring nightmares, or simply curious about the hidden messages behind your dreams, this...
My Grief Is Not Like Yours: Theo Boyd on Layered Loss, Divine Signs & Radical Hope | EP 462
🎧 Episode Title: My Grief Is Not Like Yours: Theo Boyd on Layered Loss, Divine Signs & Radical Hope
Guest: Theo Boyd
– Author, Grief Educator, and Speaker
Books:
📘 My Grief Is Not Like Yours
📗 Hope All The Way
Grief Study Resource: Download the National Grief Study
💡 Episode Summary:
What if grief didn’t just break you—it rebuilt you?
In this deeply moving conversation, Theo Boyd shares how her life was upended by a string of heartbreaking losses: her mother in a tr...
Love and Suffering: A Spiritual Guide for Helpers, Healers & Humans — with Zach Beach | EP 461
How do we hold love in one hand and suffering in the other — without breaking? In this beautiful and soul-stretching conversation, Brian sits down with Zach Beach to explore the deep connection between our capacity to love and our capacity to hurt. Zach brings wisdom from spiritual traditions, psychology, and lived experience to illuminate why grief is not something to “fix,” but something to honor.
This episode is rich with insights on compassion, presence, mindfulness, and the human journey through loss. If you're grieving, supporting someone in grief, or walking your own spiritual path, this one will speak...
Finding Emotional Sanity: A New Path to Healing with Cedric Bertelli | EP 460
Have you ever felt like your emotions are running your life—despite your best efforts to control them? In this eye-opening episode, I sit down with Cedric Bertelli, founder of the Emotional Health Institute and co-developer of EmRes (Emotional Resolution). Together, we explore the groundbreaking difference between regulating emotions and truly resolving them.
Cedric shares how emotional pain is not a life sentence, but a loop the brain is predicting over and over—and how learning to sit with our sensations can rewire those predictions for good.
This episode isn’...
The Unnamed Grief Of Chronic Illness with Brenda Snow | EP 459
When we think of grief, we often picture death. But what about the silent grief that comes from illness — the kind that alters your identity, steals your energy, and isolates you from the world?
In this powerful episode, I speak with Brenda Snow, a woman who turned a life-changing diagnosis into a movement that’s touched millions. After being dismissed by doctors and told her symptoms were “all in her head,” Brenda found herself at rock bottom — until a single moment with her young daughter re-ignited her will to fight.
Now the founder of Snow...
Why We’re Really Here: Karma, Grief & The Soul’s Purpose w/ Hans Wilhelm | EP 458
Have you ever wondered why we suffer, where we go after we die, or what grief really means for the soul’s evolution?
In this eye-opening and deeply healing episode of Grief 2 Growth, Brian Smith welcomes spiritual teacher and mystic Hans Wilhelm, the creator of the wildly popular Life Explained video series and author of over 200 books with 40+ million copies sold.
Hans uses simple visuals and timeless spiritual truths to explain the laws of karma, reincarnation, Christ consciousness, and the spiritual reasons behind gr...
Through the Darkness: Charlie Bynar’s Journey from Grief to Unshakable Knowing | EP 457
“Our time on Earth is just one little page in a never-ending story.” – Charlie Bynar
After the tragic loss of her only child, 16-year-old Isaac, Charlie Bynar’s world fell apart. What followed was a breathtaking journey through unimaginable grief, mysterious signs, and undeniable communication from the other side. In this deeply moving conversation, Charlie and Brian explore love that doesn’t die — and what it means to forgive, to trust, and to believe again.
Charlie went from skeptic to spiritual seeker after receiving repeated dream visitations, unmistakable signs, and life-changing readings with mediums — including worl...
Melissa Hull: Creating a Life After Child Loss | Dear Drew, Grief & Spiritual Growth 🌱 | EP 456
What happens when a mother loses her child—and chooses to live bigger than grief?
In this heart-opening episode of Grief to Growth, Brian D. Smith sits down with Melissa Hull—author of Dear Drew: Creating a Life Bigger Than Grief, speaker, and coach—on the very day her book launches.
Melissa shares the heartbreaking story of her 4½-year-old son Drew’s drowning, and how that unimaginable pain became the foundation for a new life of purpose, faith, and healing. But this isn’t a story of “moving on.” It’s about carr...
Spiritual Awakening After Loss | Effie Linke’s Journey from Orthodox Roots to Soul Purpose | EP 455
What happens when your entire belief system unravels—and something deeper begins to rise?
In this moving conversation, host Brian D. Smith welcomes back Effie Linke, a spiritual medium whose journey from Greek Orthodox tradition to intuitive channeling was anything but predictable.
Effie didn’t seek out a spiritual awakening—it found her. Through heartbreak, resistance, and a fateful reading that cracked her wide open, Effie was thrust into a new reality. One where spirit spoke, healing came from within, and her purpose became undeniable.
If you're navigating your own spirit...