New York Girl Again - The After
When caregiving ends, who are you? New York Girl Again helps former caregivers rediscover their identity, strength, and joy after profound loss. Join host Thérèse for honest conversations about navigating grief, healing, and courageously building a vibrant new life. You deserve your next chapter. Connect with us at NewYorkGirlAgain.com, and on Instagram @NYGirlAgain and Facebook at New York Girl Again. Subscribe now and let's rise, together.
The Caregiver’s Limbo: Living in the Space Between "Then" and "Next"
Caregiving ends.
But no one prepares you for what comes after.
Not the silence.
Not the space.
Not the feeling of standing somewhere between the life you were living… and the one you’re supposed to build next.
In this final episode of the Women & Caregiving series, created in honor of International Women’s Month, Thérèse explores what it truly feels like to live in that in-between.
The loss of structure.
The loss of role.
And the quiet, often disorienting experience of recon...
The Part of Caregiving No One Warns Women About
Why do so many women put themselves last—especially in caregiving?
In this episode of New York Girl Again – The After, Thérèse explores the deeper truth behind this pattern—one that goes far beyond personality or choice.
Drawing on psychology, biology, and real-life caregiving experience, she breaks down how women become wired to anticipate, carry, and prioritize everyone else… often at the expense of their own health, identity, and future.
And more importantly—why that pattern doesn’t simply end when caregiving does.
If you’ve ever...
Who Am I Now? Life After Caregiving
March is Women’s History Month, and on New York Girl Again – The After we’re continuing our series exploring the strength, sacrifice, and resilience of women caregivers.
For years, caregiving can shape every part of your life.
Your schedule.
Your priorities.
Your purpose.
But what happens when the caregiving chapter ends?
In this episode of New York Girl Again – The After, Thérèse explores one of the most overlooked challenges caregivers face: the quiet identity shift that often follows the end of caregiving.
Many women s...
Women Who Carry the World
On International Women’s Day, we celebrate women’s leadership, achievements, and progress.
But there is another group of women whose strength is rarely recognized.
Women caregivers.
In the United States today, more than 63 million people provide care for a loved one — and about 61% of them are women. Nearly 40 million women are quietly holding families and communities together every single day.
In this episode of New York Girl Again – The After, Thérèse shines a light on the invisible strength of women caregivers...
The Consent to Thaw
March doesn’t explode into color.
It softens first.
The ground shifts.
The air changes.
Something underground begins to move — long before anyone sees a single bloom.
Life after caregiving feels like that.
Not the storm of winter.
Not the promise of spring.
But the quiet, uncomfortable in-between where the ground is breaking open.
In this episode, Thérèse explores the season that follows survival — the subtle recalibration and the small, almost invisible signs that growth is already underway.
If you feel l...
Discipline Is the New Devotion
Caregiving demanded discipline.
You didn’t operate on feelings - you operated on commitment.
And then the After came.
And somehow… the discipline collapsed.
This episode is about reclaiming it.
Inside this episode:
• Why caregivers are already wired for discipline
• The neuroscience behind identity and repetition
• How self-concordance eliminates inner conflict
• Why motivation fails — and standards don’t
• How small daily...
From Collapsed to Capable: Building the Temple After Caregiving
There is a kind of exhaustion that only caregivers understand.
It is a weight that does not simply disappear when the caregiving ends.
As the adrenaline fades and the world quiets, the grief often settles into the body itself — into the joints, the muscles, the breath. Suddenly, the body that carried everything for everyone else feels different. Heavier. Tighter. Unfamiliar.
This episode is about that body.
The one that stayed awake through the darkest nights.
The one that braced for every impact.
The one that kept go...
A Love Note to the Eyes That Watched: Healing the Mirror Gaze
What happens when caregiving ends… and you finally look at yourself again?
In Episode 35 of New York Girl Again – The After, Thérèse invites caregivers into one of the most avoided — and most healing — spaces of the After: the mirror.
This episode isn’t about body positivity, affirmations, or “loving what you see.”
It’s about something more important — returning to yourself after years of survival.
Through compassionate storytelling and neuroscience-informed reflection, Thérèse explores how caregiving often requires dissociation from the body — and why the mirror can feel unbearable long after...
The Caregiver’s Debt: A Permission Slip to Inhabit Your Own Life
Why does self-love feel so uncomfortable? For caregivers, love has been synonymous with sacrifice for so long that focusing on ourselves can feel like "stealing" from a debt we can never fully repay. We call this The Caregiver’s Debt—the biological and emotional deficit we incur when we postpone our own lives to sustain someone else's.
In this first episode of our February Self-Love series, Thérèse breaks down why "bubble bath" self-love doesn't work for caregivers in the 'After' and why we instead need a radical reclamation of our ri...
Joy Was the Plot Twist
What if the reason you feel stuck in the After isn’t a lack of discipline — but a missing spark?
In this episode, Thérèse shares a deeply personal chapter from her life after caregiving: a long, quiet season when grief settled into her body, excess weight took up residence, motivation disappeared, and she honestly believed this version of herself might be permanent.
This episode isn’t about diets, rules, or forcing yourself back to life.
It’s about a pilot light — a small, unexpected spark of joy that reignit...
Body Burnout: The Cost of Caring and the Path Back
Caregiving doesn’t just exhaust your heart —
it leaves a mark on your body.
In this deeply honest episode, Thérèse speaks to the physical aftermath so many caregivers carry in silence: the pain, the weight changes, the exhaustion, and the shame that often shows up after caregiving ends.
Drawing from her own experience as a long-term caregiver — including years of chronic back pain, significant weight gain, and turning to food for comfort under relentless stress — Thérèse explores what actually happens to the body when it lives in survival...
Learning How to Hold Yourself Again in the After
After caregiving ends, many caregivers are left with an unexpected question:
If I’m no longer in survival mode…why do I feel so unsteady?
In this episode of New York Girl Again – The After, Thérèse explores a skill no caregiver was ever taught — how to hold yourself once there’s no one else left to hold.
Drawing from her own 25-year caregiving journey, Thérèse explains why emotions feel overwhelming after caregiving ends, how the nervous system releases years of containment, and why many caregivers instinctively distract, overwork, or s...
After Survival Strength Runs Dry
There comes a moment in The After when the immense strength that carried you through caregiving simply… runs dry.
And when that happens, many caregivers ask themselves:
How did I survive all of that — for so long — and feel like THIS now?
In this deeply personal episode, Thérèse explores what happens after survival strength is no longer needed — and why that does not mean something is wrong with you.
Drawing from her own 25-year caregiving journey and the years in the ‘After’, she sha...
December’s Healing Series – Stepping Forward
In this final episode of December’s Healing Series, Thérèse brings the month to a close by integrating everything we’ve practiced together —
The Gentle Return,Strong Enough to Begin Again,When Survival Is No Longer Enough,and Don’t Lose Yourself This December.This episode is about integration — the quiet, essential process where your mind, body, and emotions finally begin to catch up with what you’ve lived through.
In this episode, we explore:
December’s Healing Series – Don’t Lose Yourself This December
December has a way of pulling us back into old roles, old expectations, and old emotional patterns — even after we’ve done deep healing.
In this episode, Thérèse speaks directly to caregivers in The After who are moving through the holidays and quietly asking:
How do I get through December without losing myself again?
This is not about pushing through.
It’s not about pretending you’re okay.
It’s about holding yourself — emotionally, mentally, and energetically — when the holidays test your healing.
In this episode...
December’s Healing Series – When Survival Is No Longer Enough
There comes a moment in healing when simply getting through the day isn’t enough anymore.
In this third episode of December’s Healing Series, Thérèse explores what happens when caregivers in The After feel a quiet pull toward more — more life, more expansion, more meaning.
This episode is about pushing beyond the comfort zone — not in dramatic leaps, but in small, intentional steps that rebuild confidence, curiosity, and momentum. Thérèse weaves together psychology, lived experience, and deeply human examples to show why growth requires movement, ho...
December’s Healing Series - Strong Enough to Begin Again
Caregiving reshapes a person at every level — physically, emotionally, spiritually.
And when it ends, most caregivers don’t feel “strong.”
They feel emptied out. Unsteady. Disconnected from their bodies. Unsure how to start again.
This episode is for anyone in that place.
In Part 2 of December’s Healing Series, Thérèse guides you through what real strength looks like in The After — not the strength you were praised for during caregiving, but the kind of strength that grows quietly, steadily, and compassionately as you rebuild your life...
December’s Healing Series – The Gentle Return
December can feel heavy for former caregivers.
While the world rushes into celebration, many of us struggle with grief, longing, disorientation, and the ache of no longer knowing where we fit.
In this opening episode of The Healing Series, Thérèse invites you into a softer, more compassionate way of moving through this month — not with pressure, perfection, or forced resolutions, but with courage, awareness, and the quiet work of coming home to yourself.
This episode explores:
✨ Why December feels so emotionally intense in The Aft...
Gratitude & Grace in The After
In this fourth installment of The Month of the Unsung Heart, Thérèse guides you into the tender, complicated, utterly human reality of gratitude and grace after caregiving ends — especially for those navigating the holiday season with both love and longing in their chest.
Recorded on the 12th anniversary of her mother’s passing, this episode is a deeply personal offering — an exploration of what gratitude really means when you’ve walked someone you love all the way to the end… and are now learning how to live again.
Insid...
Legacy of Love
When caregiving ends, something unexpected begins —
a quiet unfolding of all the love, wisdom, and strength they left within you.
In this powerful third installment of the Month of the Unsung Heart for National Family Caregivers Month, Thérèse guides you through the emotional landscape of legacy — not the kind written in wills or possessions, but the kind etched into your heart, your spirit, and the deepest layers of your soul.
This episode explores:
💙 The Imprint They Leave Behind
How their voice, their laughte...
The After Begins With You
Last week, we honored the strength that carried you through caregiving — the quiet heroism that too often goes unseen.
This week, we take the next step forward. Because once you’ve honored where you’ve been… you can finally begin to rediscover who you are.
In this second installment of The Month of the Unsung Heart, Thérèse invites you into the gentle rediscovery of you —
the person who existed before caregiving,
and the version still waiting to emerge in its aftermath.
Through powerful reflection and moments of stillne...
The 'After' Still Deserves Honor
When caregiving ends, the world goes quiet — but your heart doesn’t.
In this opening episode of The Month of the Unsung Heart, Thérèse explores what it means to honor the season after caregiving — not as an ending, but as a continuation of love in a new form.
Through raw truth and reflection, she shares how devotion leaves echoes in the body, why sensitivity is not weakness but brilliance, and how the strength that carried you through someone else’s pain can now rebuild your own healing...
The Heart That Hears What the World Ignores
A love story between empathy and endurance — inside the caregiver’s heart.
There’s a rare kind of heart that doesn’t just beat — it listens.
In this milestone 20th episode, Thérèse takes you inside the extraordinary biology and emotional brilliance of the caregiver’s heart — where empathy becomes endurance and love itself transforms.
You’ll hear how neuroscience explains why caregivers feel so deep...
Why Is Starting Over So Hard in the 'After'?
When caregiving ends, your brain doesn’t simply “turn off.”
It’s still wired for crisis, vigilance, and someone else’s needs — even when the world tells you to just relax.
In this deeply insightful episode, Thérèse breaks down the science of starting over — exploring how caregiving reshapes the brain, why peace can feel unsafe, and how small daily choices can literally rewire your mind for calm, safety, and joy.
You’ll learn:
🧠 Why your brain resists rest — and how to teach it to trust peace again.
🌿 The neuroscience of “the after” — h...
Your Peace Is Not Up for Negotiation: Boundaries in the ‘After’ of Caregiving.
Are you struggling to say "No" now that your caregiving journey has ended? You are not alone. This episode is for the caregiver who survived the hardest chapter of their life, only to find that their instinct to over-give is still leaving them depleted and vulnerable.
Host Thérèse takes a deep, empathetic dive into the vital importance of setting and holding boundaries in the "After." Drawing on her experience as a behavioral health nurse and former caregiver, Thérèse reveals why the heart of a caregiver is uniquely susceptible to self...
A Shadow Friend Called Fear — In Caregiving and Beyond
Fear has a way of slipping in quietly and making itself at home.
Through caregiving. Through loss. Through the “after.”
In this deeply personal episode, Thérèse explores the many faces of fear that accompany the caregiving journey. She reflects on sleepless nights, difficult medical decisions, and the heightened vigilance of caregiving alone during COVID. She speaks candidly about the fear that lingered after her caregiving journey ended — fear of the future, identity, and how to begin again.
This isn’t a clinical conversation. It’s a real and heartf...
Giving Again: How Volunteering Helps Heal the Caregiver’s Heart
In this powerful episode of New York Girl Again – The After, host Thérèse explores a beautiful and often unexpected path to healing after caregiving: volunteering.
Through moving storytelling and psychological insight, Thérèse guides listeners through the emotional void caregivers face when the journey ends — and how volunteering can become a bridge back to purpose, community, and self.
She shares how service helped her rebuild her life after the passing of her father, how volunteering can honor the legacy of loved ones, and why boundaries are essentia...
The Ripples of Gratitude
On National Gratitude Day, Thérèse delivers a raw, soul-stirring reflection on gratitude as a force for healing. From caregiving to the ‘After’, she explores how thankfulness can anchor us in grief, reconnect us to purpose, and reignite joy. This episode is a lifeline for anyone learning to live again.
This episode explores gratitude in three deeply personal chapters:
• Gratitude during caregiving — how it sustained Thérèse through moments of heartbreak and love
• Gratitude in the After — where silence, grief, and disorientation make “thank you” feel almost unreachable
•
Unfinished Stories, Unshackled Souls: Forgiveness in the 'After'
Forgiveness is one of the hardest steps in the 'After' of caregiving—especially when the wounds are deep. In this heartfelt episode of New York Girl Again – The After, host Thérèse explores what it truly means to forgive without forgetting, to release without reconciling, and to move forward without hardening your heart.
Drawing from lived experience and grounded in psychology, she unpacks why betrayal cuts so deeply, how unforgiveness weighs on the body, mind, and spirit, and why forgiveness is ultimately one of the most powerful acts of self-compassion.
Listener...
Echoes of 9/11: The Cost of Holding It All Together
September 11th will always be etched in the nation’s heart—not only as a day of collective tragedy, but as a reminder of what it means to be human together.
In this episode of New York Girl Again – The After, host Thérèse shares the story of losing her best friend, Linda Anne Luzzicone, who was working for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the North Tower. She takes listeners back to that morning —caring for her father after a near-death hospitalization—when the unimaginable unfolded live on television.
But this episo...
Goodbyes Before Goodbye
Grief doesn’t just arrive after a loved one dies. For caregivers, it begins long before the end.
In this episode of New York Girl Again – The After, Thérèse opens up about the often unspoken layers of grief caregivers carry:
The anticipatory grief of losing a loved one in pieces along the way. The hidden grief for the parts of ourselves that caregiving cost us. The complex grief of moving forward once caregiving ends.With compassion and honesty, Thérèse speaks to the daily funeral...
Starving for Touch in the ‘After’
What happens when the one who gave all the hugs… suddenly has no one to hold?
In this deeply human and emotionally honest episode, Thérèse explores the science, psychology, and soul-level ache around the absence of touch in the aftermath of caregiving. From the healing power of oxytocin to the unseen grief of “touch starvation,” she weaves personal stories—including the quiet comfort of her little dog Coco, a spontaneous embrace from her doctor, and the unexpected bear hug from a local priest—into a moving reflection on what it means to be held...
From Overwhelmed to On Track: Goal Narrowing in the “After”
In this emotionally powerful and neuroscience-informed episode, Thérèse opens the door to the often unspoken reality of life after caregiving—a space filled with longing, confusion, and emotional exhaustion.
For those who gave everything to someone else’s survival, the aftermath can feel like being dropped into a vast ocean with no map, no compass, and no strength left to swim. Freedom? It doesn’t feel like freedom. It feels like freefall.
But healing doesn’t require doing it all. It begins with choosing one small, meaningful direction—and that’s where goal narrowing<...
You’re No Cat… But You Do Have 9 ‘After’ Lives
They say cats have nine lives — but former caregivers get nine lives too. Theirs just happen in the 'after.'
In this episode of New York Girl Again – The After, host Thérèse walks listeners through the Nine 'After' Lives that unfold once caregiving ends — from raw survival to rediscovering joy, building legacy, and everything in between.
She shares:
💔 The truth about the memories etched into caregivers forever
🧠 The science behind each stage — and why the brain and body react the way they do
💡 How to move from simply ex...
Wired to Rise: The Science of Resilience in the 'After'
What if resilience wasn’t something you lost—just something you were never taught to build?
In this transformative episode, Thérèse dismantles the myth of “bouncing back” and redefines resilience as something wired into us all—especially those of us navigating life after caregiving. With powerful storytelling, lived experience, and science-backed insight, she reveals how the brain heals, rewires, and grows stronger after grief, exhaustion, and loss.
🎧 You’ll learn:
Why resilience isn’t inherited—it’s built How neuroplasticity is your secret superpower The 12 foundational and 16 advanced resilience skills anyone can learn Tiny steps...Dreaming Forward: The Life You Put on Hold
Caregiving asks everything of you—your time, your energy, even the parts of yourself that once dreamed boldly. And when it’s over, you might find yourself standing in the quiet, wondering… What now?
In this episode of NYGA – The After, Thérèse explores the science of hope, why visualizing your future actually rewires your brain to believe in it, and how to take small, guilt-free steps to begin reclaiming joy, rewriting bucket lists, and leaning into possibilities—whether that means traveling, rediscovering hobbies, starting a business, or falling in love.
If you’ve b...
Angels Borrowed, Not Kept
Some people show up in your life exactly when you need them most. They pull you out of the quiet, heavy “after” of caregiving… breathe life back into your soul… and remind you—sometimes with nothing more than kind words—that you are still here. That you still matter. That joy is still possible.
I call them earth angels.
But sometimes they don’t stay. Some are only borrowed for a moment—just long enough to light a spark before moving on. And when they leave, it can feel like another devastating loss...
The Ghosts in the Closet: What We Keep, What We Let Go
What if the grief we carry isn’t just in our hearts—but folded in closets, stored on shelves, or tucked in kitchen cabinets?
In this deeply personal and emotionally resonant episode, Thérèse opens the doors—literally and figuratively—to the everyday objects that hold extraordinary meaning after caregiving ends. From a winter coat and a teacup to a 20-year-old car with 310,000 miles, she shares how the things we keep can hold both comfort and complexity.
Blending storytelling with the science of grief—including the Continuing Bonds model—Thérèse explores why car...
When Your Body Breaks Before Your Spirit Does
What happens when caregiving ends… but your body is still carrying the weight of everything you’ve been through?
In this raw and revelatory episode, host Thérèse peels back the layers of what really happens to a caregiver’s body—not just during the journey, but in the aching, silent after. From sleepless nights and emotional eating to back pain so intense she could no longer lift her father on her own—this is the truth few are brave enough to tell.
You'll learn the science behind how caregiving changes your hormones, ner...
Still Haunted: Living with Caregiving PTSD in the 'After'
What happens when the caregiving ends… but you are still haunted?
In this soul-shifting episode of NYGA – The After, Thérèse opens up about the hidden trauma many former caregivers carry long after their loved ones are gone—what researchers are finally naming Caregiving PTSD.
Through raw, personal stories—including the night her father with PSP induced dementia vanished into the dark while she slept and the harrowing 8-day search for her missing uncle—Thérèse invites listeners into the heart-pounding, heartbreaking reality of caregiving trauma.
We break down the difference between burnou...
