11. Grief Work is Fun and Rewarding -- No Really, We Mean It (ft. Summer Sahd, LPC)

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Warning: this episode contain discussions of death, dying, and grief.

This week Karen and Jazmin go on a little bit of a rant about the lack of straightforward licensing reciprocity between states and the challenges that imposes on the work of counseling with clients who are completely oblivious to state licensing laws and regulations.

This week we’re talking to the lovely Summer Sahd! She’s a Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Texas at Tyler and a Master of Arts in Professional Counseling from Texas State University - San Marcos.

Summer currently works as a grief counselor and the Children’s Grief Program Coordinator at a non-profit grief center in New Braunfels where she provides community counseling services in addition to wearing lots and lots of different hats. Along with direct counseling, in her position at the grief center she coordinates three separate annual grief camps and runs them all like well-oiled machines!

In our conversation with Summer we talk a lot about grief and grief counseling work, which is something that all three of us have a passion for. The depth, humility, and universality in this conversation is unmatched in our interviews so far. We promise that this conversation is the opposite of a downer! Summer is so authentic, kind, and hardworking that you will be unable to stop yourself from listening all the way through as we explore what it’s really like to work with grief day-in and day-out. Don’t be afraid; listen in, because man, oh, man is this one a good one.

Resources mentioned:

The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman and Nan Silver
Love’s Executioner by Irvin D. Yalom
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Staring at the Sun by Irvin D. Yalom
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
It’s OK That You’re Not OK by Megan Devine
How to Carry What Can't Be Fixed: A Journal for Grief by Megan Devine
It’s OK That You’re Not OK with Megan Devine Podcast
@refugeingrief (Megan Devine on Instagram)
Psychologist J. William Worden’s Four Tasks of Mourning
The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical) (also a novel and several different film adaptations)
Hope Hospice Camp HavenHeart: https://www.hopehospice.net/grief/events

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Disclaimer: This podcast is not therapy and does not establish a professional, therapeutic counseling relationship. All statements made on this podcast by hosts and guests are their individual personal perspectives only and are not necessarily shared by anyone else. The hosts and guests on this podcast are not speaking on behalf of all mental health professionals or the profession as a whole.