The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations
Suicide loss changes everything. The Leftover Pieces® Podcast explores life after suicide through honest conversations with survivors, experts, and grieving parents learning to live forward after unimaginable loss. Parents, partners, siblings, and friends share what it means to keep living when the world has been forever changed.
Hosted by Melissa Bottorff-Arey, whose 21-year-old son Alex died by suicide in 2016, the show blends intimate conversations with survivors, healers, and mental health professionals with short solo reflections you can actually use. Together we explore child loss, trauma and nervous-system care, anniversaries and seasons, stigma, faith and meaning, legacy, and the everyday practices that help make life livable again.
At its heart, this podcast is about learning to live forward after loss. We never move on from the people we love, but we can learn to carry the grief differently. This road can feel incredibly lonely—but you are not alone here.
For supporters, educators, and professionals, these conversations also offer insight into the realities of suicide grief and what genuine, non-fixing support can look like.
If you’d like to share your story or expertise, you can request to be a guest through Melissa’s website.
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Content Note
This podcast speaks candidly about grief and suicide loss and may feel activating for some listeners. We avoid graphic descriptions and discussion of suicide methods. Please care for yourself as needed. Melissa is not a doctor or licensed therapist, and nothing shared here should be considered medical or mental-health advice.
The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations
Accepting She Died by Suicide; Erin's Yoga is Healing Grief & Trauma
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In this episode, hear Erin share about how for a long time she could not even say that her daughter died, let alone ‘ended her own life. Now she is brave and not only talks about it, but she teaches yoga to help others heal their trauma and grief
Erin Burden is Canadian-born but her family moved to Botswana, Africa at 2 and she mostly was schooled in Bulawayo Rhodesia. For college, she went to South Africa. Having lost both parents by the time she was only 11, Erin’s sister became her guardian and she was brought up mostly in an all-girls boarding school.
She became an entrepreneur in Transport Broking in 1989 and met her husband Charles through work. They worked together and soon got married and had 3 daughters. Dakota was the youngest, born in 1994. As a family, they left South Africa for the 1st time in 1997 and moved to Canada - only to return to South Africa by 2002. But Canada called to them and in 2008 they moved to Vancouver Island and have been there ever since.
In 2018 Dakota died by suicide and after a month of barely surviving Erin chose to ‘get up and decided to continue the yoga studies they had begun together. She now teaches in person and has even started online as well. Erin considers herself both a teacher and student of yoga and loves to share with other grievers, trauma survivors, and beginners.
To this day, Erin credits yoga and prayer for getting her through the loss of Dakota. She knows her daughter is with Jesus and is grateful for that.
ERINS IG Profile HERE - find lots of links in her daily posts!
HERE is her BIO LINK to all other things she offers!!
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My website "The Leftover Pieces; Rebuilding You" is LIVE and that means my different SUPPORT SPACE Options are available and much more will be coming in 2022
Go DIRECTLY to my SUPPORT page here where yo9u will find ALL of the ways to connect and find support
My first two books (tools I am creating for you!) in the "Facing Life After Suicide" series are available on Amazon
If you, or someone you know, is struggling with suicidal thoughts PLEASE reach out:
The National Suicid
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💜 The Leftover Pieces is support for life after suicide loss. Click links below
🎙 Leave me a message: Share a question, your story, or your person’s name for a future episode → theleftoverpieces.com/voicemail
🔗 Stay connected: Join my email community for weekly support, resources, and honest conversations.
🛠 Start here: Explore website for suicide loss resources for early grief, family support, and next steps.
🤝 For moms: One-on-one grief coaching for mothers navigating life after child loss.
📞 Need support right now? If you or someone you love is struggling, call or text 988 (U.S. & Canada), or text HOME to 741741.