6 Kellie Sipos | Drug Abuse and Multiple Losses Artwork

How To Deal With Grief and Trauma

You can't go through life without experiencing loss and trauma the question is how do we deal and live with the grief and pain? Join Nathalie Himmelrich, grief expert and author, talking to people who have experienced grief and trauma first-hand. If you want to be inspired by others who traveled through their grief and trauma, found that healing is possible, and came out the other end knowing they can survive and thrive in life after loss. For more info: www.nathaliehimmelrich.com

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How To Deal With Grief and Trauma

6 Kellie Sipos | Drug Abuse and Multiple Losses

August 01, 2022 • Nathalie Himmelrich • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Today I speak with Kellie Sipos who I met as part of being a guest on her podcast, My Child Left Home for Heaven. Kellie has experienced multiple losses within her own family which started with her father’s suicide, followed by the sudden unexpected loss of her sister. In 2018 she lost her daughter Emilie through an accidental drug overdose after which Kellie candidly shares how she herself abused drugs to manage her own grief. Just a few months ago, her mother, who she cared for the last few months of her life, died too.

Kellie says:

‘Emilie’s grief was so on the top of my heart every single day until I lost my mom. Now it's like the grief of my mom is shadowing over top of the grief of Emilie, and I feel really guilty. I feel like I'm not grieving her appropriately. And then I realized: No, I'm just healing. I'm starting to move on from some of that. And yes, the grief with my mom is newer but that in time will be the same way. I think maybe having to go through it again somehow helped me get over that big hurdle of Emilie.’

About this week’s guest

Kellie Sipos is the mother of 4 daughters who tragically lost her oldest, Emilie to an accidental drug overdose on July 22, 2018. Since this time Kellie has tried to stay focused on making a difference in this world. Working with children and young adults with Special Needs as a therapeutic riding instructor and an equine specialist. Mental health has always been her focus but since the loss of her child she is on a new mission, starting her podcast My Child Left Home for Heaven. Being an avid podcast listener she quickly found there were not a lot of podcasts on child loss from the Moms perspective. Continue reading here...

Topics discussed in this episode

The recent loss of her mother
Emilie, her drug addiction leading to her accidental drug overdose which killed her
Kellie’s granddaughter being taken away by her father after Emilie’s death
Drug addiction and abuse within the family and in the process of dealing with grief
PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) following the traumatic loss of Emilie
Suicide of her father, the sudden death of her sister
Post loss guilt and regrets
Compassion fatigue for therapists