Understanding Grief, Loss, Growth, and Rebuilding w/Marla Christensen, AMFT

The Virtual Couch

Tony Overbay LMFT

Education, Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement

5 • 643 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2024

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Marla Christensen, AMFT, APCC, joins Tony on the Virtual Couch to discuss dealing with grief and loss. Marla is a new associate working with Tony. Marla received her master's degree in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University. She shares her passion for her work in mental health counseling and touches on her own personal experience about shifting from being a stay-at-home mom to a counselor following a divorce. Marla discusses her approach to dealing with grief and loss in clients, which she shares as an inescapable human experience. She elaborates on the stages of grief as proposed by Elizabeth Kubler Ross, shedding light on David Kessler’s addition of the sixth stage, 'reconstruction/rebuilding'. Emphasizing the subjectivity of the grieving process, Marla recommends being compassionate, patient, and welcoming toward one's emotions throughout. She also talks about the role of religion and spirituality in helping individuals rebound quickly from grief due to the sense of community they provide.Marla and her husband, Nate Christensen, APCC, host the podcast “Working Change,” which you can find wherever you listen to podcasts or visit https://blubrry.com/workingchange. Marla has a few openings and can be reached directly at [email protected], or you can reach out to Tony at [email protected]:00 Introduction and Welcoming Marla00:22 Getting to Know Marla: Her Journey into Therapy01:20 Marla's Early Years and Path to Therapy02:20 Marla's Podcast and Mental Health Advocacy03:08 Marla's Experience with Grief and Loss04:11 The Impact of Life Experience on Therapy05:58 Understanding Grief and Loss08:50 The Stages of Grief27:42 The Role of Religion and Spirituality in Grief30:08 Final Thoughts and Advice on Navigating GriefTo learn more about Tony's upcoming re-release of the Magnetic Marriage course, his Pathback Recovery course, and more, sign up for his newsletter through the link at https://linktr.ee/virtualcouchAvailable NOW: Tony's "Magnetic Marriage Mini-Course" is only $25. https://magneticmarriage.mykajabi.com/magnetic-marriage-mini-coursePlease follow Tony’s newest Instagram account for the Waking Up to Narcissism podcast https://www.instagram.com/wutnpod/ as well as Tony’s account https://www.instagram.com/tonyoverbay_lmft/ Subscribe to Tony's latest podcast, "Waking Up to Narcissism Q&A - Premium Podcast," on the Apple Podcast App. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/waking-up-to-narcissism-q-a/id1667287384Go to http://tonyoverbay.com/workshop to sign up for Tony's "Magnetize Your Marriage" virtual workshop. The cost is only $19, and you'll learn the top 3 things you can do NOW to create a Magnetic Marriage. You can learn more about Tony's pornography recovery program, The Path Back, by visiting http://pathbackrecovery.com And visit Tony mentioned a product that he used to take out all of the "uh's" and "um's" that, in his words, "must be created by wizards and magic!" because it's that good! To learn more about Descript, click here https://descript.com?lmref=bSWcEQ

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody, welcome to episode 416 of the virtual couch.
0:11.8	I'm your host, Tony Overbay.
0:12.8	I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist.
0:15.0	And let's get to today's show.
0:18.0	First, I would just like to point you to the link tree in the show notes or just
0:22.2	go to Tonyoverbay.com and sign up for my newsletter or you can find a link to that in the link
0:27.0	tree link in the show notes. The newsletter is where you can read about all the new courses and releases
0:32.9	and projects. So I would love for you to just trust me, subscribe to the newsletter. And actually,
0:39.3	for my opening this week, I want to read a little bit from my newsletter because there's some
0:43.1	very big news, some things that are happening in my life that I've been sitting on and I'm
0:46.7	excited to talk about before we get to my interview. But maybe it's a little bit of a hook.
0:53.0	Let me tell you about my guest. Her name is Marla Christensen,
0:56.2	and if that last name sounds familiar, Marla is married to my other therapy associate, Nate Christensen,
1:01.4	who has been on my podcast several times and who is definitely a listener favorite. And Nate and Marla,
1:07.0	I think, simply said, are creating quite a dynamic duo. They're both therapists. They both have a lot of
1:12.3	lived experience. But really, both of them found this work later in their career, which is what I did as
1:17.4	well. And when you find it later and it's something that you felt drawn to and you've gone through
1:22.3	all the yeah-butts of yeah, but what if I'm not good at it? What if I don't finish getting my
1:27.4	master's degree? What if I can't
1:28.6	find a place to hang my shingle? All those things. You work through all those. It's something that you've
1:33.2	already had careers. You already know what the things are that you didn't necessarily appreciate
1:37.1	about it. And you have that lived experience. Then, man, you are ready to do this work. So they're really good therapists. And if you're somebody who has been struggling trying to find a therapist, and I know I don't
	...

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