Carrying Iranian Grief with Pauline Yeghnazar: Ancestral Sorrow, Diaspora Grief, and Intergenerational Healing

In this intimate conversation, I sit down with Iranian-Armenian psychologist and therapist Pauline Yeghnazar, whose work centers the emotional lives of daughters and children of immigrants. Together, we explore what happens when grief has no homeland to land in. When sorrow is inherited, rituals feel fractured, and loss lives in the body across generations.Pauline brings both clinical depth and lived experience to a dialogue about diaspora grief that stretches beyond individual death into land, exile, identity, culture, and the losses our parents never had the privilege to mourn.In this episode, we explore:Watching Iran from afar and how grief lives somatically in the bodyThe terror of disconnection during the current internet shutdown in IranAncestral longing for a homeland never fully knownHow immigrant elders often didn’t have space or permission to grieveWestern grief timelines and the pathologizing of sorrowHow cooking and cultural practices metabolize grief through the bodyInviting ancestors into everyday acts of remembranceGrief as something that includes laughter, presence, and connectionPrevious Halva for the Heart episodes mentioned:Episode 19: Knitting as Ancestral MemoryEpisode 3: Healing with My SisterPauline shares powerful frameworks for daughters of immigrants navigating identity, guilt, family obligation, and inherited emotional survival patterns.Pauline’s offerings and resources:Free Translation Guide for Communicating with Your Immigrant ParentsFree Book Club for the Children of ImmigrantsRoots & Fruits: A Group Program for Daughters of ImmigrantsNoor Therapy & Wellness (for folks in California and New York)Email Pauline for 1-hour long $99 coaching calls if you're outside of CA or NYAll these offerings and more can be found on Pauline's websiteAnd follow Pauline on InstagramIf you're Iranian and looking for a culturally specific community space (since Pauline’s offerings serve all diasporas), you’re warmly invited to join us in Dard-e Del, our Iranian grief gathering that meets three times a month on Zoom, to be in community, witness each other, and hold what can’t be held alone.If you'd like to share what this episode brought up for you...Leave me a 90 second voice noteMessage me on InstagramSend me an emailLearn more about my work at my website www.hafezdeathcare.comSubscribe to my weekly newsletter🎵 Theme song: 'Lullaby' by Iranian oud player Negâr Boubân