131: Keep Those Feet Moving: Grief, Fatherhood, and Starting Over with AJ Coleman

In this episode of A Simple Therapy Podcast, Sindee Gozansky welcomes AJ Coleman, author of Keep Those Feet Moving: A Widower's Eight-Step Guide to Coping with Grief and Thriving Against All Odds. When AJ was in what he thought was the prime of his life, his wife Cory lost her battle with brain cancer at just 33-years-old, leaving him a single father to their one-year-old daughter, Zoey. What followed was a crash course in grief, single parenthood, and the quiet, relentless work of rebuilding a life. Rather than stay silent, AJ turned his journey into a book—one that became unexpectedly therapeutic, forcing him to confront insecurities and hard truths he hadn't planned to share with the world. Sindee and AJ trace the full arc of his story: the whirlwind romance with Cory, the devastating diagnosis, and the tender, often unglamorous reality of raising Zoey alone—forms with no "widower" box, school letters addressed to a mother who wasn't there, and the quiet overcompensation of a dad determined not to fail. AJ speaks with candor about the guilt of eventually moving on, the conversation with a nine-year-old Zoey that cracked him open, and what it took to finally say yes to love again. Woven throughout is the insight that his whole life—the hearing impairment, the anxiety, the job loss—had been preparing him for this. That nothing was wasted. That the hardest setbacks signal the greatest rewards waiting on the other side. This is a conversation for anyone sitting inside a loss they can't see their way through—therapists and clients alike. AJ's framework is practical and his delivery is warm, but what lingers is something harder to name: the quiet insistence that mourning is not the enemy of healing, it's the beginning of it. His invitation is simple and earned—stop waiting to feel ready, accept the mourning, find your closure, and keep those feet moving. 00:49 - Meet AJ Coleman 03:06 - Cory: The Love Story 06:40 - The Decision to Start a Family 09:06 - Raising Zoey: Keeping Her Mother's Memory Alive 11:31 - The Invisible Obstacles of Widowed Parenthood 14:58 - Resilience Forged Before the Loss 17:17 - The Keep Those Feet Moving Philosophy 18:08 - Closure: Why It Matters and How to Find It 23:37 - The Book, the Healing, and Going Deeper 31:21 - What It Means to Touch a Life 37:53 - Letting Go of the Past Without Erasing It 47:07 - Guilt, Remarriage, and Learning to Love Again 50:19 - First Steps for Anyone Feeling Stuck 51:58 - Where to Find AJ and What's Next​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Check out Berries: Berries Referral Link: heyberries.com/?via=heart-centered Discount code: Sindee50 for $50 off your first month   Shop Mental Health Threads: https://mentalhealththreads.etsy.com   Connect with AJ Coleman:   Website: https://keepthosefeetmoving.com  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/keepthosefeetmoving  Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/keepthosefeetmoving/    Connect with Sindee Gozansky: Visit my website: asimpletherapypodcast.com/ Join the Heart-Centered Therapist Community FB group: facebook.com/groups/478651669638167 Instagram: 
instagram.com/heartcenteredtherapist/ YouTube: youtube.com/@asimpletherapypodcast LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sindeegozansky/   Want to be a guest on the podcast?  Email Sindee: [email protected]