Navigating Grief and Uncertainty: Resilience Lessons After Profound Loss with Casey Mulligan Walsh | 068

In this deeply human episode of RESILIENT A.F., Blair Kaplan Venables sits down with writer and award-winning memoirist Casey Mulligan Walsh for a conversation that does not flinch from life’s hardest chapters. Casey shares her layered journey with grief: being orphaned at 12, losing her brother, navigating a painful divorce, and the devastating death of her son, Eric, in a car accident.Together, Blair and Casey explore what it means to live inside uncertainty, why resilience is not about fixing pain, and how community and belonging can quietly save us. The conversation weaves personal story with wisdom, including Casey’s reflections on the “neutral zone” and the teachings of Pema Chödrön. If you have ever wondered how to keep going when the ground disappears beneath you, this episode is for you.Casey opens up about being orphaned at age 12, the death of her brother, and the resilience required to survive constant upheaval. These early losses planted the seeds for her deep understanding of grief, belonging, and adaptation. Shae shares the heartbreak of losing her son, Eric, during the same period as a long and contentious divorce. She speaks candidly about the shock, disorientation, and strength it took to survive that season, and the role community played in holding her up.One of the episode’s most powerful moments centers on uncertainty. Casey introduces the idea of the neutral zone: the uncomfortable, in-between space where the old life is gone, and the new one has not yet formed. Rather than rushing through it, she invites listeners to stay, breathe, and trust the process.If this episode resonated, please share it with someone who is living in the in-between. Leave a review. And remember: resilience does not mean having answers. Sometimes it simply means staying present long enough for the next breath.Listen now to this episode of RESILIENT A.F. and join the conversation on grief, uncertainty, and what it means to keep going.Gift from Casey: The Full Catastrophe Bonus Content, including 5 Ways to Support Those Who Grieve/Resource List, Spotify Playlist, Excerpt, and Reading Guide - https://linktr.ee/caseymulliganwalshSponsorship opportunities: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15oZsxAigvb6e4wbAmvW_El_1_laeyK4shMY1md6zVWI/edit?usp=sharingSubscribe to our Substack: https://theglobalresilienceproject.substack.com/Buy our books: https://theglobalresilienceproject.com/books/About the Guest:Casey Mulligan Walsh writes about life at the intersection of grief and joy, embracing uncertainty, and the nature of true belonging. Her award-winning memoir, The Full Catastrophe: All I Ever Wanted, Everything I Feared, was released from Motina Books in February 2025. She has written for The New York Times, HuffPost, Next Avenue, Modern Loss, The Manifest-Station, Hippocampus, Barren Magazine, and numerous other literary magazines; her essay, “Still,” published in Split Lip, was nominated for Best of the Net. She is a founding editor of In a Flash literary magazine and serves as an ambassador and Board member for the Family Heart Foundation. Casey lives in upstate New York with her husband, Kevin, and too many books to count. When not traveling, they enjoy visits from their four children and ten grandchildren—the very definition of “the full catastrophe.”Links: https://caseymulliganwalsh.comhttps://www.facebook.com/casey.m.walsh.1/https://www.facebook.com/caseymulliganwalshwriter/https://www.instagram.com/caseymulliganwalsh/https://x.com/CMulliganWalshhttps://bsky.app/profile/caseymulliganwalsh.bsky.socialhttps://www.instagram.com/threads/ssohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-mulligan-walsh-522ba231/⚠️ Content Note: Some episodes may contain themes that could be distressing. Please take care of yourself while listening, and don’t hesitate to seek support from a mental health professional if needed.About the Hosts: Blair Kaplan Venables is a British Columbia-based grief and resilience expert and coach, motivational speaker and the Founder of The Global Resilience Project. Her expertise has been featured on media platforms like Forbes, TEDx, CBC Radio, Entrepreneur, and Thrive Global. She is named the Top Grief and Resilience Expert of the Year 2024 by IAOTP. USA Today listed Blair as one of the top 10 conscious female leaders to watch and she empowers others to be resilient from stages around the world. 'MyStory,’ which is a television show available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Google Play, showcases Blair's life story. She is the host of the Radical Resilience podcast and specializes in helping people strengthen their resilience muscle using scientifically proven methods and guides grieving high performers with her Navigating Grief Framework. The Global Resilience Project’s award-winning book series are international bestsellers, and her fourth book, RESILIENT A.F.: Stories of Resilience Vol 2, will be published in January 2025. In her free time, you can find Blair writing, in nature, travelling the world and helping people to strengthen their resilience muscles. Links:https://www.blairkaplan.ca/https://theglobalresilienceproject.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/blairdkaplan https://www.facebook.com/blair.kaplan https://www.facebook.com/BlairKaplanCommunications  https://www.instagram.com/globalresiliencecommunityhttps://www.instagram.com/blairfromblairland/https://www.facebook.com/globalresiliencecommunity  https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-global-resilience-project [email protected] Alana Kaplan is a compassionate mental health professional based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She works in the mental health field, and is a co-host of the Resilient A.F.  podcast. Fueled by advocacy, Alana is known for standing up and speaking out for others. Passionate about de-stigmatizing and normalizing mental health, Alana brings her experience to The Global Resilience Project’s team, navigating the role one’s mental health plays in telling their story.Engaging in self-care and growth keeps her going, and her love for reading, travel, and personal relationships helps foster that. When she’s not working, Alana can often be found on walks, working on a crossword puzzle, or playing with any animal she sees.Thanks for listening!Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? 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