Speaking
Honest conversations about grief.
I lost my dad when I was 14 and my mom when I was 26. I’m not a therapist or a grief expert. I speak from lived experience.
In person in the Charlotte, NC area, or virtual.
The talk · 60 minutes
The Kid Who Made His Own Family: What Grieving People Actually Need From the Rest of Us
- 20 minMy story: two losses, and the family I built afterward
- 20 minWhat helps and what doesn’t: things people say, showing up later, holidays and anniversaries
- 10 minTailored to your people: staff, volunteers, students, or congregation
- 10 minQ&A
Holiday version: Grieving Through the Holidays. Same honest approach, focused on the stretch from Thanksgiving through New Year’s, when empty chairs are hardest to miss.
What your audience leaves with
- Words that help. A few simple things to say (and a few to stop saying) to someone who is grieving.
- A plan for later. Why the weeks and months after a loss matter most, and easy ways to keep showing up.
- Confidence on the hard days. How to notice and honor anniversaries, holidays, and other dates that hurt.
Signature topics
The Loss Beneath the Loss
How grief changes identity, family roles, faith, routines, and the future you thought you were building.
What Teens Wish Adults Understood About Grief
A practical conversation for parents, counselors, educators, and church leaders supporting grieving teens.
Carrying Grief Into Fatherhood
How parent loss shapes parenting, fear, memory, love, and the desire to give your kids what you did not have.
Finding Your Footing After Loss
A grounded talk on language, honesty, and rebuilding life after the terrain has changed.
Who I speak to
- Employers & schoolsLunch-and-learn, staff meeting, PD day
- Churches & nonprofitsMinistries, volunteer trainings, groups
- VirtualZoom, Teams, or hybrid
As heard on
Healthy Mind, Healthy Life: “Unprocessed Grief and the Quiet Ways It Shapes Your Life”
A conversation on what happens when grief doesn't go away, it goes underground: the signs of unprocessed grief, why it often masquerades as anxiety or a short fuse, and why teenage grief is uniquely complicated when adults avoid the topic.
Personal Development Trailblazers Podcast: “Navigating Loss: How to Carry Grief and Find Your Way Forward”
FailCraft: “The Unspoken Truth About Outliving Both Parents Before 30”
Read more: Losing a parent in your 20s
Recent and upcoming guest conversations: Dead Dads and Grief Out Loud.
I also host Unparented, honest conversations with people who lost a parent.