The One Thing We Forget to Plan for During the Holidays (Hint: Itβs Grief)
Nov 26, 2025(Listen to the entire podcast interview here)
The holidays are supposed to feel warm and cheerful, but for many people they bring a mix of emotions that can hit harder than expected. Lights, music, family dinners, and traditions all sound wonderful—until grief steps in. Loss has a way of showing up in moments we don’t plan for. The empty chair. The missing voice. The smell of a recipe that doesn’t taste the same. Even the smallest detail can open a floodgate.
This is exactly why I wanted to bring Debbra Riemann onto the Scaling Therapist Podcast. Deb is a licensed marriage and family therapist, a published author, and one of the students I’ve been coaching. But before she ever built her practice, before she created her book, and before she started her online grief community, she walked through grief in a very real and very personal way.
Her story matters—not just because it’s powerful, but because it shows how a therapist can take the hard parts of life and turn them into something that helps others. It shows what’s possible when you take action on the dream sitting inside you.
And it also asks an important question:
What dream inside of you is waiting to be used to help others?
Deb’s Journey Through Loss and What It Taught Her
During graduate school, Deb wasn’t just trying to survive the workload. She was surviving loss after loss. Within a short period of time, she lost the stepmom who raised her, both her in-laws, and several other important parts of her life. She tried to outrun the pain by staying busy—school, caretaking, working hard, doing everything except slowing down.
But grief has a way of catching up.
One day her doctor told her something that shocked her: “Don’t go to the gym. Don’t exercise. Your adrenals are failing.”
She had burned herself out trying to be “strong.”
At the same time, she realized something else:
Her entire graduate program had taught her almost nothing about grief. Maybe two paragraphs. And there she was drowning in it.
But life has a strange way of guiding us. One day in a used bookstore in Santa Cruz, a book “fell off the shelf” into Deb’s hands. It was about how to recover from loss. She didn’t just read it. She followed it to get trained—and unexpectedly ended up processing her own grief in the process.
That healing became the foundation for the work she does today.
The Hidden Losses We Carry
One of the most powerful parts of our conversation was when Deb talked about cumulative grief. Most adults don’t carry just one loss. They carry twenty or more smaller ones—moving, childhood changes, family disconnection, job losses, church hurt, lost friendships, even dreams they never got to live.
Deb explained:
“It wasn’t just the people who died. I had other losses I never processed—losing a home in 2008, several big moves, and even the grief of not having children. I didn’t know these were losses until I went through the training.”
Her story reminds us that grief isn’t only about death.
It’s about anything we loved and had to let go of.
And the holidays? They have a way of bringing all of that to the surface.
Rebuilding a Practice and Letting “Ugly Sell”
After graduating, Deb needed to build a practice fast. She lived in the Bay Area—one of the most expensive regions in the country. And like most therapists, she realized something surprising:
Graduate school doesn’t teach you how to build a business.
So she learned everything she could about marketing and ended up building a simple, not-perfect, not-flashy website. She focused on SEO. She wrote articles. She picked a niche: grief.
And guess what?
It worked.
Her phone started ringing. People found her. She built a full private-pay practice—twice. Once in California. And again after she moved to Michigan.
She told me the phrase that stuck with her: “Ugly sells. If it’s working, it doesn’t have to be perfect.”
Therapists need to hear that more often. You don’t have to wait for perfect. You have to start.
From Healing Her Own Grief… to Helping the World Heal Theirs
Then something unexpected happened. A publisher found her website and asked her to write a book. They paid her—not the other way around. That book became The 52-Week Devotional Journal for Grief, and its success opened even more doors.
But the part I love most?
Deb wanted to be with the people reading her book. She wanted to create a place where people didn’t feel so alone. So she created Inscribed Grief, an online journaling community where people can slow down, write, share, and heal together.
She explained journaling this way: “By journaling, we move toward our difficult emotions. Sharing our feelings helps release the pain.”
She also knows the holidays can be especially brutal. That’s why she created her Hope for the Holidays webinar—a gentle guide to help people plan ahead instead of getting blindsided by grief.
Because grief is hard.
But grief without a plan?
That’s even harder.
What This Means for You (Yes, You)
Every time I talk with Deb, one truth keeps rising to the surface:
Your story can help others.
But only if you take action.
Deb didn’t wait until she felt ready.
She didn’t wait until her website was perfect.
She didn’t wait for someone to tell her she could help more people.
She took what she had—her experience, her training, her story—and built something that now changes lives.
So I want to ask you the same thing I asked her:
What is the dream inside you that you haven’t taken action on yet?
Maybe it’s a book.
Maybe it’s a course.
Maybe it’s a support group.
Maybe it’s a community.
Maybe it’s something you’ve been thinking about for years.
Therapists carry so much wisdom, but most of it stays locked inside one-on-one sessions. There is so much more impact you can make when you scale your knowledge—just like Deb did.
If you feel that pull in your chest…
if you keep having the same idea return again and again…
if you know there’s more in you…
I want to help you bring it to life.
Email me personally at [email protected] and tell me what you're dreaming about. Tell me what you want to build. Tell me the story you feel called to share.
If Deb can take her story and turn it into healing for hundreds of people…
you can too.
You don’t have to do it alone.
Let’s build something that lasts—together.
Links and Resources
- Stages of Grief Recovery Website: https://www.Stages-of-Grief-Recovery.com
- Facebook: Stages-of-Grief-Recovery.com | Rochester Hills MI
- Instagram: Debbra Bronstad, Grief Coach (@stagesofgriefrecovery) • Instagram profile
- Hope for the Holidays Workshop free replay available at: https://stagesofgriefrecovery.mvsite.app/products/units/view/1544899
- Inscribed Grief Journaling Community: https://www.InscribedGrief.com
15 Ways To Create Income Flow from What You Already Know
Subscription give you weekly updates on blogs, podcasts, webinars, and offers from CCS and their partners. We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
