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The Leftover Pieces; Suicide Loss Conversations
This podcast focuses on surviving life after a suicide loss, an experience that can be devastating and leave you feeling lost as you try to pick up the pieces of your shattered heart. The host, Melissa Bottorff-Arey, lost her 21-year-old son, Alex, to suicide on August 7, 2016, and brings (& often shares) her insights from her personal journey.
In each episode, Melissa engages in honest and challenging conversations with other survivors of loss, healers, and mental health experts. She also produces shorter solo episodes where she reflects on her own thoughts and experiences thus far. The podcast covers a wide range of relevant topics and addresses difficult questions. Melissa explores all aspects of grief, including trauma, hope, healing, self-care, legacy, and stigma. She believes that we learn to live alongside our grief rather than get ing over it. Actual change comes through authentic, meaningful connections and mindful choices.
For supporters or educators, these conversations provide valuable insights and shine a light on suicide and grief genuinely and unapologetically. Listeners who are grieving a suicide loss can find comfort in the community and hope for a better tomorrow. Melissa aims to help others, like herself, transition from merely surviving to discovering a life filled with meaning and, potentially, even happiness amid the leftover pieces around you.
[Please NOTE: This podcast is for only relational, informational, and entertainment purposes. It candidly and openly discusses sensitive and sometimes activating topics. There will be no in-depth or graphic descriptions of the method, but merely the possible mention of suicide, murder, rape, and the like. Be guided and care for yourself accordingly. Also, Melissa is not a doctor or licensed therapist, and nothing on this podcast should be taken in place of, or as, medical/mental health advice or recommendations.]
The Leftover Pieces; Suicide Loss Conversations
[New] START HERE; Meet Melissa, Intro Episode
This is the definitive "START HERE" episode. If you are a new listener, absolutely start here. If you are not new but have not listened to this "first" episode prior to Feb. 2025, I have updated it and you just might learn something new, so I hope you will listen again.
Welcome to "The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations" podcast. My name is Melissa Bottorff-Arey, and I am both the creator and host of this podcast, which I launched in 2020 amid an unprecedented global pandemic that was both being shadowed by and working in tandem with an even more pervasive global crisis: suicide.
Today, I want to take a moment to share my story with you—a story that transformed my life in an instant & my response so far that has ultimately brought me here, to this space, talking to you. Knowing me a little is essential if you are to trust me enough to listen to me talk about possibly the worst thing you could ever be asked to carry in life. If you are to allow me into your sacred space of grief, you deserve to hear it.
This podcast exists because having persistent, consistent, and meaningful conversations about suicide, mental health, stigmas, trauma, and grief helps others feel seen and supported, and it is how we will bring about awareness and, ultimately, change. And because we need community - it is essential in this sacred work of grief.
So, for today, this is where I'll leave you. This episode shares who I am—and why I'm doing this. I'm so sorry you're with me, but I am honored to hold space for you. Thank you for being here—it truly means so much.
ON this podcast, we will continue to explore the questions that haunt us, seek the courage to uncover the healing tools within us and offer the comfort of a community we all need. Come along with me—-—because this is so very lonely, but we do not have to be alone. Together, let's choose to find meaning and even happiness amid the leftover pieces before us. Thank you for listening...Welcome.
You can find me, the online support & growth groups I lead, the retreats I host, the books I have written & all ways to connect with me at:
The Leftover Pieces WEBSITE
The Leftover Pieces Instagram
If you or someone you know is struggling PLEASE reach out & talk to someone
The National Suicide Lifeline is there for you
IN a crisis you can also TEXT
TEXT the word "HOME" to 741741 in the USA
in Canada TEXT 686868
in the UK TEXT 85258
And Grievers, I am always here. You can find me on Instagram at The Leftover Pieces