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The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations
Suicide loss changes everything. The Leftover Pieces® Podcast explores life after suicide through honest conversations with survivors, experts, and grieving parents learning to live forward after unimaginable loss. Parents, partners, siblings, and friends share what it means to keep living when the world has been forever changed.
Hosted by Melissa Bottorff-Arey, whose 21-year-old son Alex died by suicide in 2016, the show blends intimate conversations with survivors, healers, and mental health professionals with short solo reflections you can actually use. Together we explore child loss, trauma and nervous-system care, anniversaries and seasons, stigma, faith and meaning, legacy, and the everyday practices that help make life livable again.
At its heart, this podcast is about learning to live forward after loss. We never move on from the people we love, but we can learn to carry the grief differently. This road can feel incredibly lonely—but you are not alone here.
For supporters, educators, and professionals, these conversations also offer insight into the realities of suicide grief and what genuine, non-fixing support can look like.
If you’d like to share your story or expertise, you can request to be a guest through Melissa’s website.
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Content Note
This podcast speaks candidly about grief and suicide loss and may feel activating for some listeners. We avoid graphic descriptions and discussion of suicide methods. Please care for yourself as needed. Melissa is not a doctor or licensed therapist, and nothing shared here should be considered medical or mental-health advice.
The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations
Your "Why" After Suicide Loss; The How & Why to find IT!
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What is my WHY??? Such a complicated topic, right? Well … yes and no, BUT definitely a relevant & essential one for grievers. So much changes after suicide loss and nearly everyone who experiences it finds themselves reevaluating and needing to re-tool, or re-build, some (or all) of life as they knew it. Finding, or 're-finding', what our "WHY" is after suicide loss (of a child) is necessary to actually being able to move forward, in my opinion. And it takes time, and choice, and hard work, to actually get to it -- and then be able to live your WHY! AND BELIEVE ME ...it is worth the work!!
ANNOUNCMENT TIME (because I do announce it in this episode!!) ---->
IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS my (in progress) website "The Leftover Pieces; Rebuilding You" will be LIVE and that means my first coaching options will be available. The first (3 month) group is planned to begin Sept 15 OR maybe Oct 1, so stay tuned and then there will be a new group start every 3 months. There WILL be limited spots in each group so let me know if you want on the notify list! These groups will be one part community, one part discovery/growth. I believe these two things are intertwined for us in the earlier stages of grief especially.
This coaching has been a long time in coming grievers. I knew, in my heart, that this was my WHY about a year and a half ago … then I set out on the next stage of my healing/learning journey. I am so, so ready to be able to serve this community in an expanded capacity. I have gained a lot through my lived experiences, but also through my certifications (with more to come). Please DM me on Instagram or email me at anytime melissa@theleftoverpieces.com
The website will be at www.theleftoverpieces.com (naturally, right?)
Keep an eye out - even book mark it & check back in a few weeks (there IS a holding page with "coming soon" there now) !!
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Please reach out to me if you know of someone that I should talk to or if you yourself would like to have a conversation around the suicide loss and grief space. Instagram is probably still the best way to contact me or directly through email. I am already scheduling people into this FALL so it's not too soon to reach out!
Let's have a conversation Let's keep talking Let's be there for each other. Let's make a change. TALK SOON!
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts PLEASE reach out & talk to someone
The National Suicide Lifeline
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💜 The Leftover Pieces is support central for grieving hearts.
🔗 Stay connected: Join my free email community for weekly check-ins, resources, and encouragement.
🌟 For moms: Explore the $9 Lighthouse Community — safe connection, tools, and hope.
🛠 Resources for all grievers: Start here.
🤝 One-on-one grief coaching for moms after child loss to suicide: Learn more here.
📞 Need help now? If you or someone you love is struggling with suicidal thoughts, dial 988 in the U.S. & Canada, or text HOME to 741741.