Building Resilience Through Grief: An Interview with Blair Kaplan Venables

In this episode, Dr. Heather Taylor interviews Blair Kaplan Venables, a grief and resilience expert and founder of the Global Resilience Project. Blair shares her personal journey through multiple layers of grief, including family losses and personal challenges. She explains how these experiences led her to create the Global Resilience Project, which started as a book but evolved into a global movement and community. Blair discusses her Navigating Grief framework, a toolkit designed to help individuals build emotional resilience using neuroscience and practical strategies. The conversation highlights the importance of feeling emotions to heal and underscores actionable steps to navigate grief effectively.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:45 Blair's Journey into Grief and Resilience

02:08 The Birth of the Global Resilience Project

02:35 Navigating Personal Traumas

06:32 Framework for Navigating Grief

13:38 The Importance of Resilience

16:52 Blair's Personal Insights and Reflections

27:48 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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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 cohost of the RESILIENT A.F. with Blair and Alana 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 books are international bestsellers. In her free time, you can find Blair writing, in nature, traveling the world and helping people to strengthen their resilience muscles.

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Grief is the New Normal is the podcast that refuses to sugarcoat loss, because grief isn’t a problem to fix, it’s a reality to live with. Hosted by Dr. Heather Taylor, a licensed psychologist with over a decade of experience in grief, trauma, and reproductive psychology, this show dives deep into the messy, nonlinear, and very real ways grief impacts our lives.

Whether you're navigating the death of your person, wrestling with the weight of an invisible loss, or trying to figure out who you even are after everything changed, this podcast is here for you. With a mix of solo deep dives, expert interviews, and candid conversations, Dr. Taylor unpacks the emotions no one warns you about, challenges outdated grief narratives, and offers both practical tools and hard-earned wisdom to help you feel less alone.

No toxic positivity. No “fixing” your grief. Just honest talk, validation, and the reminder that you don’t have to do this alone. Because in a world that wants you to move on, Grief is the New Normal is here to help you move through.

https://www.griefisthenewnormal.com

[email protected]

www.linkedin.com/in/heather-taylor-psyd-licensed-psychologist

Follow @grief_is_the_new_normal on Instagram for grief podcast, mental health, self-care, sass, and dark humor content whether you’re grieving or you’re a mental health professional needing more modern grief language.

I partner with organizations to increase grief literacy and embed grief-informed care into workplace culture, reducing stigma and helping teams navigate loss with resilience. Grief at work isn’t only about death; it shows up in leadership changes, layoffs, and other major transitions too. Bring me in to help your workplace move from uncertainty to confidence when loss of any kind shows up. Email [email protected] to inquire.

Wanting more grief specific support? Check out my grief journal, Authentically Unapologetic: A Grief Journal available for purchase thru this link: https://a.co/d/4hbLtbX

Dive deeper into your grief support skills with the Professional Grief Collective. This exclusive membership offers targeted training and resources for clinicians and coaches who are ready to elevate their practice. Don’t miss out! Join our community today and start transforming the way you support those in grief. Check out the details in our show notes or visit https://clinicians.griefisthenewnormal.com/privategriefcoaching

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Opening & Closing Music by The Dadicorns

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All Rights Reserved.

This podcast is meant for educational and entertainment purposes only. The information discussed in this podcast is not a replacement or substitute for therapy.