“The loss of a parent or sibling is the number one biggest derailer of development in young people. “Stacey Sassine

Bereavement is a difficult part of life and for young people, it may cause significant disruption of their lives. Considering their limited knowledge and life experience, young people often find it difficult to understand grief and loss situations. This means that they need professional assistance to support them during this process. Our guest today, Stacy Sassine, finds purpose in working with young people who have encountered loss to keep them on track.

Stacey Sassine, Certified Grief Coach and founder of Epic Reboot, understand the depths of grief and loss and has created a safe space to allow those navigating their grief journey to unplug, reset, recharge, and reboot. Stacey’s programs are built upon its signature framework to help individuals not just navigate grief but transform through the process. This framework was the foundation for Stacey’s personal growth and has proven to be life-changing for others who utilize it as well.

When you invite Stacey on your grief journey, she will customize her three steps to meet your needs right where you are. By supporting you in changing your mindset and habits, she guides you to heal your body, mind, and soul allowing you the freedom to live a beautiful, more fulfilling life. Grief doesn’t have to hold you back; it can be a catalyst to help you see life in new and more purposeful ways.

Stacey is also the Founder and President of One Million Monarchs, a nonprofit organization that supports the complex needs of bereaved teens who are grieving the death of a parent, sibling or close friend. Having been a bereaved teen herself, she understands what is truly needed to support a grieving teen. Her book, “Caterpillars Can’t Talk; A Children’s Story About Love, Loss and Transformation” https://amzn.to/2XO8bHH, which was written by her mother before her death was published to assist children in their grief journey. Stacey has dedicated her life to helping others heal after a devastating loss.

In today’s episode, Stacey will discuss her journey and the events that led her to her current passion.

Listen in!

Social Media:

https://www.facebook.com/1MMonarchs

https://www.facebook.com/myepicreboot

https://www.facebook.com/CaterpillarsCantTalk

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacey-sassine-94b64a5/

Websites:

https://epic-reboot.com/

https://www.onemillionmonarchs.org/

My early career centred around nonprofit leadership until I had a friend who was in sales who showed me her paycheck. [4:02]
It prompted me to get into sales because I wanted an income like that, which led to sales leadership. [4:18]
I spent the last 20 years of my life leading sales teams for large corporations. [4:27]
In late 2019, I decided to take on a little project of having a book published that my mom wrote back in the early 80s. [4:44]
She wrote it to help a little boy who had lost his dad and it was a children’s book about the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly. [4:54]
That story was really around what happens to us when we die and trying to help a young child understand what happened. [5:08]
My mum had tried to get the book published back in the early 80s but it wasn’t as easy to get a book published at all. [5:16]
Not too long later after she had written the book, she passed away, and so I was 16 years old when she passed. [5:32]
In late 2019, the book, ‘Caterpillars Can’t Talk’ was published and it’s just beautiful. [5:44]
I started looking around for children’s grief organizations that I could potentially talk to about this book but there weren’t any in my area. [6:10]
The book prompted me to start up my nonprofit organization called 1 million monarchs. [6:49]
We support teams who are grieving the loss of a parent or sibling and then continuing to grow and morphing. [6:51]
I decided I wanted to dedicate my life to helping people who had lost a close loved one. [7:11]
I work full time now with 1 million monarchs. An epic reboot is sort of my offering to support people along their grief journey which I find fulfilling. [7:17]
The potential for a teen to derail a little bit after a loss is great and so it is critical to support them. [9:00]
The loss of a friend can have a very profound effect on a peer group in general. [10:06]
Educators need help in understanding how to support grieving children and teenagers and so working with educators is another part of my schedule. [10:40]
I’ve noticed that people are extremely judgmental about other people’s grief and loss and if I could do one thing, it would be to help people understand that they can’t assess another person’s loss. [11:31]
My mother was an artist and was fascinated by butterflies so she would paint them all the time. [12:35]
Butterflies were always a symbol to me that my mom was near. [12:47]
When I heard the statistic that there are 1.5 million bereaved children in the country today, I hoped every single one of them had that sense that their loved one is nearby. [13:02]
The loss of a parent or sibling is the number one biggest derailer of development in young people yet it’s not something we think about unless it hits close to home. [14:10]
It is important that we do something about it, that we look at it as an opportunity to intervene and to help keep those kids on track. [14:50]
Commercial break. [15:08]
I think about the intervention that we’re providing teenagers who are going through the hardest time in their life and the whole end game for me is to help them reach their full potential. [17:01]
My healing came when I started doing something about the grief and started addressing it and helping others with it. [19:20]
Our motto at 1 million monarchs is ‘Go through what you go through and we try to practice that and try to help others through what we’ve experienced ourselves. [19:58]
Our educators and our support staff at our schools are so overwhelmed because their caseloads are huge. [20:58]
To be somebody that can partner with the schools to help them support their students is important to me. [21:33]
I’m always getting feedback from the schools that they appreciate the help and being able to still support their students but not have to be as hands-on. [21:45]
I want to encourage people to volunteer and support organizations that they believe in and it will make the world a better place to live in. [23:09]

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