"When you're really struggling, it's because you're in your own way… Don't judge yourself when you do it; just notice it. You can change your storyline to create momentum and the results you want to create within your life." —Camille Ellis

Grief coaching isn't about rushing through pain — and Certified Grief and Life Coach Camille Ellis has lived that truth in the most personal way possible. After losing her youngest son and navigating the end of a 27-year marriage, Camille built a coaching practice grounded in one honest belief: that healing begins the moment you start paying attention to the stories you're telling yourself.
In this conversation on Live Love Survive Thrive, Camille and Dr. Kimberly sit down for a raw, grounded discussion about what it actually looks like to move through devastating loss — not past it. Camille explains why grief never fully disappears, and why that's not something to fix. She walks through the practical technique she uses with every client: catching the thought, questioning the story, and finding a perspective that's equally true but far less crushing. She also shares what self-love looks like on the hard days — not as a wellness buzzword, but as a daily decision to ask yourself what you actually need right now.
Whether you're in the thick of loss, supporting someone who is, or simply trying to understand why certain seasons of life feel impossible to move through, this episode gives you something real to hold onto.

Connect with Dr. Kimberly:
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Episode Highlights:
03:34 Meet Camille Ellis: Certified Grief Coach and Life Coach
05:40 How 35 Years as a Stylist Became a Coaching Career
07:13 Navigating the Loss of Her Son: Where Her Philosophy Began
11:57 The Thought Pattern That Keeps Grieving People Stuck
13:44 Reframing Loss: The Technique She Used on Herself First
16:41 When Grief Lingers for Years — What's Really Happening
22:45 Self-Love as a Daily Practice, Not a Wellness Slogan
28:18 What a Grief Coach Does That a Therapist Doesn't
32:21 What Living, Loving, Surviving, and Thriving Really Means
34:10 How to Connect with Camille and Book a Free Session

Resources:
Get Kim's Books
📖Grid: Once in a Lifetime You Get to Start Over
📖Live, Love, Survive, Thrive!
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"We have to remember our loved one is gone, and that's horrible. But we're still here, and we still have work to do. We still have purpose, we still have value, and that's to love our lives and help others love their lives as well." —Dianne Brazell

Creativity became Dianne Brazell's lifeline after losing her husband, Paul, just five months after their wedding. In this episode of Live, Love, Survive, Thrive, Dr. Kimberly Hubenette sits down with author and educator Dianne Brazell, who went from bride to widow in the span of a terminal cancer diagnosis — and found her way through grief by writing letters to a man she wasn't ready to let go.
Dianne shares three things that shaped her healing: writing as emotional release (including a chapter on anger she almost cut from her memoir), the unexpected gift of Paul's sisters becoming her closest travel companions, and learning — after a lifetime of fearing it — that she is her own best friend.
Seven years out, Dianne describes her grief as a pain that's dropped from a nine or ten to a one or two most days. It spikes. It surfaces on birthdays and anniversaries. But it no longer defines her.
Her new book, Weaving Peace: Creating Your Next Act, gives grievers practical tools to use photography, movement, music, and writing to rebuild. If you're in the early fog or years deep and still finding your footing, this conversation meets you there.

Connect with Dr. Kimberly:
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Episode Highlights:
02:42 Meet Dianne: From Bride to Widow in 5 Months
07:44 Losing Paul
13:47 Early Stages of Grief and Coping Mechanisms
19:52 Coping by Serving Others
26:18 Learning to Love Alone and Balancing Life
32:12 Recipe: Creative Chili

Resources:
Get Kim's Books
📖Grid: Once in a Lifetime You Get to Start Over
📖Live, Love, Survive, Thrive!
Get Dianne's Book:
📖Weaving Peace: A Memoir of My Time with Paul
📖Weaving Peace: Creating Your Next Act
Thank you for listening.
To keep my podcast alive,
Wanna buy my dog Dakota a bone?
☕️https://buymeacoffee.com/livelovesurvivethrive

(Special Episode)
Category: Coping From Grief and Loss

"Life was full of choices. You pick a road, you try not to look back, and you keep going down that road, and that's how life goes." —William Quan, DDS
Eighteen years after losing his wife, Dr. William Quan found love again — and he says there were only three roads anyone walking through grief can take.
In this special episode, Dr. Kimberly Hubenette sits down with her father, Dr. Quan, who lost his first wife nearly two decades ago and has been remarried to a fellow widow for 16 years. He breaks grief down into three concrete paths: live alone and cope solo, remarry and rebuild, or move in with family. He chose remarriage — and credits a chance encounter at a Chinese restaurant, where a fellow widow slipped him her phone number, changing his life.
The conversation also covers something rarely discussed out loud: the signs many widows and widowers report from a departed spouse, from a light bulb that should've been ice-cold but wasn't, to a toddler grandson who swore his late grandmother read him bedtime stories. Father and daughter land on the same truth — you can love more than one person, just in different ways, and grief doesn't mean you stop living.
If you're navigating loss, this episode offers a roadmap, not platitudes.

Connect with Dr. Kimberly:
Website
LinkedIn
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
Pinterest

Episode Highlights:
02:30 A Mindfulness Lesson
06:05 Backstory: Dr. Quan's Widowhood — Losing His First Wife
10:54 Patients Sharing Grief: Conversations Beyond Dentistry
12:41 Dating After Loss )
15:20 The Choice to Keep Living:
17:48 Three Ways to Cope with Spousal Loss
21:18 Memories Persist: Pride in Shared Life
23:00 Pick a Road & Move Forward
27:00 Signs From Beyond
31:30 Feeling Loved Ones' Presence & Unexplained Signs
33:00 What's Your Choice

Resources:
Books
📖Grid: Once in a Lifetime You Get to Start Over by Dr. Kimberly Hubenette
📖Live, Love, Survive, Thrive! by Dr. Kimberly Hubenette
Podcast
Living Through Grief: How to Keep Going After Loss with Dr. William Quan Part 1
Thank you for listening.
To keep my podcast alive,
Wanna buy my dog Dakota a bone?
☕️https://buymeacoffee.com/livelovesurvivethrive