Caroline Roodhouse: Surviving and Thriving After Loss by Suicide

Please be aware that suicide and bereavement by suicide is the main focus of this episode.

Steve Roodhouse left for work one day, and never came home. Caroline, his wife was faced with the awful reality that Steve had taken his own life, and found herself in the unimaginable position of having to tell their two young daughters; Evie who was 9, and Ada, who was 2.

Since then Caroline has help others understand about the reality of life after a suicide by writing and speaking about her experience and she gives a voice to others impacted by this particular type of grief.

In her own sensitive, yet frank and unflinching way,  Caroline describes how anger helped her cope, and protected her from sadness , and how finding the right therapist at the right time helped her through the complex emotions that a grief by suicide evokes. She describes the unique responsibility of being a double parent, living minute by minute, day by day, navigating her own grief, while supporting Evie and Ada with theirs.

Now, Caroline feels she is at last able to carry hope. Along with memories of Steve, hope has become part of the story that she and the  girls, are now writing together. Because this conversation is not just Caroline's story, but Steve’s Evie's and Ada's also.

 

You can learn more about Caroline's experience, work and her book, 'Daddy Blackbird', here: Daddy Blackbird - Surviving and thriving after loss by suicide

For more information about child bereavement charity Winston's Wish: Winston's Wish - Bereavement Support for Children

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This episode was recorded on Teams

Produced by Leto Blackwell

Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

Website: www.ncps.com

Subtitles are auto generated